How To Keep Your Best People In Today’s Hyper-Competitive Job Market
By Jim Pancero, CSP, CPAE, Hall of Fame Speaker & Thought Leader
Finding a new job used to be a hassle, but today, searching and finding a new job has become a much easier and more efficient process due to online job searches.
How many of your employees are actively looking for another job right now?
Some simple online research (thanks to Chat GPT – their sources are listed) identified:
- 51% of employees are actively looking for a new job or are open to new opportunities (source: Gallup).
- 46% of U.S. workers are actively job searching or plan to within the next year (source: PwC).
- 65% of employees are open to hearing about new job opportunities, even if they aren’t actively searching (source: LinkedIn).
Want to retain and grow your best employees?
So why are so many workers so dissatisfied with their current job they’re actively looking (or at least thinking about it)? Recent studies and surveys have identified employees are leaving because of their dissatisfaction with their current job more than because of an exciting opportunity with a new company.
One of the easiest ways to retain your people is to make sure you and your company are not creating or causing any of the seven leading reasons employees are leaving for a better job:
Reason #1 – “I’m leaving because I’m not learning anything new that’s improving my career development.”
94% of employees said they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development (source: LinkedIn Learning). 22% leave due to a lack of career advancement opportunities (source: Gallup).
What kinds of ongoing training and coaching do you provide your employees? There was a study years ago that said employees leave for two reasons: lack of growth in their skills and lack of growth in their income. If both of those conditions exist, then it’s most likely they’re actively looking and will be gone soon.
Reason #2 – “No one appreciates anything I do around here…and my boss always seems angry I’m not doing enough.”
79% of employees who quit their jobs cite “lack of appreciation” as their main reason (source: O.C. Tanner Institute). 58% say they’d leave a job because of workplace culture or toxic managers (source: Randstad USA).
What percent of the time are your employees hearing only what they didn’t do, how it wasn’t done right, or how generally unhappy management is with their performance? Too many managers lead by complaining. How long would you stay if you never heard anything positive about your efforts or results?
Reason #3 – “My Internet searches confirm I’m being under paid…by a lot!”
25% of employees leave because of dissatisfaction with their pay and benefits (source: Glassdoor). 89% of employers believe employees leave for more money, but only 12% of employees actually quit for financial reasons (source: Work Institute).
The reality today is income and salary levels are easily researched and identified with a few simple Internet searches. If you’re not paying competitive salaries for the work expected, then you can’t be surprised when they leave for a better paying job.
Workers under 40 have learned from their peers they can make more money jumping companies every couple of years for better paying jobs. Want to keep your best people? Then you’ll need to be paying them what the market says they’re worth.
Reason #4 – “I’ve been working so hard (and so many hours) each week. I have no personal life anymore… I even get work calls all weekend about problems they can’t seem to solve without me.”
26% of employees cite work-life balance as the main reason for leaving (source: LinkedIn). 57% are willing to leave a job that doesn’t support work-life balance (source: Deloitte).
The younger the worker, the more important work-life balance is to them. Most under 40 are not willing to put the long work hours in — week after week. They watched their parents do that without much long-term payoff and aren’t willing to repeat that life for themselves.
Reason #5 – “No one seems to appreciate, or even care, how much I’m doing for my company.”
79% of employees feel lack of appreciation is a key reason for leaving (source: O.C. Tanner). 65% feel that they haven’t been recognized for their contributions at work in the last year (source: Achievers).
Remember the old coaching approach of “Praise in public – critique in private?” How much positive feedback and recognition are your people receiving? For too many employees, the only time they get feedback from their manager is when they did something wrong, or not fast enough. Think you could make your work environment a little more positive?
Reason #6 – “My brain is fried due to all the stress and burnout I feel in my job.”
77% of employees experience burnout at their current job (source: Deloitte). 21% leave their jobs mainly due to stress and burnout (source: Kronos).
It’s challenging to attempt to lower the stress of the various jobs needing to be done at your company. But even though you might not be able to lower their stress, you can improve their attitude and appreciation for what they’re doing. Thanking workers for all they do and recognizing hard work and accomplishments are some of the best ways to lower your employee’s stress levels (and increase their job satisfaction!).
Reason #7 – “My manager is an uncaring idiot who only seems to care about making themselves look good to their upper management.”
50% of employees say they’ve left a job specifically because of a bad manager or supervisor (source: Gallup).
Bad, uncaring and abusive managers usually don’t realize their negative behaviors. This is why communication throughout your company that involves listening to both employees and management is critical today. What can you do to help your managers be better leaders and motivators? Studies have shown that employees with managers who regularly communicate are three-times more engaged, reducing the likelihood of turnover (source: Gallup).
What can you do, change, or improve in your work environment that can help you retain and grow your best people?
Unhappy employees tend to leave due to lack of career development, toxic culture, poor management, inadequate compensation, work-life balance issues, burnout, and lack of recognition. Focusing on these areas can significantly reduce turnover and improve employee retention. What can you do to help improve the motivational environment of your employees? Think you and the rest of your leadership team could do anything different that could help more employees stay around longer? After all, we know you and your leadership team are good…now are you ready to get even better?
About Jim Pancero, Dallas TX – Jim has been a successful sales and sales leadership speaker, trainer, and consultant for over 40 years, helping distribution and equipment manufacturers increase their competitive advantage as well as strengthen their sales leadership skills. Learn more of Jim’s ideas at https://pancero.com or by checking out his three-a-week sales & sales leadership videos being posted on LinkedIn and YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/JimPancero. You can also subscribe to Jim’s free weekly newsletter to stay updated on all his latest videos being posted – sign up at https://jimpanceroinc.m-pages.com/subscribe