5 Reasons You May Never Have Considered For Why Your Employees Are Quitting

A business is always going to have employees who move on, but most HR managers won’t have considered these 5 reasons as possible causes.

No business is immune to staff turnover and it’s an unavoidable truth for Human Resources departments that some employees will always be leaving your business. We may think that there is nothing that can be done to prevent them moving on, but that isn’t always necessarily the case.

Understanding why employees leave is the first step to being able to take action so that’s why we’ve listed 5 reasons here why your employees might be leaving which you’ve probably never considered.

1. The employee didn’t feel engaged with the company’s goals

You may think that employees couldn’t care less about their company’s overall goals and that they simply care about the bundle of work on their desk and the payslip at the end of the month. That’s simply not true for all employees, though, as workers are becoming more and more aware and influenced by their company’s ambitions.

Although some workers may never see the impact in their day-to-day work of a more ambitious company which is growing, there is a growing trend of workers wanting to be a part of a workplace with grand aspirations and if that doesn’t sound like your company, you could be soon or already losing staff.

2. The employee wanted more reviews

Believe it or not, but employees actually want their manager’s feedback. A lack of regular reviews could be considered an unusual reason to leave a job, but employees in a situation where they don’t feel their work matters may be tempted to head towards the exit door.

Getting feedback from managers and – importantly – getting praise where and when it’s due is one thing that employees really appreciate. That’s why regular reviews are important for helping staff feel appreciated within their role.

Obviously not all employees – i.e. the badly-performing ones – want regular reviews, but – let’s be honest – these aren’t the kinds of employees you want in your business anyway.

3. The employee wanted more training

I’ve spoken to many HR managers who think that their employees hate the thought of extra training and yet another training course. I’ve also heard from a lot of employees that they love getting extra training to develop their skills. Obviously the two don’t match up and that’s because there is sometimes a misunderstanding between HR and the workforce. Some HR departments, it seems, don’t quite realise that their employees want to develop their skills and further their careers. Fortunately, that’s something that can be fixed.

4. Location

Obviously location in terms of which city your company is based in will have some significance in terms of why some employees may move company.

But location within a city can also be a major turn-off for many employees if the offices are located on the outskirts or in an unpleasant part of town. For more employees than you may expect, location within the city can influence whether or not they stay at a company or move to a better-located one.

5. The actions of owners

And here’s another reason why some employees may be scared off from your company. With employees being so aware of global events and what’s happening in the world, they are much more aware of the actions of their company’s owners and if such actions, moves or comments don’t fit with their viewpoints on life or politics, they may well be saying goodbye to that company and finding one where the top of the hierarchy is less controversial or thinks along similar lines as they do.

So there we have it! 5 reasons why employees may be leaving your business that you hadn’t considered before. If you’d like more info on how to avoid seeing your employees leave, why not check out our blog post on employee retention or look into our employee benefits advice which can help keep employees engaged with a company.

_{Photo credit goes to Inha Leex Hale}