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Keeping good employees is vital to your company's success. Good employees help drive and grow your business.
So nothing hurts more than having a star performer quit your team.
Not only do you lose a valuable team member, you then have to find and train a new employee, which is time-consuming and costly (the general rule of thumb is that losing any staff member who has been with you for 12 months or longer will cost you 3 times their salary). Even then, you might not find a talented replacement.
Sometimes, an employee's reason for leaving has nothing to do with the company. They may move away for family or economic reasons, change careers, or further their education.
There is not a lot you can do to influence outside events like this, but there are many factors under your control that can help retain your top talent.
The first step is to understand why employees quit, so you can work on your employee retention strategies. So let’s look at the main reasons.
1. Money
This might seem obvious, but if your top employees aren’t getting the money they feel they deserve or could get elsewhere, then it’s highly likely they’ll be looking at their options.
This is especially true when economic conditions are tough, but poor pay can be a push factor for someone to leave at any time.
It’s essential to know what your top employees expect and work with them to meet those expectations. It may not be easy - especially for smaller organisations - but discussions about remuneration should always be on the table with your stars. You may be able to offer a range of benefits aside from wages, whether that is flexible work arrangements, training opportunities or exciting projects that will help retain your best performers.
2. Don't like their manager or boss
You’ve probably heard the saying that people leave managers, not companies. It gets used so often because there’s plenty of research to back the assertion.
The boss is an integral part of any employee’s working life, providing direction and feedback, and connecting them to the wider business.
Talented people are quick to spot poor leadership and may put up with it for a time, but not forever.
If their manager isn't encouraging, is a nit-picker, takes all the credit, or tolerates poor performance, then you can be assured your top employee will start looking for a change.
3. Don't like the culture
Everyone likes to feel part of something bigger. If your people are not motivated by the company culture and mission, they won't want to be part of the team for long.
A company's culture is made up of lots of small things, and they need to work in synergy and align with your employees’ personal views.
If your key staff feel you have a culture that doesn’t appreciate people, fosters inequality or discrimination, puts profits over well-being, or has excessive hierarchy, they may well look for somewhere else to work.
Hiring people who are a good fit for the culture is vital, as is taking the time to understand employees’ points of view, what they care about and just as importantly, what they won't stand for.
A thriving culture is one that respects everyone’s views.
4. Not engaged
Research by online employment marketplace, SEEK, found that 69% of employees won't think about leaving as long as they feel engaged at work.
Your star performers want to achieve, that’s one of the reasons they are stars. They want their work to be meaningful, both personally and for the good of the company.
Keeping them engaged means working closely with them to ensure they are excited, challenged, and given every chance to contribute and perform.
Link their individual goals to business outcomes and give them a chance to shine by getting them to tackle the company’s big jobs.
If you let them get disengaged or worse, you’re not even checking (regular performance reviews and one-on-ones are a great strategy here), they will take their talent elsewhere and the employee turnover stats will start mounting!
5. Bored by the work
A sure fire way to lose good employees is to let them get bored. Boredom leads to unhappiness and resentment, which as well as affecting their own performance, can sap the entire team's morale.
Top performers need to be challenged by the work they do and be passionate about it.
Again, it’s all about knowing what motivates your best people. Do they find the work repetitive? Are there things they want to do that they aren’t?
Work together to find ways to make jobs exciting and give your employees every opportunity to be creative.
If your talented employees are inspired to do great work, they won’t want to walk away.
6. Can't use their skills and abilities
Keeping your star performers engaged and challenged means they will get to use all of their skills and abilities.
More often than not, talented employees are fully aware of their talent, so getting the opportunity to use it (and be recognised for it) gives them a sense of pride and accomplishment.
This will also make them want to stretch and develop their skills even further, which is good for the organisation as a whole and will further boost their own morale and engagement.
If you let them waste their talent, they’ll be looking for somewhere else to use it.
7. Not enough autonomy/independence
Few of us like being babied or micromanaged, and talented employees are typically confident enough to want to have a serious say about their role and responsibilities.
If they feel like they are doing the job because they are obligated to rather than choosing to, you risk losing them.
As an employer, you need to create a work environment that empowers them to make their own decisions and gives them the flexibility to manage their own workload.
You have to balance the need to manage them with their need to get on with the job. Trust their judgement.
8. No career progression
Workers no longer see employment as a static, long-term thing. They want personalised career opportunities that grow with them and give them something to aspire to.
If you give top performers a clear path for growth and development within the business, it will help keep them motivated and engaged.
During your employee’s performance reviews or 1-on-1’s, talk to them about their aspirations and work with them to create ways to achieve those goals. It could be promotions or other benefits, such as training or education.
If all you are offering your talented employees is a ceiling, then they will soon start looking for the door.
9. Their performance isn't recognised
Everyone wants to feel valued at work so recognising employee achievements should be a key component of your business culture and employee retention strategy.
Star workers are typically more productive than their co-workers and want that productivity to be recognised.
Recognition could be monetary (such as remuneration increases or performance bonuses), but it doesn’t have to be. Non-monetary acknowledgement might come in the form of regular performance feedback and performance reviews, experiential rewards, professional development opportunities, or more flexible work options.
But be sure that a lack of recognition will affect morale and effort in the long-run, and as we’ve seen, that will quickly sap your top performers’ desire to stick around.
10. Overwork
The human body is not designed to perform under conditions of prolonged stress.
While it’s inevitable that there will be times of stress in any job, you risk burning out your employees if it goes on too long or happens too often.
This is especially true of your top performers, as they are often the ones who lead or shoulder a large share of the workload.
To avoid burnout, make sure you provide a decent work-life balance and look at wellbeing initiatives that give those hard-working employees tools to manage stress and opportunities to recharge, such as mental health days.
If instead you load them up more and more, it will only lead to exhaustion, unhappiness, and ultimately, detachment. They won’t be sticking around long.
Final words on employee retention
At the end of the day, some employee churn is inevitable, and there will be times when your top performers move on.
But by facilitating a workplace culture that values respect, rewards hard work, and elevates top-performing team members, you can be confident that your best employees will stick around. Not because they have to, but because they want to.
If you’re struggling with employee retention, or want to learn more about how to foster a positive work environment, get in touch with a member of the MyHR team.
