People Who are Good at Their Jobs Don’t Quit – Or, Do They?

Laurie Ruettimann, writer for The Cynical Girl and Punk Rock HR, recently wrote a piece on how she overcame the depressing aspects of her job  (professional speaking) to continue doing it and improving. Human resources professionals often fall into the trap of believing that successful, self-confident employees will stick with a job they excel at doing. However, job depression and dissatisfaction are very common occurrences, and job successes might not be enough to keep your employees.

Successful employees leave jobs for a lot of reasons. Higher pay is the first one that comes to mind. Changes in the economic climate or other external factors can be blamed. But, more often, internal factors will have employees filling out job applications on company time.

Lack of engagement, confusion about job roles, and a poor management structure costs the U.S. economy $37 billion annually. Have you looked at how much it is costing you? We focus on answering questions like this for our clients. However, the corrective actions taken after we provide the data are more important than the data.

In a typical workday, thousands of interactions take place, and as a manager, you can’t possibly oversee all of them. What you can do is create an environment that empowers team members. Alesandra Dubin, West Coast Editor for Biz Bash, recently created an insightful list of ways to do just that. We’ve highlighted a few that are worth contemplating.

Say No to Micromanaging

Unless you are training an employee, don’t hang around like a shadow. Give them room to show you why they were hired. Micromanaging is a negative enforcer that diminishes the employee’s value – not to mention wastes resources. If the job doesn’t require two people to do it, offer your help, but don’t stick around to see if they really need it.

Conflict Resolution

Conflict is a disruptive inefficiency. Allowing a small problem to gain momentum will slow down how quickly you can resolve it. Addressing conflict may be right next to termination procedures in terms of discomfort, but by facing it head on, you can get your team back on track. It is not a manager’s job to take sides, rather to utilize an employee’s strengths to achieve company goals.

Where is the Trust?

Trust – it’s the cornerstone of every relationship, but we often find it missing between managers and employees. Do you trust your employees to handle a project or take on a task on your behalf? If not, ask yourself why. If it’s a lack of skill, recommend specific training sessions. If you can’t seem to let go, you’re not giving your team a chance to impress you.

For the rest of Dubin’s points read, 10 Easy Ways to Empower Your Event Team Every Day, and find out how Laurie Ruettimann got back on the stage.

Employees – especially valuable ones – are not looking to leave because they love what they do. There is a disconnect somewhere, and as a manager or an executive, it’s important that you find it. Even with the tactics listed above, we believe that employee engagement surveys are a more accurate way to isolate issues and determine solutions. Every NBRI survey includes our ClearPath Analytics and ClearPath Action processes.  Then, we recommend resurveying to gauge the effectiveness of your action plans. Read our employee survey white papers to see what we’ve done for past clients, and then contact us to see what strategies we recommend for you.