How to lose your employee fast

How often have you heard that employees leave bad bosses and not their job? How often have you heard of your friends that moved on to a different place despite the offer he/she had was much less than the previous position they were previously in?

So the multi-million dollar question is, why do employee leave? One of the most basic reason is simply that the company stop caring. Why company lost focus that people are their most important asset, they lose loyalty from people. Yes the company might pay well and pay being the only pull factor for the employees to stay.

I have this friend who draws a decent amount of pay, not obscenely high yet the pay is slightly higher than most industry average. However, he was constantly overworked, the management simply ignored the staff's demand and expected them to resolve their own issues. He was entitled to 21 day of leave a year but he was always made to come back on weekends and holidays and most of his leave are forfeited as he simply does not have the opportunity to clear those leaves. And as you can imagine how the story goes, there was simply 0 loyalty and after receiving a comparative offer, my friend flew like a bird to the other side of the grass and boy he is having a much happier time!

Employees, staff and co-workers of today are no longer the workers back in the older generations. Back in the 1970s to 1990s, most workers are out there trying to earn a living to put food on the table. Without the advancement of technology, they lacked the avenue to be fed with information of what is happening around the world.

In today’s context, information is readily available online with a hand-held mobile phone, when I grew up, in the early 1990s, this form of tech are only seen in the movies and today, it is the common reality even for our young kids.

Workers today no longer simply work to put food on the table. With education and continuous learning, workers today understand that there are aplenty of methodologies to put food on the table than just slogging for a company that doesn’t care.

And when a company or their upper echelons stop caring for their staff and stop asking what their staff truly desire, the people who created value for the company can simply opt to move on to another company, one which can try to satisfy their desire.

So the question is, how to make employees feel appreciated in a way that makes them want to stay? There are aplenty of workplace theories on employee retention and employee motivation but here are three ways that I think resonate with me and I think that is helpful.

1) Listen to their concerns and determine if the concern is valid. If yes, work fast to resolve the matter before it balloons.

When a particular individual or a small group complain about something. It might be due to a lack of alignment of goals and misalignment of expectations. However, if the concerns go beyond the individual staff within the company and it involved a community of persons. Managers and directors should take heed to work on the issue fast. And I really mean fast, if the root cause is not solved timely, unhappiness will seep faster than your COVID-19 B.1.617 variant in the society. Disgruntled staff would grow within the organization, they would fester and spread like a pandemic without proper control and your company is in deep trouble before your spider sense can starts tingling. And when the first chap pop the resignation letter, you can expect many more to follow suit. Imagine the amount of cost it incur to rehire, retrain and further retain (it is gonna be madness).

2) Stop treating employees thinking that each and everyone are like you - Wear your employee shoes, if you can't... at least try!

If you are in a leadership position, stop expecting everyone to perform or willing to work as hard as you do. Everyone has different aspirations, responsibilities and commitments. Once you apply your own standards to others, you stopped being a leader, you become an a**hole. Recognized the fact that you willing to put in 16 hours at work and neglecting your family is not applicable to every single one in your department.

3) Communication is the absolute key

With all being said and discussed, the ultimate consideration is definitely communication. Communication as it implies, it is a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior. As you can see, it is an exchange of information in communication, it is a two-way thing. You cannot expect to talk and for your employees to listen. This only happens in the army, or slavery. Well in the army if you put on too much one way talking, you can expect really really bad things when a real war happens. Things like coupe, rebellion are not uncommon in such scenarios. Imagine what happens if it's always the top passing instructions downwards without a care of the world how it affects the rest of the employee in the organization?

So like I have mentioned, there are aplenty of methodologies to retain your staff. However, the true methodology of retention is definitely communication. Not just any form of communication, but communication from the heart.

Do you have any other ways that you use to promote employee loyalty? I will love to hear from you!

Be Better Everyday,

Leo