7 Reasons Why Your Workforce Are Leaving You

We are in a competitive job market, with declining unemployment rates and a record amount of job vacancies advertised.

Now more than ever, it is essential that we hire objectively and focus on retaining our talent. 

Tackling Retention

We've found a surprisingly large number of articles addressing the issues of talent retention and their findings are equally as surprising.

The World Economic Forum evaluates a recent Microsoft study, which reveals that 41% of employees globally thought about handing in their notice around the end of 2021.

When looking at the results in more detail, we can see how the effect of Covid-19 and the shift to remote working has influenced this.

The study shows that 61% of business owners are thriving in the current situation, whereas 60% of employed Generation Z are struggling at work.

In conclusion, there is not just the issue of a competitive recruitment market and high demand for talented employees, but there is also a clear imbalance between the stability of our leaders and the ability to satisfy and retain current employees. 

In this short blog, we suggest 7 Top Tips that will empower your workforce, help them grow, navigate the remote working era, and help ensure your best talent doesn’t leave.

Tip #1 Create space to develop your own leadership

Many CEO’s facing the recruitment (or talent drain) challenge get drawn into being an important stakeholder in dealing with the problem. Usually at the expense of reflecting on how their own leadership style could actually be contributing to their talent problem. It will almost always feel counterintuitive to focus on self-development (a long-term project) when short-term issues seem more pressing. This is a classic example of the 'urgent trumping the important'.

• How self-aware are you as a leader?
• Would your employees agree? 
• Are you a leader worth following?

C-me produces personalised behavioural reports which focus on helping leaders develop the essential insights and skills to become High Performers whilst enabling them to reflect on how their employees perceive their behaviours.

Shift Management has released an article for further reading on the development of your own leadership to stop the talent drain.

Tip #2 Prioritise connection

The problem with so much and so many methods of communication in today’s instant world is that what we think is great communication fails to in fact be so. This is largely due to poor connections.

When two people fail to connect, our communication becomes ineffective at best and damaging at worst. Successful companies recognise this need and have prioritised working at preventing the problem of connection.

Improving connections may include the uptake of a few strategies, namely, how senior leaders speak to employees and clients, giving employees a voice, and acting on feedback given.

There is probably no quicker way to disengage a workforce than by failing to listen to them.

One of the best environments for listening to employees is in an appraisal. Seek to make appraisals a two-way street: appraise the employee on their work, but also provide space for them to appraise you as a leader and give feedback on what you could do better?

Find some further reading to better your listening or head to our blog for some additional top tips for effective communication.

Tip #3 Keep dripping in the vision

While philanthropists state that vision is a truism, i.e., it is so obvious or self-evident that it's hardly worth mentioning; it is clear that employees support said visions.

When a company’s vision is clear and regularly communicated, it will help employees remain engaged and provide them with the much-needed discretionary effort to go above and beyond. Think of vision as painting an inspiring picture and regularly use this to motivate your staff.

Tip #4 Develop your people

Talent is often wasted when leaders give too much attention to what work is being done or not done, rather than supporting the development of their people. Understanding what motivates each individual person will help leaders overcome the tendency to lead with a one-size-fits-all approach. We are all motivated by different things and in different ways, which requires leadership flexibility to match.

Developing our staff is a powerful way to help them feel valued but also provide the optimal foundations from which their talent can shine.

Tip #5 Value your workforce

The COVID world is incredibly volatile and current inflation levels are putting greater strain on many people. One way to value our staff is to create as much job certainty as is reasonably possible, i.e., avoid the dangers of overpromising.

The need for staff wellbeing as a top priority is well documented.

Remote and hybrid working is here to stay. Finding a way to embrace these sociological changes whilst valuing our people is probably as important as it has ever been.

Tip #6 Focus on their first day

Whilst this may seem obvious, it takes time to hire the right people. By focussing on attitudes as much as competencies, we avoid making bad hires – attitudes are far harder to teach!

C-me’s Recruitment Profile is an effective tool in the recruitment process, as it helps employers recruit around behavioural preferences and find people who fit, instead of simply concentrating on raw skills.

Once you have found the best people, what steps do you take as a company to ensure the first day for a new employee is the very best that it can be? What are the key relationships to introduce them to? How can you inject some fun into the no-doubt busy first day of onboarding? The impression an employee takes away with them after their first day speaks volumes of the culture of their new workplace.

Tip #7 Acknowledge and improve digital exhaustion

A reason so many people are struggling at work is because of digital exhaustion. Whilst this term and issue existed pre- COVID, it has definitely accelerated and become more prevalent now due to our working and living conditions. 

Digital fatigue can occur due to a number of reasons, but the main reason is our increased screen time and lack of personal interaction. Many large companies, including tech corporation Microsoft, are tweaking their working environments to try and tackle this problem and improve their workforce's wellbeing. 

Think about what you can implement in your company to reduce digital exhaustion, especially amongst your younger talent. 

In Summary

Although the threat of your workforce leaving you is high in this current climate, there are methods you can implement that are effective at retaining your talent. Be sure to integrate these tactics into your organisation.