The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave
By Leigh Branham AMACOM Books
Copyright © 2005 Leigh Branham
All right reserved. ISBN: 0-8144-0851-6
Chapter One
Why They Leave: What the Research Reveals Sometimes if we cut through the brain and get to the gut, we learn the truth. -Jac Fitz-enz
If you compiled an alphabetical list of all the reasons for leaving voluntarily from the exit surveys of dozens of organizations, it would look something like this:
Advancement opportunity Benefits Better-paying job Bureaucracy Career change Commuting time or distance Concerns about organization's future Conflict with coworker Discrimination based on race, gender, religion, etc. Dishonest or unethical leaders or managers Distrust of, or loss of confidence in, senior leaders Excessive workload Favoritism Fear of job elimination Geographic location of the job Health concerns Ideas not welcomed Immediate supervisor Inability to master the job Inflexible work hours Insufficient challenge Insufficient or inappropriate training Insufficient resources to do the job Job elimination Job itself Job responsibilities Job security Limited earnings potential Little or no bonus Little or no empowerment Little or no growth or developmental opportunity Little or no performance feedback Negative work environment No authority to do the job No career path No consequences for nonperformers No way to voice concerns Not allowed to complete the job Not allowed to do the job my own way Not paid competitively Not paid in proportion to contributions Not recognized for contributions Organization culture Organization instability or turmoil Organization politics Outdated or inadequate equipment Physical facility noisy, dirty, hot, or cramped Poor communication Poor teamwork Retirement Return to school Self-employment Sexual harassment Spouse relocation Stress Timeliness of pay increases Too many changes Treated poorly Uncaring leadership Unfair pay increases Unfair performance appraisal process Unfair promotion practices Unfair rules, policies, or procedures Unwanted change in job duties Unwanted relocation Vacation policy Work-life imbalance
These 67 reasons were, in fact, taken from exit survey responses completed by thousands of exiting employees. When you take away the unpreventable reasons (though some may have preventable origins)-advancement opportunity, better-paying job, career change, commuting time/distance, geographic location of job, job elimination, retirement, return to school, self-employment, and spouse relocation-you are still left with 57 preventable reasons for voluntary turnover.
While reading and categorizing the comments from among 3,149 employees who voluntarily left their employers, as surveyed by Saratoga, I could not help being touched by the emotions expressed in them-disappointment, frustration, anger, disillusionment, resentment, betrayal, to name the most common. It occurred to me that very few of the "reasons" for turnover were based on reasoned thinking-they were mostly rooted in strong feelings.
As I analyzed and grouped the reasons for leaving, looking for common denominators, and peeling off layers from the onion in search of root causes, it became clear that employees begin to disengage and think about leaving when one or more of four fundamental human needs are not being met:
1. The Need for Trust: Expecting the company and management to deliver on its promises, to be honest and open in all communications with you, to invest in you, to treat you fairly, and to compensate you fairly and on time.
2. The Need to Have Hope: Believing that you will be able to grow, develop your skills on the job and through training, and have the opportunity for advancement or career progress leading to higher earnings.
3. The Need to Feel a Sense of Worth: Feeling confident that if you work hard, do your best, demonstrate commitment, and make meaningful contributions, you will be recognized and rewarded accordingly. Feeling worthy also means that you will be shown respect and regarded as a valued asset, not as a cost, to the organization.
4. The Need to Feel Competent: Expecting that you will be matched to a job that makes good use of your talents and is challenging, receive the necessary training to perform the job capably, see the end results of your work, and obtain regular feedback on your performance.
