Managers are often heard complaining about their best employees leaving. However, I agree that they really do have something to complain about as there aren’t many things that are as costly as good people walking out the door.
Anyway, before you know it, you can also hear them blaming everything and everyone that exists under the sun while ignoring a major fact: people don’t leave jobs, they leave their managers!
Fortunately, good people leaving is something that can easily be avoided, it just needs a new perspective on the manager’s part and a few efforts put.
These 9 things are on top of the list that managers do to make their best employees leave!
1. They Make People Overwork
It is extremely tempting for managers to give all the work to their best people and they usually fall right into the trap. However, research from Stanford shows that productivity per hour declines sharply when the workweek exceeds 50 hours and employees feel as if they are being punished for being good workers.
If you must increase the work given to talented employees you must also give them raises, promotions, tittle-changes and other rewards for the good work. If you keep on giving more work without changing a thing, they might go somewhere else where they will be more appreciated and rewarded for their work.
2. They Don’t Recognize Contribution And Reward Good Work
Never underestimate the power of a pat on the back. Everyone likes kudos and it’s the manager’s job to communicate with their employees in order to find out what is it that motivates them the most (for some it’s a raise, for others public recognition and so on).
3. They Don’t Care About The Employee
More than half of the people who leave their jobs do so because of the relationship with their boss. It’s virtually impossible to work for someone 8 or more hours a day if they don’t care about anything other than your production yield. Good managers are also personally involved into their employees’ lives and they make a good balance of being professional and being human. They also celebrate an employee’s success, empathize with those going through hard times and so on.
4. They Don’t Honor Their Commitments
Making promises to people places you on the fine line that lies between making them very happy and watching them walk out the door. When you uphold a commitment, you grow in the eyes of your employees because you prove yourself to be trustworthy and honorable (two very important qualities in a boss). But when you disregard your commitment, you come across as slimy, uncaring, and disrespectful. After all, if the boss doesn’t honor his or her commitments, why should everyone else?
5. They Hire Or Promote The Wrong People
Good, hard-working employees want to work with like-minded professionals. When managers don’t do the hard work of hiring good people, it’s a major demotivator for those stuck working alongside them. Promoting the wrong people is even worse. Working your tail off only to get passed over for a promotion that’s given to someone who glad-handed their way to the top, is a massive insult.
6. They Don’t Let People Pursue Their Passions
Talented employees are passionate. Providing opportunities for them to pursue their passions improves their productivity and job satisfaction. But many managers want people to work within a little box. These managers fear that productivity will decline if they let people expand their focus and pursue their passions. This fear is unfounded. Studies show that people who are able to pursue their passions at work, develop a euphoric state of mind that is five times more productive than the norm.
7. Their People Skills Are Undeveloped
Good managers manage, no matter how talented the employee. They pay attention and are constantly listening and giving feedback.
When you have a talented employee, it’s up to you to keep finding areas in which they can improve to expand their skill set. The most talented employees want feedback—more so than the less talented ones—and it’s your job to keep it coming. If you don’t, your best people will grow bored and complacent.
8. They Cage Their Creativity
The most talented employees seek to improve everything they touch. If you take away their ability to change and improve things because you’re only comfortable with the status quo, this makes them hate their jobs. Caging up this innate desire to create not only limits them, it limits you.
9. They Don’t Challenge People Intellectually
Great bosses challenge their employees to accomplish things that seem inconceivable at first. Instead of setting mundane, incremental goals, they set lofty goals that push people out of their comfort zones. Then, good managers do everything in their power to help them succeed. When talented and intelligent people find themselves doing things that are too easy or boring, they seek other jobs that will challenge their intellects.
To Sum It All Up
If you want your best people to stay, you need to think carefully about how you treat them. While good employees are as tough as nails, their talent gives them an abundance of options. You need to make them want to work for you.
A professional writer with over a decade of incessant writing skills. Her topics of interest and expertise range from health, nutrition and psychology.
