Today, most workers do not stay with the same employer for their whole career, and it's widely acknowledged that employees who change jobs more frequently typically have much faster earnings progression than those who stay in the same post. From an employee's perspective why wouldn't you job hop and reap the rewards?
For an entrepreneur or small business owner in particular, high staff turnover can be disruptive, lower wider team morale, and generally prove costly to the business. As someone who's hired and developed thousands of employees over the years, I've certainly had my fair share of shock departures, which in hindsight I should have spotted and could have even avoided if I'd addressed some of the challenges they were facing earlier on.
People move jobs for many reasons and as an employer sometimes there isn't always something you could have done to make the end result any different, but here are the top five I've come across throughout my career;
Work content. Good people need to have their skills used and tested constantly. Employees want to be challenged and pushed and feel that their development is being invested in. If that challenge is missing, they may go be missing as well. If they are bored-they will leave. My advice is to always keep top talent motivated to achieve. The key is to spot good performers, allow their skills to flourish, listen to them ideas and if possible increase their responsibilities.
Reporting relationship. Leadership skills are a management must have because employees need to feel that they respect and can learn from their boss. If you're leadership team are not sufficiently in sync with your wider team they may feel that they are being held back as a result. If it gets to a stage where you recognise that communication is breaking down and you do not address this, your staff may feel unrecognised and undervalued. Lack of coaching and feedback leads to demotivated staff. It's important to always listen to your staff, hold regular work in progress meetings and appraisals.
Opportunity for advancement. This often goes hand-in hand with the above. Good people want to develop within a business. They want to 'grow' as the firm grows. If they can't see a future with the company- they will leave. Create a clearly defined career path for all employees and demonstrate how their role fits in with the wider business objectives. Show them a future exists within the business. Training is also an important aspect of this development. If you cannot offer a promotion ensure your employee development needs are being met in other ways such as management training courses.
Money. Most people assume that every job searcher is just looking for a salary increase and that this is typically a main motivator for beginning a new job hunt. However, after 30 years in recruitment and after speaking to thousands of candidates over the years, this isn't always the case. If the only motivation in a person's job is financial, no amount of money will keep that employee. As long as your employees aren't under paid and over worked and you offer a competitive package in your sector this can certainly be avoided as a reason for losing a member of the team.
Environment. It's not surprising that most employees like to work in a clean and positive environment with a like-minded peer group. Look at the relationships between people in your business and ensure that you place people in positions where the people around them will bring out the best in them. It's not just about productivity, it's about creating a good space for people to flourish and enjoy what they do. Also, don't accept poor behaviour in your workplace, because if your employees do not enjoy the environment they work in, it could make them vulnerable to calls from recruiters.
Given how competitive it is to recruit top talent in today's market, it's important as an employer to think about these things before you begin your search for employees. To hire the best, you need to offer the best and that starts with refining you're offering for them and not just looking at the hiring process as a one way street.
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