The very things one looks for when finding employment can be the very things that cause them to want to leave, later on. Seeking out competitive wages only to be repetitively denied pay increases or overlooked for promotions year-after-year can frustrate an employee to the point of resignation. Finding engaging work doing interesting projects only to realize that creativity is discouraged and teamwork is nonexistent can equally frustrate. A recent Linkedin discussion amongst Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) members posed the question of why people leave their jobs, with commenter after commenter remarking that upset with management or supervisors seemed to be one of the biggest reasons for why someone leaves their job.
Gregory P. Smith details ten reasons people leave their jobs and notes that every issue listed begins with “management . . .” from management showing favoritism and notoriously promoting ineffective players to management putting the workload of two or three on the shoulders of one employee and not clarifying goals and/or decisions. His list has similar mentions from many other web-based articles on the topic. Ashvini Kumar Saxena notes a common resignation-driving issue as Smith: being passed over for promotions. Whether the employee deems that the promotion has gone to an inexperienced, undeserving co-worker or not – the former, not the latter is usually seen as the case – it still hurts to be overlooked for a position that one had hoped was coming their way, and it often leads to someone thinking that the career pastures might be greener, and more rewarding, elsewhere.
Frozen pay increases or inadequate compensation make many an employee anxious to pursue alternate avenues. Not only do many workers feel they should be paid competitive wages, they also expect to be rewarded for hard work with annual raises, even of a small percentage. Compensation packages, overall, should also be as comprehensive as competitors’, taking into consideration potential bonuses, benefits offered, and review/raise structures. Companies that only focus on offering competitive salaries may neglect to round out pay packages to include these benefits, bonuses and raises, effectively putting them back in the category of “not-as-competitve” regardless of their focus on maintaining a noteworthy wage structure.
Like Smith’s list highlights, whether or not one wants to single-out management issues as the main reason an employee leaves their job management clearly controls many of the decisions that lead to employee disengagement and upset, and it’s easy to see why they’re so quickly thrown under the bus as the reason for this disillusionment. SHRM bloggers reiterated many similarities on this topic, digging deeper into this topic of manager/supervisor inadequacies. One blogger recommended doing comprehensive 360 degree reviews – from several members of the company – of management in organizations that suffer from a large turnover rate. Getting a varied sample of responses in regard to inefficiencies and disagreements between staff and supervisors can offer insight into situations that have begun to turn sour.
Management serves a key role in every company, and its direction of employees must contain clear and concise description of goals and expectations. In businesses where these directives are unclear, employees feel disconnected, unsure of what to do, and unable to feel committed to the overall demands and successes of the team; leaving the company may seem like the only plausible solution to this uncertainty.
Read more articles:
Establishing goals is important for your team of employees
Companies seek new ways to recognize employee performance
Tags: compensation, employee recognition, employees, HR, management, small business, stress in the workplace, turnover, workplace
The Essex Companies. All Rights Reserved
