When turnover rates are high within an organization, the first thing to figure out before you can improve the situation is why exactly you’re losing employees. Whenever an employee quits their job, it’s crucial to examine the root cause. Most employees don’t enter into a full-time job expecting to quit, so if you’re losing workers, you need to figure out what you’re doing wrong.

The Top Reasons for Employee Turnover

Bad Management

Bad management is the number one reason why employees quit their jobs. Leadership can make or break an organization. There is no better reason for employees to leave their jobs than a bad boss. Employees spend a significant amount of time dealing with and interacting with their bosses at work. So, a bad relationship between a boss and their team members can quickly deplete motivation and energy, and in turn, drain the employee and push them to their limits. If your turnover rates are high, looking into leadership and the things your managers might be doing wrong is the first step.

Employee Burnout

In most jobs, occasional stress or feeling overwhelmed is somewhat normal. Burnout, on the other hand, is another matter. It’s possible for even the best and most resilient employees to burn out due to being overworked. In fact, sometimes, the employees who are overloaded with work are most often the ones who perform the best and are seen by leaders as being the most capable.

Taking on more and more work without any recognition, appreciation, promotion, or adequate compensation can leave team members feeling like they are being taken advantage of. This is a bad move for an organization because it’s easy to lose your best employees if they feel they’re overworked and underappreciated.

Organizations and employees both suffer from burnout. A burned-out employee lacks motivation, energy, and a passion for work. It’s important that employees are given plenty of opportunities to take breaks, recharge, and unplug from work entirely. Leaders should make sure they aren’t piling too much work onto their best performers. Regular check-ins with employees can also help to identify when they might be in danger of burning out.

Failure to Provide Adequate Compensation and Benefits

Failing to provide competitive compensation and benefits is a great way to lose employees. Providing competitive pay and benefits packages to employees has a direct impact on turnover, particularly if employees feel they have been misled and promised compensation or benefits that they don’t actually receive. Most organizations have figured out that they need to offer competitive pay to keep their employees, but benefits are just as important in many cases, particularly for younger generations of workers.

Their Job Lacks Meaning and Purpose

A lot of one’s sense of purpose, meaning, and accomplishment in life is tied to their work. After all, we spend a huge portion of our lives at our jobs. As a result, it’s important to do meaningful work. Having a job that is challenging in nature and provides meaning contributes to job satisfaction, and employee dissatisfaction can easily translate into retention issues.

The point here is, most people want a job that they enjoy, matches their skillset and competencies, and that makes them feel like they are contributing to the company and making a difference. In order to encourage an employee’s efforts, it is important that they understand the value of their contribution to the company. Ask them what they would like to see that would make their work more exciting and make them feel more relevant. Employees who feel appreciated, valued, and as though they are contributing to the greater good within their organization are far more likely to stick around. Make sure to invest in the growth of your team and put measures in place to constantly help them improve their skills and meet their goals.

The Culture is Wrong

People naturally want to be a part of a group of people who share their values and beliefs and contribute to efforts or causes that align with their own. Employees need to feel as though they belong in the workplace, and culture plays a key role in this. If the culture is the wrong fit for an employee, or if your organization’s culture isn’t good in general, you’re likely to start losing people left and right.

When employees love their jobs or where they work, they perform better at work and are more satisfied. But regardless of how much an employee loves the position they’re in, if they feel that they do not fit in with the company’s culture, they’re unlikely to perform well. The best way to tackle this problem starts with hiring. Hiring managers should determine how well they feel an employee will fit into their work environment and culture before offering them a position.

Failure to Show Value or Recognition

Employees who feel they aren’t being valued or recognized for their accomplishments are among the most likely to leave an organization. Employees like to be appreciated and recognized for a job well done. Nobody wants their hard work to go unappreciated, especially when they work extra hard and put in extra hours to produce a fantastic end result.

Good compensation alone won’t work to keep employees satisfied in the long run. Far too many organizations feel as though they can throw monetary rewards at their employees and never take additional steps to show how much they value them. Employees who are not appreciated for their hard work fail to be motivated and perform well, which results in the organization failing to flourish.

The first step to addressing high turnover rates is taking a deep dive into why employees are quitting. Of course, there could be any number of reasons, and the reasons tend to vary for each individual circumstance. However, these top reasons for high turnover can help to give some valuable insight into why your retention rates are low, allowing you to nip the problem in the bud as soon as possible.