Why Good People Leave

Every decent manager recognizes the need to cultivate and keep the best of the best on their team. Still, every manager has also been confronted by an excellent employee who has finally decided to leave the company for no discernible reason.

While it is not possible to keep all of the people happy all of the time, a good manager should consider the reasons that good people leave. Here are five of the top reasons why the best employees sometimes fall through the cracks and how you can sometimes recover their loyalty before their departure:

• The Company is Under-performing – Admittedly, this situation is hard to repair if it is true. Still, many companies suffer in down markets and the employee may not realize that the job market is not that promising. Explain the more salient facts and hope that the employee can make a reasoned decision.

• The Employee / Employer Relationship is Damaged – Not all business relationships get off to the best start. A shaky start can have unrecognized consequences. Bear in mind that some employees must be “stroked” or their egos do not feel justified. In addition, employees may mistake your original corrections during the training period as an overall criticism of their work ethic. Don’t lose a valuable employee because of an ego issue; either yours or theirs.

• Life Moves On – Employees do a lot of things for a lot of reasons and they do not always revolve around their work life. Babies are born, relationships fail and sometimes the Lottery is won. You cannot control all the variables in an employee’s life but you can be reasonable in the demands that you make.

• Coworker Tension – An employee, even a manager, can have a good relationship with his superiors but sometimes the other employees can make his life difficult in one way or another. This situation is particularly difficult to remedy as favoritism or discrimination can be cited by the other employees. Often, a change of venue or position can keep a valuable employee in the company without causing any further undue strain.

• Stagnation – For the truly great employee, a job must remain challenging with ever increasing amounts of responsibility. Losing one of these gems of an employee because you have become comfortable with the situation is unconscionable. A good manager is always cross-training his subordinates and preparing them for greater responsibility including the fulfillment of his own job. Otherwise, he has no hope of advancing his own career.

Eliminating the Cracks

One of the best ways to stay on top of your employee’s ongoing satisfaction with their jobs is to utilize a Human Resource Information System. An HRIS can archive an incredible amount of information from counseling sessions to exit interviews. This information can then be used to identify the weaknesses in your employee retention program.

The solutions can range from something as simple as better employee feedback programs to far more ambitious expanded employee training programs to relieve some of the pressure on your location managers. In every case, however, an HRIS will allow you to better organize, manage and retain all of your employees, especially the very best. It is an investment that will pay handsome rewards.