My Employees are Leaving! What do I do?

There can’t be anything more painful than losing your rockstar employees. Although you can find their replacements but the expense of finding, onboarding, and training a replacement surely gives you a tough time. Moreover, this whole procedure also comes with the uncertainty of whether or not, your new employee will work out; and this is not all! There’s also the hardship on the rest of your staff and a great disruption in workflow until that position is filled.

Well, with all the good employees leaving, you need to immediately realize that retaining your best employees starts with understanding why they leave. Here are some of the top known reasons:

You Overwork Them

There’s nothing that burns your good employees out more than overworking them. Many managers out there get trapped by the temptation of working their best people harder than their capacities. No matter how hardworking your employees may be, overworking makes them feel as if they’re being punished for great performance. Latest researches also prove that overworking employees is counterproductive. So, the best practice is to give them frequent salary raises, bonuses, promotions and title-changes along with increasing their workload; this would surely not make them leave you.

You Don’t Recognize Their Contributions & Hard Work

It is a proven fact that everyone likes kudos. In fact none more so than those who work hard and give their everything. The best practice is to communicate often with your people and find out what motivates them best. For some people, motivation may lie in a salary raise whereas for others it could be public recognition. If you keep recognizing and rewarding all the efforts of your best employees, it would keep them motivated and they’ll never leave you.

You Don’t Get Involved

Many studies have found that half of the people who quit their jobs did so because of a bad relationship with their boss. True managers know exactly how to balance being a hum as well as a professional. Celebrating employees’ success, empathizing with and helping those who are having hard times and motivating people when they are down, are the timeless traits of a true leader. Working for more than eight hours a day for somebody who’s not personally involved with you and doesn’t care about anything other than your production yield is really difficult. This is why managers who fail to get involved with their people will always end up with high turnover rates.

You Don’t Honor Your Commitments

Making promises with your employees makes them really happy and motivated. This creates your image as a trustworthy and honorable boss. However, the moment you disregard your commitment, you come across as a slimy, uncaring and disrespectful person. If the boss isn’t honoring his or her commitments, why would anybody else?

You are Hiring and Promoting the Wrong People

There’s no doubt about the fact that competent people like to work only with like-minded professionals. When you hire the wrong people, it becomes a major demotivator for those stuck working alongside them. What’s even worse is promoting the wrong people. Those who work their tails off only to get passed over for a promotion that is given to somebody else, would never stick to you. So, before you hire or promote someone, think a thousand times and make sure that you are not being biased in any way.

You Fail to Challenge Them Intellectually

It is a proven fact that great bosses always keep their people challenged to accomplish tasks that appear inconceivable at first. Competent and progressive people always love to take up challenges and to get out of their comfort zones and good bosses do everything in their power to help them succeed. So, always keep in mind that if your good employees find themselves doing things that are too mainstream and boring, they will start looking for opportunities that will challenge their intellects.

Bringing It All Together

If you are desperate to make your rockstar employees stay, it’s important for you to think carefully about how to deal with them. Remember, good employees are as tough as nails and their competence gets them abundance of options but its’ you who can make them want to work for you. You may need to hire HR representative to take care of your employees’ needs and ensure their retention.

Also Check: Does My Organization Need HR Representative?