Why Good Employees Leave The Company

Every time you hire a good employee with a lot of potential, you can’t wait to see the kind of results they will achieve that will push your company to success. Cut to a few years, or even worse, a few months later that same high achieving-productive employee has handed in their resignation letter because the west wind brought them an offer they could not refuse.

It becomes tough to hold on to such good employees. It’s easy for the A level players to find a new job but it’s not so easy for the company to find another such A level player. Why do such employees decide to quit especially when they’ve been working so well? Here’s why: 

1. Micromanagement:
If you’ve hired good talented employees and they have proven themselves, then get out of their way. Unless they come to you, don’t try to micromanage everything they do and meddle with their work process. Talented employees are passionate about their work and tend to be self motivated. Provide them with the right opportunities for growth and let them do their thing. Micromanaging good employees will only make them want to leave the company faster.

2. No equal opportunities for growth:
The A level employees need to be challenged regularly with good opportunities that will allow them to grow as an individual and help the company as well. Giving a much deserved promotion to other employees or not providing enough opportunities for their growth or not recognizing their accomplishments have proven to be the major reasons for good employees to hand in their resignations. Constantly overlooking the good employee undermines their hard work towards the company and is a massive insult for the hardworking employee and a major demotivator.

3. Corporate Culture:
If you find many of the best employees quitting after a certain point, maybe it’s time to take a look at the overall corporate culture of your company. The corporate culture creates the basic environment for all the employees and includes the rules and regulations they need to follow. The corporate culture constitutes the compensation packages, the leave policy, the perks and the benefits along with employee satisfaction and engagement. Any hard working employee is bound to feel oppressed if there are way too many rules and regulations in place. A strong gossip culture with no open channel for communication with unapproachable senior executives acts as a big neon sign displaying the exit door.

4. Commitment Issues:
Employees tend to stick with companies that are transparent, open and honest. If the company itself has commitment issues, how is an employee supposed to be loyal? Making promises to placate people or making promises you know you can’t keep just to hold on to an employee for a little while longer can never be an option. Honor the promises you’ve made to the employees and in case you fall short, explain to them the reasons behind the issue.  But if you disregard your commitment or go back on your words without a proper explanation, the company tends to come across as uncaring and disrespectful.

5. Empathy and Care:
While it is important to put your foot down and get the work done, it is equally important to recognize the other person as a fellow human being who also goes through a range of emotions. Managers need to understand the importance of professionalism and care. Bosses who tend to celebrate the big and small wins with the employees and stick with them during the hard times create a sense of loyalty in the employees towards the company. Emotional Intelligence is just as important as an individual’s intelligence quotient and tends to play a bigger role when employees think of changing jobs. 

Retaining the most productive employee is not rocket science. It is a mixture of simplest ingredients that make the best broth.