Why do employees quit?
The current trend is dynamic. People are having high aspiration and wish to achieve it much faster and quicker. The reason also for this psychology was built up with the reason that business scenario has also becoming dynamic and there is a lot change and uncertainty observed in some industries. People have experienced the job cut due to such scenario.
In India, we have struggle for the social security and hence people look around for the faster speed to achieve their goal of life. It seems that the scenario will continue till the time industry are having consistent growth pattern. This is outside in approach and reason why people quit. When we take the round inside their office, then we understand some more reasons that employee quit. One and the most important reason is lack of engagement level. This includes some simple things like interaction, communication, trying to let employee know the purpose of their role in the company. The second important reason is lack of career path any good performer will expect a clear plan for their growth within the company.
The strategy to retain HiPos, would be
1) To communicate to them clearly that they are performing good and discuss the career path/development plan. This looks basic but many managers miss this aspect.
2) Provide them a good visibility within the organization by way of assigning stretched target or assigning them innovative projects and then reviewed by the top management. This gives them an exposure and works well on perception management.
3) Recognize them by way of award on success of such projects .
4) It will also be a good strategy and idea that HiPos are organized to meet cross functional heads and are made their mentors to help them to grow.
Why do employees quit?
Since we are talking from a psychological perspective, let me wear a different hat other than my usual HR one. Taking the question to a level of extrapolation, the thought of quitting is not restricted to employment or organizations alone. As frustration reaches its threshold, people resort to even quitting living! Now let’s analyze this thought. The decision to quit is usually very short sighted and is triggered by a lack of purpose. In an organizational context, sense of purpose may get lost when an employee is not given a role that excites him or her. Many a time we see that employees have a list of tasks to complete and just go about doing it and earn a salary at the end of the day. This is nothing but working for earning and not actually being productive. Measuring every output against a reward leads to frustration.
The key to retain employees is therefore to provide a purpose in the organization. In fact, those who tide through frustrations, the highs and the lows of life are those who know the art of recreating one’s purpose.
The strategy to retain HiPos, would be
I would like to talk about retention in general and not necessarily for the High Potentials. Obviously the depth of retention strategies should vary depending on the utility of the persons being retained. I would like to draw a parallel with a book called “Purpose Driven Life – What on earth am I here for?” by Rick Warren. No, it is not a Management book or a Self Help book on Leadership. As rationalist professionals, it is a spiritual book that may not even fall in our scheme of things to read. However, I see some interesting similarities. The book talks about every person having 5 purposes for being born on this earth. Similarly, if every employee thinks of the following 5 purposes, no organization would have to sweat it out on coming up with retention measures.
- I am
here for growing the Organization
- so my first purpose is to be productive
- I am
here for working as ‘One’
- So my second purpose is to enjoy teamwork.
- I am
here to lead
- so my third purpose is to lead by example and be authentic
- I am
here to build credibility
- So my fourth purpose is to practice relationships.
- I am
here for a mission
- So my fifth purpose is to be an evangelist of what I believe in.
