5 Ways to Lose a Good Employee

Time needed: 5 minutes

When a good employee leaves, it is hard to find a sub and even harder to keep them.

Let’s see how companies lose employees.

1. Micromanagement

   More so often, this is the top reason. But we hardly hear this as a reason for leaving in the “exit interviews.”
   
   Usually, a personal reason or a better salary by a rival company becomes a mask.
   
   Micro-managing usually happens from the top layers of management. Instead of just looking at performance and outcomes, leaders must also look at the behavioral aspects of people managers.

2. Ignoring Employee Potential

   Employees need to be allowed to grow and develop. This way, they can reach their full potential and contribute best towards the company’s success.
   
   If we ignore this, employees feel like they have no value in the team or that their ideas are invaluable.
   
   Dismissing them without giving them a chance to prove themselves will lead to resentment and unhappiness on the employee’s part.
   
   Companies hire employees not for the bull work. But to explore their creativity. Leaders must consider this as part of their performance goals.

3. Lack of training options for the workforce

   Employee training can make a big difference in the workplace. Not only does it improve productivity and morale, but it also helps prevent accidents and injuries.
   
   If you’re not providing enough employee training options, you will be lose time due to weak workflows or untrained employees.
   
   Secret – “Top performers strive for training opportunities.”
   
   They understand that training improves their quality of work and opens more doors for new projects. Trainings become the catalyst in creating more top talent.
   
   Let the job descriptions be clear and easy for employees to know about new roles or duties within the company. This will help them feel valued.
   
   Most companies understand this, and they give online in-house e-learnings or external courses like LinkedIn Learning or vendor-based training.
   
   Leaders must actively schedule their employees for at least 80 hrs (yearly) of such training of the employee’s choice. Of course, that must align with their aspirations and career progression.
   
   A word of encouragement from the CEO will do wonders for a good employee.

4. Unfair pay to employees

   Employees deserve fair rewards for their efforts.
   
   Employees look for monetary perks rather than non-monetary ones. 
   
   The human resources (HR) team must consider more monetary benefits.
   
   Moreover, many understand that “market correction” is mostly fluff. There are many instances the market trends the companies sign up for do not have the required data. Mostly they are manipulated and recycled data. I have seen how it is done.
   
   In fact, many companies reuse salary data that they get from vendors. So, considering multiple markets and independent surveys is necessary when working out “market correction.”

5. Increased Burnout days

   Employee burnouts are the worst. We have seen this across verticals, recruiters to developers, lower management to senior leadership.
   
   There needs to be a balance between keeping them happy and engaged while still providing them with challenging work.
   
   If done correctly, this will lead to increased productivity and employee retention rates. Two things that are essential for profitability. It is a good thing.
   
   For millennials and early Gen Z, work-life balance is the top priority considering the faster growth of all companies. It is one of the major factors for good employee experience.
   
   All employees (including the best talents) must get performance evaluations. So they can understand their strengths as well as areas for improvement.
   
   These evaluations must be fair by not singling out one employee for criticism.
   
   Instead, give everyone an equal chance to be heard.