Understanding The 7 Reasons in Your Organization

"If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem."

-- Krishnamurti

In the months that have passed since The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave was published, I have had the opportunity to assist several companies in analyzing their root causes of turnover and employee disengagement, and taking steps to eliminate them. These experiences have served to remind me that every organization has its own unique history, issues, culture, market position, goals, and practices. The same can be said for different units or locations of the same organization, which can be unique sub-cultures unto themselves.

Leaders who want their companies to be employers of choice (have the talent they need to achieve their business objectives) must first diagnose what's standing in their way. The answers are different, of course, for each employee. One disengages and leaves for lack of recognition, while another is bored in her job and moves on for a more challenging position. Managers must know their employees as individuals, understand their expectations, and try to balance and align their needs with those of the organization. This is hard work, and too often underestimated or never acknowledged by many managers.

The seven main reasons employees leave (and stay) are remarkably consistent from organization to organization. In other words, the primary motivation for a given employee deciding to give discretionary effort or withhold that effort can almost invariably be traced to one of the seven reasons. On the macro level, however, I have found that each organization, mainly because of cultural factors or organizational change issues, tends to be impacted more by two or three of the seven causes at any given time.

A company that is struggling to attract customers, for example, will have significant numbers of employees thinking of leaving because they may lack confidence in senior leaders (reason #7), feel it's not what they signed up for (reason #1), and see little hope for career growth or even job security (reason #4). Another company, known for its "burn and churn" culture, will lose key employees who want more balance in their lives (reason #6), and those whose managers are too busy managing budgets and operations to spend time coaching and giving feedback (reason #3).

"Problems are only opportunities in work clothes."

-- Henry J. Kaiser

But it's not enough just to diagnose the operative reasons employees are leaving. Whatever those reasons may be, there remains the problem of overcoming the hurdles to correcting and preventing them. These obstacles can be formidable, but they must be faced and overcome if leaders are truly committed to making their organizations great places to work. Here then is a checklist of the most common obstacles I have encountered in working with client companies, organized by the seven reasons employees disengage and leave:

Reason #1: The job or work environment not as promised or expected.

Obstacles:

___Pressure to hire in a hurry
___Not giving candid and realistic job previews
___Recruiting messages that mislead applicants
___Employee failure to ask the right questions


Reason #2: The job did not fit the person or provide enough challenge.

Obstacles:

___Pressure to hire in a hurry
___Outdated job descriptions
___Not understanding of true competencies needed for job success
___Behavioral interviewing not being used
___Too few candidates/inadequate sourcing
___Inadequate pre-hire assessment
___Managers not evaluated on quality of hire
___Managers failing to delegate/assign appropriate challenges
___Candidates lack of self-understanding


Reason #3: Employee didn't receive enough performance coaching or feedback.

Obstacles:

___Managers overloaded with work (no time to observe employee performance, document, or coach)
___Managers not trained in performance coaching
___Manager avoidance of confrontation and conflict
___Older managers unwilling to give as much feedback as young employees need
___Employee reluctance to ask for feedback


Reason #4: Employee didn't see opportunity for career growth/learning or advancement.

Obstacles:

___Managers block internal movement
___Managers uncomfortable with career coaching
___Managers not rewarded for employee development
___Employees lack career path information
___Company not growing and creating opportunities
___Company not placing enough emphasis on lateral movement and growing in place
___Lack of training and learning opportunities
___No individual developmental planning process
___Employees reluctant to speak with supervisors


Reason #5: Employee didn't feel valued or recognized.

Obstacles:

___Managers think they are too busy to observe employee's contributions
___Managers don't believe in praising small contributions
___Managers untrained in basic principles of effective recognition
___Manager or organization failure to link pay with performance
___Inadequate communication about how pay decisions are made
___Pay inequity or paying below market
___Employees not trusted to make their own judgments
___Information not share with employees
___Failure to ask employees for their ideas and opinions
___Unacceptable physical environment
___Missing tools, resources, or support


Reason #6: Employee burn-out from stress and overwork.

Obstacles: `

___Excessive/unreasonable work demands
___Chronic under-staffing
___Culture that views employees as expendable and non-renewable
___Uncertainty about future of the company
___Inadequate vacation or other work-life benefits
___Management resistance to flexible work arrangements
___Manager insensitivity to and disinterest in employees' personal lives and stresses
___Conflict with coworkers
___All work and no fun atmosphere


Reason #7: Loss of employee trust and confidence in the company's leaders.

Obstacles:

___Senior leaders seen as untrustworthy
___Greed and excessive self interest vs. concern for company welfare
___Isolated, out of touch, and unconcerned with employee's day-to-day reality
___Infrequent communication and hoarding of information
___Mismanagement of change
___Failure to inspire confidence in ability to steer the company to success

If your organization is interested in diagnosing the true root causes of employee disengagement and turnover, contact Leigh Branham (LB@keeping thepeople.com) to find out more about a Turnover Analysis, Employee Engagement Survey, or ongoing Third-Party Post-Exit Interviewing and Surveying.

"The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable."

-- James A. Garfield

For those of you who plan to attend the Society of Human Resource Management National Conference in Las Vegas in June, Leigh Branham will be speaking on "The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Disengage & Leave...Or Engage & Stay" on Wednesday, June 27, 11:30 to 12:45, with a book-signing immediately following the presentation.

To see a complete list of Leigh Branham's workshops and topics, visit http://www.keepingthepeople.com/speaking.cfm.

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Copyright, Keeping the People, Inc. 2005. Keeping the People Report is written and edited by Leigh Branham.