We all know how important it is to hire the right people for a business. “Getting the right people on the bus” is critical for business success. But that’s only the first step. Keeping the right people “on the bus” is essential as well.
Not only does turnover cost you money (it’s expensive to hire people, train them, and let them go), but there are also other costs that affect your bottom line—even if you don’t have a line item for them in your budget.
A big expense that’s hard to quantify is the loss of corporate intelligence/knowledge. Employees who leave you don’t just take their possessions in a box when they leave. They take an understanding of how your business works with them. They also take ideas from your business to your competitors (and not all of these ideas can be covered in a “no-compete” agreement.
So how can you keep the right people? Part of the answer can be found in why people leave in the first place. It’s too easy to think that it’s all about money. While adequate compensation matters, it’s not all about money.
As a matter of fact, the two main reasons many employees give for leaving have nothing to do with money. They have to do with other people. In a recent LinkedIn post, a major employer in the Asia-Pacific region cited problems with managers and corporate culture as the two biggest factors employees list for leaving. In this particular case, employees said for their next position they would insist on a manager they can trust, respect, and with whom they can collaborate.
The Huffington Post recently reported on 9 Things That Make Good Employees Quit. What’s interesting to me is that this post talks about losing good employees—the kind you want to keep on your “bus.” Here are the actions/attitudes companies exhibit that cause quality employees to leave:
- They Overwork People
- They Don’t Recognize Contributions and Reward Good Work
- They Don’t Care about Their Employees
- They Don’t Honor Their Commitments
- They Hire and Promote the Wrong People
- They Don’t Let People Pursue Their Passions
- They Fail to Develop People’s Skills
- They Fail to Engage Their Creativity
- They Fail to Challenge People Intellectually
You’ll notice a striking absence of complaints about the amount of money employees are paid. People aren’t complaining about the quality of seats on the bus. They’re feeling like they are getting thrown under the bus.
It’s important to hire the right people and to adequately compensate them for the work they do, but great companies don’t stop there. How is your company doing at making your employees feel valued? What steps are you taking to keep the right people on your bus?
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