3 Reasons Your Best Employees Leave

This article comes from Entrepreneur.

3 Reasons Your Best Employees Leave

Employee retention is no longer about making employees happy in the present – employers also have to consider their satisfaction with the future.

Here are three reasons employees feel they need to leave a company and how to make them want to stick around:

1. Employers are not helping them define their career path.

A 2015 report from LinkedIn surveyed more than 10,500 workers who had changed jobs and found that 59 percent of respondents did so because of better opportunities and a stronger career path.

For employees, the ability to grow and continue on their career path is extremely important. They’re waiting for employers to show them how they can do that within their current company. To help employees define their career paths, ask them where they need assistance.

Start a dialogue with each employee about what they’d like to be doing in five, 10 and 15 years. Find out what skills they want to acquire or sharpen, and tell them which they need to be successful. Then develop a plan and keep track of their progress.

2. Employees’ success is not tied to the company’s success.

Everybody likes to know that the work they do impacts their company. However, most employees are compensated for their performance, not how they affect the company’s success. They are part of the process, not the result.

Giving employees stock options or shares of the profits rewards them for how their work has improved the company as a whole. It makes them feel like a more integral part of the organization, instead of just a cog in the machine. Receiving profit-shares or company stocks strengthens the relationship employers have with their employees.

3. Employers don’t promote from within.

In the Global Recruiting Trends 2016 report from LinkedIn, 32 percent of the 3,800 talent acquisition professionals surveyed said employee retention was a top priority for their organization. Surprisingly, internal hires were only a priority for 12 percent.

If a new management position is available, don’t go running straight to the job boards to find a candidate. Turn to current employees. Even if they don’t have all of the necessary skills and experience right now, they do understand how the company works and what their co-workers want and expect from a superior. These are important insights it can take an outsider months to understand.

Click here to view the complete article.