Why do people leave their companies

It’s a little ironic when you inform your company that you’re about to leave and management or HR staff tells you something like “You’re leaving ? I’m shocked, i wasn’t expecting that ?”. 

They may not think so but, most of times it’s obvious!

Those statements just express how much lack of attention they are paying to their resources or that there’s a big lack of communication.

There are lots of reasons for leaving a company, but the most important one’s are not financial(although money is important), are human skills related. If you work alone or as a team, eventually people will leave the company if these elements are missing on a daily bases.

Honesty

This is the foundation of trust. It’s better to hear a hard truth then to stall with lies or uncertainty. People want to know what they can count on.

It’s also a sign of courage and strength in leadership.

Empathy

If your team or employee is having issues, help them and support them. This is also crucial for trust. If people feel they are alone in the line of fire, they have to fight for their survival. Sometimes they fight, sometimes they flight. When they run out of stamina there’s only one chance for survival, and that’s when they leave.

Trust

If you can’t trust your team then they can’t trust you. Is as simple as that. A very simple way to trust is by delegating work and sharing knowledge.

Engagement

Making the workplace an inclusive environment also allows everyone to share their opinion and make the best out of their work. If people have a chance to improve things and leave their mark they’ll do it, and will do better because they become engaged. Now everyone has a reason to care about work and not only about the paycheck, because they can make a difference.

This is what makes people go the extra mile.

 Communication

Talk. About the project, about the weather, about cats, about the last episode of your favorite TV show, but talk.

If communication is not a habit, every time people need to communicate it will be harder because it’s an exception and not a norm.

Good communication also helps people get engaged.

Fun

It’s makes the job a lot easier and eases the burden on everyone.

Having a fun and relaxed work environment improves communication and engagement.

Although these look like basic things, things like these tend to fail a lot even on big companies!

It’s not because people are bad in management or have a terrible personality, but sometimes their focus or priorities are on the work itself and not on people.

They are inside a box.

To keep people around, leave the box, lower the priority on work, at least for a few moments and focus on people. Look around, look at people’s faces and check if they are happy or if they’re struggling. Unless everyone’s playing poker, just by looking at people you can see how they are doing. Talk to them, ask how things are working out for them. And sometimes invite people for tacos or pizza, have fun moments and relax.

People are the most important asset on any company, don’t forget to take care of them.