In the book The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave by Leigh Branham published by the American Management Association, NY, 2012, Mr. Branham outlines the reasons why people leave. based on what over 20,000 people who were asked by their companies said. In terms of management, by having better management or good management which translate into low turnover, no matter the industry and sector, the company saves money.If it has a high turnover, it wastes both money and people.

Reason # 4    Too few growth and advancement opportunities.

Depending on the size of the company this maybe true; however in a large organization that has potentially more opportunities there may be some validity in this. People tend to be hired for a particular position which they do well and the company has no real interest in moving them because similar to most organizations when you were hired the company knew everything about you. If you have worked for a few years, what do they know? What do you do outside work? If the company is not paying for training, how do they know? In every large company do people actively have to request transfers or does the company encourage them?

Possible solutions

Provide self-assessment tools and career self-management training for all employees.

Offer career-coaching tools and training for all managers – the written or unwritten rule is if you have not done the training, managers do not get promoted.

Provide readily accessible information on career paths and competency requirements. Most people take reasonably general courses to fit into a company, once involved in the company then they can take courses in that field. Most industries have professional or ideally professional qualifications.

Create alternatives to traditional career ladders

Keep employees informed about the company’s strategy, direction and talent-need forecasts.

Build and maintain a fair and efficient internal job-posting process.

Show a clear preference for hiring from within

Eliminate HR policies and management practices that block internal movement

Create a strong mentoring culture

Keep the career-development performance and performance-appraisal processes separate

Build an effective talent-review and succession-management process

Maintain a strong commitment to employee training and learning

Linking to dividend paying stocks, one expects these companies would have the ability to look at all of these possible solutions. Some they will do, some they will not be good at; however once a person has come into the company, in invests in that person. As long as there is something to keep them performing, that is the main concern of the investor.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.