Post by anita on Oct 23, 2005 11:59:52 GMT
Why do talented employees leave companies, often despite good salaries?
Early this year, Arun, an old friend who is a senior software designer, got
an offer from a prestigious international firm to work in its India
operations developing a specialised software. He was thrilled by the offer.
He had heard a lot about the CEO of this company, a charismatic man often
quoted in the business press for his visionary attitude. The salary was
great. The company had all the right systems in place - employee-friendly
human resources (HR) policies, a spanking new office, the very best
technology, even a canteen that served superb food. Twice Arun was sent
abroad for training. "My learning curve is the sharpest it's ever been," he
said soon after he joined. "It's a real high working with such cutting edge
technology."
Last week, less than eight months after he joined, Arun walked out of the
job. He has no other offer in hand but he said he couldn't take it anymore.
Nor, apparently, could several other people in his department who have also
quit recently. The CEO is distressed about the high employee turnover. He's
distressed about the money he's spent in training them. He's distressed
because he can't figure out what happened.
Why did this talented employee leave despite a top salary? Arun quit for
the
same reason that drives many good people away. The answer lies in one of
the
largest studies undertaken by the Gallup Organisation. The study surveyed
over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book
called First Break All The Rules. It came up with this surprising finding:
If you're losing good people, look to their immediate supervisor. More than
any other single reason, he is the reason people stay and thrive in an
organisation. And he's the reason why they quit, taking their knowledge,
experience and contacts with them. Often, straight to the competition.
"People leave managers not companies," write the authors Marcus Buckingham
and Curt Coffman. "So much money has been thrown at the challenge of
keeping
good people - in the form of better pay, better perks and better training -
when, in the end, turnover is mostly a manager issue." If you have a
turnover problem, look first to your managers. Are they driving people
away?
Beyond a point, an employee's primary need has less to do with money, and
more to do with how he's treated and how valued he feels. Much of this
depends directly on the immediate manager. And yet, bad bosses seem to
happen to good people everywhere. A Fortune magazine survey some years ago
found that nearly 75 per cent of employees have suffered at the hands of
difficult superiors. You can leave one job to find - you guessed it,
another
wolf in a pin-stripe suit in the next one.
Of all the workplace stressors, a bad boss is possibly the worst, directly
impacting the emotional health and productivity of employees. Here are some
all-too common tales from the battlefield: Dev, an engineer, still shudders
as he recalls the almost daily firings his boss subjected him to, usually
in
front of his subordinates. His boss emasculated him with personal,
insulting
remarks. In the face of such rage, Dev completely lost the courage to speak
up. But when he reached home depressed, he poured himself a few drinks, and
magically, became as abusive as the boss himself. Only, it would come out
on
his wife and children. Not only was his work life in the doldrums, his
marriage began cracking up too. Another employee Rajat recalls the Chinese
torture his boss put him through after a minor disagreement. He cut him off
completely. He bypassed him in any decision that needed to be taken. "He
stopped sending me any papers or files," says Rajat. "It was humiliating
sitting at an empty table. I knew nothing and no one told me anything."
Unable to bear this corporate Siberia, he finally quit.
HR experts say that of all the abuses, employees find public humiliation
the
most intolerable. The first time, an employee may not leave, but a thought
has been planted. The second time, that thought gets strengthened. The
third
time, he starts looking for another job.
When people cannot retort openly in anger, they do so by passive
aggression.
By digging their heels in and slowing down. By doing only what they are
told
to do and no more. By omitting to give the boss crucial information. Dev
says: "If you work for a jerk, you basically want to get him into trouble.
You don't have your heart and soul in the job." Different managers can
stress out employees in different ways - by being too controlling, too
suspicious, too pushy, too critical, too nit-picky. But they forget that
workers are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too
long, an employee will quit - often over a seemingly trivial issue. It
isn't
the 100th blow that knocks a good man down. It's the 99 that went before.
And while it's true that people leave jobs for all kinds of reasons - for
better opportunities or for circumstantial reasons, many who leave would
have stayed - had it not been for one man constantly telling them, as
Arun's
boss did: "You are dispensable. I can find dozens like you." While it seems
like there are plenty of other fish especially in today's waters, consider
for a moment the cost of losing a talented employee. There's the cost of
finding a replacement. The cost of training the replacement. The cost of
not
having someone to do the job in the meantime. The loss of clients and
contacts the person had with the industry. The loss of morale in
co-workers.
The loss of trade secrets this person may now share with others.
Plus, of course, the loss of the company's reputation. Every person who
leaves a corporation then becomes its ambassador, for better or for worse.
We all know of large IT companies that people would love to join and large
television companies few want to go near. In both cases, former employees
have left to tell their tales.
"Any company trying to compete must figure out a way to engage the mind of
every employee," Jack Welch of GE once said. Much of a company's value lies
"between the ears of its employees". If it's bleeding talent, it's bleeding
value. Unfortunately, many senior executives busy travelling the world,
signing new deals and developing a vision for the company, have little idea
of what may be going on at home. That deep within an organisation that
otherwise does all the right things, one man could be driving its best
people away.
