Why Do Employees Leave?

Anyone who says money is not important will lie about other things as well.
- Zig Ziglar

Think back on your career. As you were working your way up your ladder of success why did you leave your first position? Most likely it was money. And as you progressed through your career you likely made a few moves based on future financial success. Looking back was that the only reason for making the moves you made?

With this thought, it may not surprise you to learn that the number one reason employees say they leave their job is low salary; this according to web site www.salary.com. While this may be the number one answer from the employee in the basic exit interview I would encourage you to dig a little deeper. I know most people dread the exit interview almost as much as doing performance evaluations. I am convinced that an effective exit interview can reduce your volunteer turn over rate. The question is how to do an exit interview.

Most interviewers ask the question "Why are you leaving?" This is a great start. The problem is most interviewers stop right here. In fact this is where it can get quite interesting. The initial response will most likely be more money. And that is what goes down on the form. In fact if the exit interviewer will dig just a little deeper there can be a multitude of responses.

Once the first response is heard, the interviewer should then ask probing questions surrounding the response. Assuming the response is money, a great follow up question might be; besides a greater salary is there another reason you have chosen to leave? At this point the interviewer should be silent.

Here you may hear responses such as better commute, better benefits, more opportunities to grow, boredom in my current position just to name a few. You should ask why this is important to him/her. Next is the key question to ask the employee. Between receiving more money and (whatever the second response is) which is more important to your decision? Regardless of the answer continue with what else is important to your decision to make a move. And always follow with an understanding question, and then by which is more important. You will always want to ask which is more important one other specific reason and not against all of the reasons they have mentioned.

This creates a pecking order of importance for this particular employee. As you continue this questioning format you will see a pattern develop for your team, department, division or company. If money continues to be the # 1 reason maybe the organization needs to evaluate their salary structure with similar companies in the area.

On the other hand if anything else becomes apparent as the number one reason the organization can work on systems to improve this in the long run.

According to the web site salary.com the top ten reasons employees stated for leaving their company are as follows:

• 1 Low salary
• 2 Inadequate opportunities
• 3 Lack of appreciation
• 4 Boredom
• 5 Poor benefits
• 6 No personal development (little or no training)
• 7 Little job security
• 8 High stress level
• 9 Poor relationships with management
• 10 Undesirable commute

A lot of my clients use the method described above and they have found their top three (in no particular order) to be:

• - Lack of recognition
• - Little or no personal development (training)
• - Poor working relationships with co-workers including immediate manager

By following the process described above you can determine if your organization is experiencing some of the same. If you are then it is time to put in a systems fix into the organization. Maybe it is an employee recognition program, or offering on site training programs and maybe it is time to look at behaviors of the top producers and duplicate those specific behaviors. Perhaps a shuffle in employees is necessary to get the right players on the right teams and the right teams in place within your organization.

Contact Gregg today and see how his keynote speeches and breakout training sessions can help your company or organization.