We’ve all heard the saying, “people leave managers, not companies.”  Managers have the most direct influence on the employees they supervise, and creating effective retention strategies to decrease turnover should be one of their most important jobs.  With the tight labor market and the unemployment rate hitting a record 50 year low, many employers have indicated that finding and retaining good talent is their greatest obstacle for growth. 

According to a recent article published in the Harvard Business Review (HBR), there are a number of things that mangers do that cause employees to quit:

• Setting inconsistent goals or conflicting expectations – a very common issue for employees is when they are forced to choose between tasks in order to meet competing expectations.  This problem often arises when there is simply not enough time to meet the demands of multiple tasks and additional resources are not available.  Which do you do first if they are all deemed important and expectations are not clear in terms of which task is priority?  If this happens often enough, it causes high levels of stress and causes employees to hate their jobs.  Managers should review tasks and order them in terms of highest to lowest priority.  That way no one is confused about which should be done in what order.  Managers should also consider writing down performance expectations and their required tasks down to determine if any of them contradict or overlap. 

• Having too many process constraints – process constraints occur when an employee can’t do their job due to lack of information, lack of resources, or some other factor.  Managers who evaluate employees without taking process constraints into account or helping to overcome those obstacles create an environment of low morale, frustration, and leaves the employee feeling powerless.  Managers should consider context when evaluating performance and consider how much control the employee has over their outcome.  Managers should work with employees to remove constraint barriers whenever possible.

• Wasting resources – employees that don’t have the resources they need to succeed are set up for failure.  Projects that are rolled out with not enough time to implement or expecting a project to be delivered when the employee sits in meetings for 90% of their day is a recipe for burnout.  Employees who routinely don’t have enough time to deliver on tasks burn out faster.  Supervisors need to prioritize tasks in order to determine what is priority and if there is a reasonable amount of time in which to complete them.

• Putting people in the wrong roles – employees who are in positions whereby they aren’t using their knowledge or skills will most certainly become unhappy over time and feel undervalued.  The HBR article refers to this as “knowledge and skills waste.”  When interviewing, recruiters and mangers need to be up front regarding job responsibilities and expectations in order to make sure new hires are appropriate for the role.  Managers should develop a plan to develop employees and assign more meaningful responsibilities and eliminate tasks that are the least valuable.

• Assigning boring, or overly easy, tasks – boredom can have an impact on energy levels and can create physical and emotional exhaustion even if workload is light.  Employees who do not have enough work can experience negative emotions and lose motivation.  Managers should find out what interests their employees and look for ways to allow them to take on more challenging tasks during downtime and help grow them in the right direction.

• Failing to create a psychologically safe culture – toxic work environments are a sure-fire way to accelerate turnover.  Meetings where employees are overly agreeable or quiet is a common sign of hostile environment and a fear culture.  Studies have shown that employees who do not feel psychologically safe are more prone to errors, less likely to take risks, participate in healthy conflict, or grow in their roles.  On the flip side, team members that feel psychologically safe are productive, innovative, and enjoy a sense of belonging.  Managers should create an environment that encourages and rewards employees for sharing ideas and speaking up.  The more their employees’ ideas are incorporated into projects and strategies, the more empowered, valued, and safe they will feel.

• Creating a work environment that is too safe – having a work environment that causes a lot of burn-out is certainly not good, but studies have shown that a moderate level of pressure and friction at work is healthy for employee growth.  Employees who have no pressure at all tend to perform below their potential, are less productive, and are often less loyal then purpose-driven organizations.  Managers should provide team members with regular feedback and let them know how their role and efforts contribute to the overall organization.

• Leading with bias – leaders who demonstrate they are fair, develop trust from their employees which translates into improved performance and good workplace culture.  Managers whose behaviors are viewed as biased lose trust with employees and create an environment with low morale.  When managers are able to recognize their implicit biases and make corresponding adjustments, they are viewed to lead in a fair manner.

No manager can be expected to create the perfect working environment for everyone, but being aware of some of these pitfalls will help to improve their retention efforts.

Source: Harvard Business Review 9/10/2019