Reasons You Are Losing Your Employees
If you have to keep replacing your employee with a new one, it is called employee turnover. There are many ways employers part with their workers- retirement, death, termination, resignation, transfers etc. Most times, the problem is more internal than external that is sponsored by the interactions between the employer and employee.
Effect of High Staff turnover
Companies with high employee turnover cannot be strong. Neither can they meet the organisation’s short and long term goals. There will be no stability within the organization since relationships made do not reach maturity before everything built has to be cut short as the employer leaves and another comes to take their place.
There Will be Consistent Waste of Resources: Usually, when an organization has a new employee, they spend the initial months investing knowledge into their new worker through different means. If these employees do not stay long, it means the company will be doing more investment than reaping these fruits. That company will have more low-level employee than experienced ones that can manage emergencies.
When employees keep leaving the company, a percentage of the organization’s reputation and credibility reduces too. People begin to wonder why their workers don’t stay, they become discouraged and don’t want to waste their time there too.
Why You Keep Losing Your Employees
For you to understand why you keep losing your employees you must first understand these workers. Who are these employees? What do they want? What are they searching for? Why do they keep leaving?
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), an American psychologist widely known for creating the much accepted “Hierarchy of Needs”. In his paper, he grouped and explained the five levels of human needs in their order of importance starting from the least to the highest level which is: Physiological needs, safety and security needs, belongingness and love needs, esteem needs and self-actualization. We’ll be using this same scale to help you understand your employees better and why you keep losing them.
- Physiological Needs
This is the basic level of human needs. It involves the need for food, shelter, water, shelter, sleep, air etc. This level of your employee needs can easily be covered by their salary.
Depending on how much they earn, when they can take care of themselves and their loved ones, paying their bills, helping families, moving to a better apartment. As long as the wages they receive can cover here, they are satisfied.
Do you pay your employees on time? Are you quick to cut their salary or compensation plans? Do the work they do agree with the pay they receive? If you can pay your employees well, they will not be quick to leave.
You must note that money/wages are the first or shall we say the least of their needs. As we progress, you’ll find out why money alone, no matter how huge is not enough to keep your employees, receiving their trust and loyalty for a long time. The keyword here being “alone”. Paying your workers well for the work they do is the only first step.
- Safety or Security Needs
This second stage in Maslow’s hierarchy encompasses all-around safety, in health, employment, personal security, resources and others.
Yes, you pay your employees and they are well compensated for their time and efforts to the company vision but if the company is not able to provide security for them, employees will soon leave.
Employees want to be sure that the resources they are receiving will not suddenly dry up. How have you set up your organization that employees feel safe being part of it? How are their health benefits, is their position secure or you are given to favouritism or spur of the moment decisions? Do the management of the company keep making bad decisions that affect the overall health of the company, its dividends and leads to setbacks making them insecure? Do you participate in wrong or illegal partnerships?
How is their stay with the company affecting their mental health? Are there excessive pressure and stress? Is their social life/family life suffering? Any form of harassment in the company, race, colour, sexual? If they remain longer will their retirement years be worth it? Is the working environment healthy or accident prone? Will staying, in the long run, cause harmful future effects?
Try to answer these questions sincerely. Do you see faults as their employer? When you become deficient in assuring your employees on these safeties and securities, no matter what you pay, they will become dissatisfied in time and wish to look for it elsewhere.
- Love and Belonging Needs
Every human wants to belong somewhere. They want to feel accepted and part of something.
employees become dissatisfied when they become marginalized. They want to know they are not wasting their time and are being useful to themselves and the organization. You need to make everyone feel important. From the hidden workers to those in the spotlight, encourage oneness.
Set managers that can ensure fairness, hold gatherings, team meetings that help build and repair work relationships. Every worker should understand that no matter where they are in the organizational charts, they are a part of the chain process.
Ensure strict rules and disciplinary measures against bias and prejudice. Against colour, race, height, sexuality, disabilities and the likes. When employees feel at home, welcomed, needed, when this need of theirs to be loved is satisfied, it can help boost inadequacies in the monetary aspect if there is one.
- Esteem Needs
This next stage includes self-esteem, respect, status, recognition, fame etc and it refers to the need of every human to feel good about themselves. I’m yet to see a human that loves pain and heartbreak. Everyone is intentionally chasing their happiness in whatever way they can.
Employees are also humans. They want to be recognized for jobs well done, not just in the company but outside as well. If you are quick to claim good results for yourself as the boss or giving accolades to another person, your employees will get dissatisfied.
As much as team recognition is awesome, individual recognition is also important. Miss A has put a lot of effort into a project, she should be recognized for it. Every single hand on deck should be recognized. It gives them security, remember point 3 above?
Does your company have a good name? As the boss, and leader of the company, how is your reputation? Employees want to be able to boast about their work and what they do but when they realise they cannot be proud of the company in public, discontentment sets in. The better the organization’s name, the more superior the CEO’s name is in the eyes of the public, and the more proud they get.
Employees care about their status a lot. They joined the company 3 years ago, what have they accomplished since then? Are they still junior art designers whereas their peers are becoming managers? How tight are the promotional possibilities in the company? No one wants to be left behind.
As an employer, you must do a good job leading your workers to help you carve out a good name in the public. Do not be mediocre, settling for average results or your employees will leave you to pursue greener pastures.
I have a friend that would spend hours complaining about how bad the micromanagement was in her advertising company. It was a small company. What broke the camel’s back was when she attended one of their industry’s award nights and an acquaintance of hers received two awards but neither she nor her company received one. She was so embarrassed but said that what hurt more was that she knew she was way better than that acquaintance of hers in terms of creativity and talent but her company just wouldn’t let her/them do things their way, always stuffing them in the same old box of doing things. Later, when she was offered a renewal of her contract, she declined and left. Before she did, in just one year of her stay in that company, over 32 other workers had come and gone!
- Self-actualization Needs
The final and highest level of human needs is the need to become the best we can be.
Your company should support the dreams of the employees. You have to help them grow. Sensible people don’t stay long where they are not growing. Set up training, seminars and workshops to help your employees get or upgrade their skills.
First of all, the employees your hire should be people with personal vision and goals and as they align your company’s clear goals with theirs, it becomes easier for them to run with them.
Using the same narrative above, the lady in question did not leave as a result of pride but because she did not feel good about herself. She did not feel like she was accomplishing much. She had a vision for herself and left to pursue it.
When your company can fulfil these needs of your workers, the employee turnover will drastically refuse.
Some companies have set themselves apart as first-class organizations, people set being a part of them as their ultimate vision. Once they can get in, they just know they will be satisfied. The reason is simply that these companies fulfil huge aspects of the five stages of human needs.
Due to the rush to their organization, they have to set high standards to screen prospective employees, selecting the best. Their workers also don’t just up and leave without serious consideration. Yet, there are first-class organizations that turn out a huge number of employees annually.
In summary, you can keep your employees by;
First, create a safe environment for your workers mental and physical health.
- Pay them wages deserving of their work. Do not try to cut corners.
- Stand against partiality, bias and prejudice in any form.
- Be careful not to over-manage or micromanage your employees.
- Make every employee feel welcome and at home.
- Give awards when due and clear reasons for disciplinary actions.
- Organize training, seminars and other growth projects.
- Organize meetings to Foster good work relationships among employees.
- Do not silence any voice of your workers.
