Every organization normally faces one common problem of high employee turnout ratio. People are leaving the company for better pay , better profile or simply for just one reason - “ pak gaya ”. This article might just throw some light on the matter …………..
Early this year , Arun , an old friend , who is a senior software engineer , got an offer from a prestigious international firm , to work in its India operations , developing specialized software. He was thrilled by the offer . He had heard a lot about the CEO of this company , a charismatic man often quoted in the business press for his visionary attitude. The salary was great . The company had all the right systems in place , employee friendly human resources policies , a spanking new office , and even a canteen that served superb food. Arun was sent abroad twice for training. “ My learning curve is the sharpest it’s ever been,” he said soon after he had joined. “ It’s a real new high working with such cutting edge technology .”
Last week , less than eight months after he joined , Arun walked out of his job. He has no offer on hand but he only said that he could not take it any more. Nor , apparently , could several other people in his department who have also quit recently. The CEO is distressed about the high employee turnover. He’s distressed over the money he’s spent in training them. He’s distressed because he cannot figure out what happened. Why did this talented employee leave despite a top salary and other perks ? Arun quit for the very same reason that drives many good people away . The answer lies in one of the largest studies undertaken by the Gallup Organization.
The study surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book called “ First Break All The Rules ” . It came up with this surprising finding : If you are losing good people , look to their immediate supervisor. More than any other single reason , he is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. And he is the reason why they quit , taking their knowledge , experience and contacts with them. Often , straight to the competition.
“ People leave managers not companies,” write the authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. “ So much money has been thrown at the challenge of keeping good people – in the form of better pay , better perks and better training – when , in the end , turnover is mostly a manager issue.” If you have a turnover problem , look first to your managers. Are they driving people away ? Beyond a point , an employee’s primary need has less to do with money , and more to do with how he is treated and how valued he feels. Much of this depends directly on the immediate manager. And yet, bad bosses seem to happen to good people everywhere. A Fortune Magazine survey some years ago found that nearly 75 per cent of employees have suffered at the hands of difficult superiors. Phew – that is a high percentage for sure.You can leave one job to find – you guessed it , another wolf in a pin stripe suit , in the next one.
Of all the work place stressors , a bad boss is possibly the worst , directly impacting the emotional health and the productivity of employees. HR experts say that of all the abuses , employees find public humiliation the most intolerable. The first time, an employee may not leave, but a thought has been definitely planted. The second time , that thought gets strengthened. The third time, he starts looking for another job. When people cannot retort openly in anger , they do so by passive aggression. By digging their heels in and slowing down. By doing only what they have been told to do and no more. By omitting to give their boss crucial information.
The general feeling is : “ If you work for a jerk , you basically want to get him into trouble. You don’t have your heart and soul in the job.” Different managers can stress out employees in different ways – by being too controlling , too suspicious , too pushy , too critical , but they forget that workers are not fixed assets , they are free agents. When this goes on for a little too long, an employee will quit – often over seemingly trivial issues.
It is not the 100 th. blow that knocks a good man down. It’s the 99 that went before. And while it it’s true that people leave jobs for all kinds of reasons – for better opportunities or for circumstantial reasons, many who leave would have stayed – had it not been for this one man constantly telling him , as Arun’s boss did : “ You are dispensable. I can find dozens like you.” While it seems like there are plenty of fish, especially in today’s waters, consider for a moment the cost of losing a talented employee.
There’s the cost of finding a suitable replacement. The cost of training the replacement. The cost of not having someone to do the job in the meantime. The loss of clients and contacts the person had with the industry. The loss of morale in co-workers. The loss of trade secrets this person may now share with others. Plus, of course , the loss of the company’s reputation. Every person who leaves a corporation then becomes its ambassador for better or for worse. When considering all the above implications, we are forced to agree that “ the cost of retention ( of an employee ) is far, far smaller that the cost of replacement .”
We all know of large IT companies that people would love to join and large television companies few want to go near. In both cases , former employees have left to tell their tales. “Any company trying to compete, must figure out a way to engage the mind of every employee ,”. Jack Welch of GE once said.
Much of a company’s value lies “ between the ears of its employees ”. If it’s bleeding talent , it’s bleeding value. Unfortunately , many senior executives, busy traveling the world , signing new deals and developing a vision for the company , have very little idea of what may be going on at home. That deep within an organization , that otherwise does all the right things , one man could be driving its best people away.
Time for introspection ……..Anyone ????
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