Why Employees Leave Jobs

Of course there are many reasons that people decide to leave their jobs. However, according to an article by Brigette Hyacinth published late last year, “A Gallup poll of more than 1 million employed U.S. workers concluded that the No. 1 reason people quit their jobs is a bad boss or immediate supervisor. 75% of workers who voluntarily left their jobs did so because of their bosses not the position itself.”

This interesting information, which should give us pause. As a manager how do you treat your employees, or as an employee, how do you feel you are being treated by your manager, and just as importantly how do you treat your manager.

Many times people are promoted from within. Someone who, for example, has been on the sales floor and been successful may be promoted to sales manager. However, while s/he may want the promotion, it may not be the best thing for the company or for other employees.

When someone is promoted to management (even at that first rung of management) they need the know-how of how to do their new job properly. Being a great sales person does not necessarily mean you are automatically a great sales manager. Training should be readily available for the employees being promoted. This is also true further up the line. An owner who started a small business because s/he was passionate about the product may have put all his/her time into production and be a terrible manager. Not because s/he is a terrible person, but because managing is not within their skill set.

To be a great manager you need to know what your employees want and need to be successful. Feeling a part of the bigger picture is one thing that makes employees feel as if they are contributing to the success of the business. If the employees and managers feel successful then the business will be successful.

I leave you with a quote from Richard Branson (who has been amazingly successful).

“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” – Richard Branson