People divorce Managers, not Companies

Employees who resign from a company leave for better pay, right? Well, that is what most managers seem to believe. According to Leigh Branham, author of The Seven Hidden Reasons Employees Leave, a recent analysis of California-based Saratoga Institute’s database of 19,700 employee surveys found that ‘89% of managers believe that most employees are pulled away by better pay’. However, the same analysis also showed that 88% of the voluntary resignations happened for reasons other than pay. And herein lays the problem: 89% of the managers had it completely wrong – in their attempts to retain their employees they were barking up the wrong tree and were probably instead just driving them away. Eish.

But wait – there is more: most resignations are not spur-of-the-moment, impulsive decisions. Resignations are usually the climactic and desperate final response to an unfulfilling and unrewarding work environment or job situation – something that usually evolves over a period of time. So the question is this: For every employee that resigns, how many unfulfilled and dissatisfied ones are staying behind, i.e. employees that quit mentally and emotionally but stay on with the company? Employee turnover, it seems, is simply the symptom of a much larger underlying problem – the proverbial tip of an iceberg.

So what is the problem then? Branham has identified a number of ‘hidden reasons’ why employees resign – ranging from unrealistic job expectations, jobs that do not fit talents, and insufficient feedback and coaching, to limited career growth, feeling unrecognised, and a lack of trust in leaders. And here’s the rub: Although some aspects – such as career growth – can to some degree be blamed on the company-at-large, it is the line manager who have the most influence and control over the ‘hidden reasons’ that determine whether an employee will disengage and resign or not. They are, after all, responsible for clarifying their team members’ job expectations, for treating them fairly and with respect, for helping them to develop their careers, and for providing them with rewarding work environments.

And this ties up with research done by Gallup Inc. on survey data of 105,000 employees from 2,500 business units. They found that ‘the manager – not pay, benefits, perks, or a charismatic corporate leader – was the critical player in building a strong workplace.’ In fact, they found that one in six respondents identified their manager or supervisor as the ‘most disliked aspect of their job’. Eish². It is not that pay or benefits or working conditions are not important; it is just that the immediate manager is more important. Employees who work under poor bosses are less likely to give the extra effort asked of them when it is needed most. On the other hand, employees who are well managed are more often than not prepared to forgive many of an organisation’s indiscretions and shortcomings.

So what to do then? Managers need to ask themselves two questions: (1) Am I creating the conditions at work where people will want to work for me and give their best, and (2) Have I earned their respect, am I worth following? To quote Peter Drucker, who once asked the head of a large multinational corporation: ‘What do you look for in placing the right people into the right places in an organisation?’ The response was: ‘I always ask myself, would I want one of my sons to work under that person?’

So here are a couple of things that we as managers can do to build a strong workplace and at the same time make sure we are not viewed as the ‘most disliked aspect’ of our team members’ jobs:

• Ensure team members are provided with the necessary tools and resources to get the job done to a high standard;
• Match as far as practically possible individual team member’s strengths to appropriate roles;
• Make sure they know exactly what is expected of them in their jobs and how their roles complement the others;
• Value their opinions, and provide them with opportunities for personal growth and career advancement;
• Make sure they are in agreement with the mission of the company and they understand how their contributions will help it to be achieved;
• Provide them with regular and prompt performance feedback, recognition and rewards;
• And above all, always act with total sincerity and integrity, keep your promises and commitments, show genuine interest in each of your team members, and treat them all fairly and with respect.

So there you go: People divorce managers, not companies – as managers, we have the opportunity to decide what kind of difference we want to make at the workplace; let’s work hard on not being the ‘most disliked aspect’ of the work environments that we subject our followers to.