When you hire someone new, you are investing a lot of time and money in advance. In fact, the Society for Human Resources Management estimates that the cost of each new hiring is over $ 4,000 for the average business.
Moreover, once you have found a great new employee and you have joined the team, it becomes a sink of institutional knowledge that can be invaluable. And when you find someone who works well, who is a team player, and who really embraces the mission of your business, you want to do everything possible to keep them.
But sometimes owners and managers make decisions or adopt behavior that distances their most promising talents. We will look at the biggest reason why your best and brightest choose to leave, and what you can do to keep them.
The reason they leave: lack of respect
There are a number of specific reasons why a rockstar employee can leave your company, but all of this can be summarized as a general theme: they are not treated with respect.
We learn from an early age to live by the "golden rule" and treat others as we would like to be treated, but sometimes, when you run a business, you are so caught up in income and logistic. and an overflowing inbox that you lose sight of this very simple principle.
There are many ways you could behave disrespectfully towards your employees – and most of the time it's not conscious or malicious – but if you engage in any of these behaviors your best talents could be hunted.
You do not respect their intelligence and creativity
Every stellar employee wants to feel the satisfaction of showing up and doing their best job. They have a lot to give, both in terms of ability and ingenuity, and they want to work in an environment where their innate talents are allowed to shine.
If you are a boss who does not set the bar high enough, who manages to solve creative problems, or who excludes your employees from the "big picture", he talks about strategy and vision. your best employees will get bored and uninterested.
Once that happens, they will start looking for a new company where their boss will show them respect by giving them the freedom to unleash their greatest potential.
You do not respect their contributions
It can be easy to fall into the trap of not recognizing the work of an excellent employee. They are by definition motivated and always give the best of themselves to every project, so you can assume that they do not need a positive feedback to do a great job. Not only that, you can forget (or take for granted) just how excellent their work is because they are always so excellent.
However, dedicated employees want to be recognized by their bosses. As this study indicates Psychology Today points out that the vast majority of employees consider recognition to be even more important than money. Sending an e-mail thanking someone for their efforts or organizing a small gesture like a pizza meal for the team after finishing a big project can make a huge difference in retention.
You do not respect their time
A recent study by Ernst & Young found that three of the top six factors cited by employees when discussing the decision to leave a job related to a lack of work-life balance.
The best employees want to be fully dedicated to the tasks at hand, but if you start to take advantage of this natural propensity to loyalty, star employees take on more and more responsibility – keeping them later in the office, encroaching on their weekends, and insinuating in the holidays.
Think about what you can do to better respect your employee's time. Arianna Huffington recently shared her company's innovative approach to honor vacation time with Harvard Business Review : while employees are away, their email server alerts senders and automatically removes all incoming emails.
If e-mail is important, the sender can reach out once the employee is back; If this is not the case, the e-mail does not stay in the inbox, prompting the employee to log in while he should be relaxing.
The best employees are those who are internally motivated, who are willing to do their best work as a point of pride rather than just working for a salary. When you do not treat them with respect, you risk losing them to a competitor. But when you show appreciation for their talents, contributions and time, you create a loyal employee who is there for the long term.