Why Employees Say They Leave
When we look at the reasons employees give for leaving in Saratoga's confidential third-party exit surveys, it becomes obvious that these basic psychic needs are not being met. As we see in the pie chart of reasons for leaving (Figure 3-1), the responses to the question "Why did you leave?" were classified into the following groups:
1. Limited Career Growth or Promotional Opportunity (16 percent), indicating a lack of hope.
2. Lack of Respect from or Support by Supervisor (13 percent), indicating a lack of trust or confidence.
3. Compensation (12 percent), indicating an issue of worth or value.
4. Job Duties Boring or Unchallenging (11 percent), indicating a lack of competence and fulfillment in the work itself.
5. Supervisor's Lack of Leadership Skills (9 percent), indicating a lack of trust and confidence.
6. Work Hours (6 percent), including comments ranging from undesirable work schedule, to inflexibility, to overtime (too much or too little), to undesirable shift-reasons indicating a lack of worth, inasmuch as the organization, in their minds, did not view their satisfaction as important enough to warrant a change.
7. Unavoidable Reasons (5 percent), generally considered unpreventable by the organization and including excessive commuting distance, retirement, birth of a child, child-care issues, relocation, other family issues, career change, too much travel, return to school, and death or illness in the family.
8. Lack of Recognition (4 percent), indicating a lack of worth.
9. Favoritism by Supervisor (4 percent), indicating a lack of trust.
10. Supervisor's Poor Employee Relations (4 percent), indicating a lack of trust.
11. Poor Working Conditions (3 percent), pertaining mostly to undesirable physical conditions, indicating a lack of worth.
12. Training (3 percent), pertaining mostly to insufficient offerings, poorly conducted training, or the denial of permission to attend training-all indicating the lack of perceived worth.
13. Supervisor's Incompetence (2 percent), indicating a lack of trust and confidence.
14. Poor Senior Leadership (2 percent), same reasons as those given for next level management, plus lack of clear vision or direction-indicating a lack of trust or confidence.
15. Supervisor's Lack of Technical Skills (1 percent), indicating a lack of trust and confidence.
16. Discrimination (1 percent), indicating a lack of trust and hope.
17. Harassment (1 percent), indicating a lack of trust.
18. Benefits (1 percent), indicating a lack of worth.
19. Coworkers' Attitude (1 percent), indicating a lack of trust.
Click on link to enlarge
To get below the surface of the exit survey responses, Saratoga conducted focus groups with respondents to probe further into their reasons for leaving, and analyzed the content of written survey comments. When employees are asked to give open-ended feedback, either in writing or open discussion, they are no longer just responding to prefabricated questions-they are speaking from their hearts about the needs that were not met.
Here are the ten most frequently mentioned issues identified in departed employees' responses to the question, "What did ABC Company (former employer) do poorly?"
1. Poor Management: The comments were mostly about uncaring, incompetent, and unprofessional managers, but also complaints about managers overworking them, not showing respect, not listening to their ideas, putting them in the wrong jobs, making no effort to retain them, emphasizing speed over quality, and being abusive. There were also many comments about poor or nonexistent methods of selecting managers. (Issues: Trust, Worth, Hope, and Competence)
2. Lack of Career Growth and Advancement Opportunity: Comments were mainly about having no perceivable career path, but also about the company's failure to post jobs or fill jobs from within, and unfair promotions or favoritism. (Issues: Hope and Trust)
3. Poor Communications: Comments were mostly about top-down communication from managers and senior leaders (particularly the lack of openness with information) but also about miscommunication between departments, from the human resources department, from corporate offices to field offices, and following mergers. (Issues: Trust and Worth)
4. Pay: Comments were mostly about not being paid fair-market value or not being paid in proportion to their contributions and hard work, but also complaints about pay inequities, slow pay raises, favoritism in giving raises and bonuses, and ineffective performance appraisals. (Issues: Trust and Worth)
5. Lack of Recognition: This issue is connected to issues of pay and workload, but there were many comments about the organization's culture not being one that encourages recognition. (Issue: Worth)
6. Poor Senior Leadership: The comments were mostly about lack of caring about, listening to, or investing in employees, but also about executives being isolated, remote, and unresponsive, providing no inspiring vision or direction, sending mixed messages, making too many changes in direction and organizational structure. (Issues: Trust and Worth)
7. Lack of Training: Comments were mainly about not receiving enough training to do their current jobs properly, but also citing poor quality of training, being rushed through superficial training, lack of new hire training, poor management training, and lack of training for future advancement. (Issues: Worth, Hope, and Competence)
8. Excessive Workload: The comments were mainly about being asked to do more with fewer staff, but also about sacrificing quality and customer service to make the numbers. (Issues: Worth and Competence)
9. Lack of Tools and Resources: Comments cited a range of issues, including inadequate office supplies, malfunctioning computers, poor phone system support, outdated technology, and lack of human resources to relieve overwork. (Issues: Worth, Hope, and Competence)
10. Lack of Teamwork: Comments were mainly about lack of coworker cooperation and commitment to get the job done, but also mentioning lack of coordination between departments or different locations. (Issues: Trust and Competence)
What Caused Their Initial Dissatisfaction?
