Why Great Talent Leaves Your Company

22 June, 2018

Why Great Talent Leaves Your Company

In today’s ever-competitive, ultra-tight job market, it takes a lot more than just money to attract and retain top talent. I have in this article mentioned a few pointers considered vital in attracting and retaining talent. Talent is every company’s greatest asset!

It goes without saying that finding and retaining quality employees depends on one critical factor: a company’s corporate culture.
Yes, having a higher salary is nothing but a bonus as it is often one of the least motivating factors for great talent. Often, companies expect new employees to take their corporate culture as is hence adapting to it regardless. But you can’t keep the best this way.

The ability to motivate competent employees to yield a long-term relationship depends on a company’s capacity to create an environment that makes employees feel like assets to the company. As a matter of fact, positive corporate culture drives job satisfaction by helping everyone work at their best while a poor company culture affects employee morale and forces them to look for the nearest opportunity to exit.

A positive corporate culture is characterized by professionalism, high sense of achievement, and team-building. In positive environments, employee contributions are recognized, and their good work is rewarded. In a strong, effective culture, management often tries to get employees’ input about changes that should be made and also see to it that they are correctly implemented with consistency. This approach encourages goal-setting and gives employees as much autonomy and creative freedom as possible.

Instead of creating a value-based culture to boost openness and honesty, many companies out there force employees to work in a rule-driven culture that kills passion, reduces enthusiasm, and performance. Employees in such companies are made to follow old established rules that suppress their creativity and encourage the ordinary.

You may agree that many companies that fail to maintain an effective culture usually face problems like slow decision-making where a decision that would be made in a day is made in 2 weeks, neglectful attitudes and careless behavior by staff and management that increases accidents and losses at the workplace, lack of discipline that leads to issuance of numerous warning letters and dismissal, decreased employee motivation that leads to poor attendance levels, as well as favoritism and nepotism that cause dissatisfaction, all of which impede company growth.

Some companies often believe, albeit erroneously, that the older and long-stayed employees are more valuable in the workplace and as a result, rules and regulations tend to be bent towards them. Often, they are given the idea that they can get away with anything just because they are considered more “loyal” than the new and younger employees which makes it hard for all employees to develop a strong shared identity.
Appreciate their loyalty in many ways excluding discrimination. Granted, older employees can teach the younger generation a thing or two about hard times, interpersonal skills, experience, independence, e.t.c. But that’s not to say that younger employees bring nothing to the table.
In fact, they bring with them knowledge and values that are critical to business success in the modern era. These include new technology, diversity, willingness to take risks, hunger for success, and healthy work-life balance.

Companies need to comprehend that younger employees usually come with their own needs, information, beliefs, and expectations, which are often diverse from the ones that are common in older employees. As such, they expect to take part in the decision-making process where they have a chance to share their thoughts knowing their opinions matter. Diversity in teams strengthens results! What would have been the reason for hiring and retaining them when they are not good?

The ability to motivate employees is one of the greatest skills anyone on the management team should possess. If they don’t have this skill and still don’t trust ideas on how to acquire it, talent is bound to leave the company for even less paying jobs that give them a sense of growth.

According to Jack Canfield, a recent management study revealed that 46% of employees leaving a company do so because they feel underappreciated; 61% said their bosses don’t place much importance on them as people, and 88% said they do not receive acknowledgment for the work they do.

Marcus Buckingham opined that people leave managers not companies thus many business owners need to comprehend that a company culture reflects on the management. Have you ever thought that if your business was a story to the world, what kind of story it would be? Every behavior starts with the management then trickles down into the entire company. For instance, if the management consistently breaks company rules and regulations, employees will learn that it is acceptable to do so thus doing the same.

That said, to properly manage employees and ensure effectiveness and employee loyalty which has many benefits tagged to it, management has to learn to live by example and ensure strict but not rigid compliance with company policies and procedures without fear or favor.