Early this year, Arun, an old friend who is a senior software designer, got
an offer from a prestigious international firm to work in its India
operations developing a specialised software. He was thrilled by the offer.
He had heard a lot about the CEO of this company, a charismatic man often
quoted in the business press for his visionary attitude. The salary was
great. The company had all the right systems in place - employee-friendly
human resources (HR) policies, a spanking new office, the very best
technology, even a canteen that served superb food. Twice Arun was sent
abroad for training. "My learning curve is the sharpest it's ever been," he
said soon after he joined. "It's a real high working with such cutting edge
technology."
Last week, less than eight months after he joined, Arun walked out of the
job. He has no other offer in hand but he said he couldn't take it anymore.
Nor, apparently, could several other people in his department who have also
quit recently. The CEO is distressed about the high employee turnover. He's
distressed about the money he's spent in training them. He's distressed
because he can't figure out what happened.
Why did this talented employee leave despite a top salary? Arun quit for
the
same reason that drives many good people away. The answer lies in one of
the
largest studies undertaken by the Gallup Organisation. The study surveyed
over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book
called First Break All The Rules. It came up with this surprising finding:
If you're losing good people, look to their immediate supervisor. More than
any other single reason, he is the reason people stay and thrive in an
organisation. And he's the reason why they quit, taking their knowledge,
experience and contacts with them. Often, straight to the competition.
"People leave managers not companies," write the authors Marcus Buckingham
and Curt Coffman. "So much money has been thrown at the challenge of
keeping
good people - in the form of better pay, better perks and better training -
when, in the end, turnover is mostly a manager issue." If you have a
turnover problem, look first to your managers. Are they driving people
away?
Beyond a point, an employee's primary need has less to do with money, and
more to do with how he's treated and how valued he feels. Much of this
depends directly on the immediate manager. And yet, bad bosses seem to
happen to good people everywhere. A Fortune magazine survey some years ago
found that nearly 75 per cent of employees have suffered at the hands of
difficult superiors. You can leave one job to find - you guessed it,
another
wolf in a pin-stripe suit in the next one.
Of all the workplace stressors, a bad boss is possibly the worst, directly
impacting the emotional health and productivity of employees. Here are some
all-too common tales from the battlefield: Dev, an engineer, still shudders
as he recalls the almost daily firings his boss subjected him to, usually
in
front of his subordinates. His boss emasculated him with personal,
insulting
remarks. In the face of such rage, Dev completely lost the courage to speak
up. But when he reached home depressed, he poured himself a few drinks, and
magically, became as abusive as the boss himself. Only, it would come out
on
his wife and children. Not only was his work life in the doldrums, his
marriage began cracking up too. Another employee Rajat recalls the Chinese
torture his boss put him through after a minor disagreement. He cut him off
completely. He bypassed him in any decision that needed to be taken. "He
stopped sending me any papers or files," says Rajat. "It was humiliating
sitting at an empty table. I knew nothing and no one told me anything."
Unable to bear this corporate Siberia, he finally quit.
HR experts say that of all the abuses, employees find public humiliation
the
most intolerable. The first time, an employee may not leave, but a thought
has been planted. The second time, that thought gets strengthened. The
third
time, he starts looking for another job.
When people cannot retort openly in anger, they do so by passive
aggression.
By digging their heels in and slowing down. By doing only what they are
told
to do and no more. By omitting to give the boss crucial information. Dev
says: "If you work for a jerk, you basically want to get him into trouble.
You don't have your heart and soul in the job." Different managers can
stress out employees in different ways - by being too controlling, too
suspicious, too pushy, too critical, too nit-picky. But they forget that
workers are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too
long, an employee will quit - often over a seemingly trivial issue. It
isn't
the 100th blow that knocks a good man down. It's the 99 that went before.
And while it's true that people leave jobs for all kinds of reasons - for
better opportunities or for circumstantial reasons, many who leave would
have stayed - had it not been for one man constantly telling them, as
Arun's
boss did: "You are dispensable. I can find dozens like you." While it seems
like there are plenty of other fish especially in today's waters, consider
for a moment the cost of losing a talented employee. There's the cost of
finding a replacement. The cost of training the replacement. The cost of
not
having someone to do the job in the meantime. The loss of clients and
contacts the person had with the industry. The loss of morale in
co-workers.
The loss of trade secrets this person may now share with others.
Plus, of course, the loss of the company's reputation. Every person who
leaves a corporation then becomes its ambassador, for better or for worse.
We all know of large IT companies that people would love to join and large
television companies few want to go near. In both cases, former employees
have left to tell their tales.
"Any company trying to compete must figure out a way to engage the mind of
every employee," Jack Welch of GE once said. Much of a company's value lies
"between the ears of its employees". If it's bleeding talent, it's bleeding
value. Unfortunately, many senior executives busy travelling the world,
signing new deals and developing a vision for the company, have little idea
of what may be going on at home. That deep within an organisation that
otherwise does all the right things, one man could be driving its best
people away.
