It amazes me that people all around the world leave their jobs for pretty much the same reasons. I was in Singapore last year attending a global HR conference, and was pretty surprised when one of the presenters shared some research with us, which confirmed what I thought. People around the globe tend to leave their employment for the same reason and it all comes down to the relationship with their manager.
It is a well known fact amongst HR consultants that ‘people don’t leave organisations, they leave people’. Employees usually leave organisations because their needs are not being met. I tend to think of an employment relationship to be similar to a marriage. The needs of both parties must be met in order for the relationship to work. When you emotionally check out of a job, it is like disconnecting with your partner in a marriage.
Bosses need to show interest in their employees by asking them how they feel about their job, the organisation, their manager. Imagine if employees were provided with a confidential and safe forum to voice their concerns to management. Do you think companies would experience the high level of staff turnover most have in recent years? Probably not. The most popular method of accessing the opinions of staff in this way is for an organisation to conduct an employee opinion survey or culture survey. From my experience conducting many staff surveys over the past few months, the top 4 reasons why a person leaves their job remains the same:
1. Relationship with Manager
2. Perceived lack of job security
3. Limited career options
4. Lack of training and development
This is definitely food for thought. Why do you think your employees would consider leaving your company? If you knew the reasons, what would you do differently?
