Organizations want to retain their best employees for as long as possible. However, top performers are frequently the first to leave their companies. Not only does this cost your business time and money, it impacts the staff members on your teams as well.
Here are five common reasons employees quit and what you can do to prevent this from happening in your organization:
You aren’t challenging them in their work. When top talent isn’t challenged at work, they quickly become disengaged. These employees want to work toward important goals. Be sure to give them opportunities to use their strengths and leverage their skills in the workplace.
2. You aren’t providing them with opportunities to grow their career. Just because your best employees are already talented, it doesn’t mean they don’t want opportunities to learn new things and build their careers. For high performers, professional development isn’t simply about gaining skills, it’s about opportunities to broaden their skillsets and convert those new abilities to advance their careers. Provide your staff with ways to expand their skills, such as taking a course to acquire new EHS skills, pursuing a certification, or shadowing a colleague in a senior role.
3. You aren’t giving them the recognition and validation they need. When employees don’t feel like you appreciate their work, they typically stop producing high-quality work, become disengaged, and start looking for a new job. Providing a staff member with validation and recognition can be as simple as letting the individual know that they did a good job on a project.
You can even go one step further by discovering what motivates each of your employees. For some individuals, it could be showing them public recognition, and for others, it could be privately telling them that they’re producing high-quality work. If you customize the way that you provide your employees with recognition, it makes your appreciation more sincere and will likely be more appreciated by your staff.
4. You’re overworking them. When you have a top performer, it can be easy to get into the habit of providing them with extra work. You have to be careful when you do this though. You must find a balance between giving an employee work because they’re the best person to handle it and just piling on additional responsibilities because other employees weren’t able to finish it. If you’re relying on your highest-performing employees to do more work, consider giving them a promotion and salary increase. If you just give them more work without changing anything else, they’ll likely start looking for a new job that can better meet their needs.
5. You aren’t compensating them fairly. Your best-performing employees are aware of their value, and if they’re not being compensated properly, they’ll quickly start searching for a new job. Compensation isn’t simply about money. Many times, an organization’s budget doesn’t allow for a large salary increase, so it’s critical to look at other benefits you could give employees to provide them with the best work experience and prevent them from looking for a new employer. It could be a title change that allows for increased responsibility, mentoring opportunities from senior leadership, a flexible schedule or extra paid vacation days.
As an EHS employer, you have to ensure you’re giving your staff the tools and resources they need to thrive in their jobs and their careers. If you want employees to stay engaged and work for your organization long term, it’s essential to provide them with a positive workplace experience.
Adapted from: 6 Reasons Your Best Employees Quit, Ashira Prossack, Forbes.