As noted in Chapter Two, employees often experience an initial shock or disappointment that may ultimately result in their leaving the organization. At one time, Saratoga Institute included the question, "What caused your initial dissatisfaction?" in its post-exit survey, but dropped the question after reviewing the first 950 responses. As it turned out, the nineteen reasons for leaving shown in the pie chart in Figure 3-1 were identical to the reasons for initial dissatisfaction and in the same order from top to bottom!
This lends added weight to the conclusion that most people ultimately leave for a reason that had as its genesis an event that may have occurred weeks or months earlier. Again, the key reminder and good news in this for managers is that there is a built-in period of "rescue time" during which they have the opportunity to identify the employee's dissatisfaction and try to correct it.
A Few Words About Pay
In spite of the fact that hundreds of employees surveyed had worked for companies that did not pay competitively compared to other companies in their industries, compensation issues still amounted to no more than 12 percent of all reasons for leaving.
This finding is consistent with the conclusion of Saratoga's comprehensive 1997 report, in which lead researchers Barbara Davison and Jac Fitz-enz, in their chapter on why employees leave, stated:
Pay ... is often a smokescreen, not a primary reason that employees leave one organization and move to another. Saratoga Institute's ongoing research into retention shows that less than 20 percent leave for better pay.
Competitive pay is fundamental to retention; however, the ramifications of continually "buying" employees are not always in the best interest of the organization. The remaining employees are always affected, pay plans become ineffective, and the financial impact can be far-reaching ... However, maintaining a competitive pay plan on the front end and facing up to job and working conditions has a greater positive effect.
One of the first laws of retaining employees is to pay at or above what the market is paying for similar jobs. Competitive pay is the ticket to admission for organizations wishing to qualify as employers of choice, yet survey results make it clear that many companies have not yet purchased that ticket.
Regarding the individual employee's decision to stay or leave based on pay, Saratoga's director of research, W. Michael Kelly, observed, "The rule of thumb is that in a healthy job market an unhappy employee will bolt the company for a 5 percent pay increase, but it will take at least an increase of 20 percent to compel a satisfied employee to jump ship." Of course, pay is more important to some than it is to others. We know that many employees who struggle to pay their bills can understandably be enticed to leave for increases of less than 5 percent.
Do You Know Your "Poach Rate?"
If you still think retention is mainly about money, find out how much it is costing your competition to get people to leave you. That's called your "poach rate." If your poach rate is less than 20 percent, it ain't the money, honey! People who love their work, love their boss, and love their company don't leave unless the offer is coming from the Godfather. -John Putzier
Several studies have also shown that, in general, salespeople are more money-motivated than most other workers. And, at the other end of the spectrum, we all know individuals whose loyalty to their employer, or to their manager, is so strong that they have turned down increases of 30 percent or more because they could not imagine being treated better, or finding a more satisfying job, elsewhere. Indeed, we can find plenty of these people happily employed at America's top employers of choice.
In reviewing survey comments about pay from both leavers and stayers, it is striking how few comments have to do with the actual amount of salary, bonus, or other incentive. Rather, the key issue seems to be fairness, or the lack thereof.
Continues...
Excerpted from The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave by Leigh Branham Copyright © 2005 by Leigh Branham. Excerpted by permission.
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