Things are slowly getting back to ‘normal’ – whatever that is. Thankfully, businesses are opening and restrictions are lifting (in some areas). Employers are now, unfortunately, seeing the resignation of top performers. According to the Achievers Workforce Institute’s Engagement and Retention Report, 52% of employees intend to seek new employment in 2021. Interestingly, the participants (from Canada and the USA) were employed.
Why this sudden departure?
The top reasons given for employees to stay in their current role are:
- Work-life balance
- Recognition for work
- Compensation and corporate benefits
- Great working relationship with manager
- Company culture
- Company values align with personal values
In differing order, the top three in the list are the same reasons given for leaving. HR and Management know work-life balance and compensation/benefits are important. It is interesting that recognition for work is also key for staying or leaving a company. Unfortunately, too many employers are good at the correcting side of feedback but ignore the positive.
Disengaged Workforce
Only 21% of workers remain very engaged with their current job. The majority stated it was because they felt a strong or very strong sense of belonging. The remaining workers stated engagement was hindered because of:
- Lack of career growth (22%)
- Feeling underappreciated for their contributions (20%)
- Poor relationship with their manager (15%)
- Leadership/management not listening to and/or acting on provided feedback (11%)
- Lack of trust in C-Suite/leadership
Reviewing this list, the underlying sense is that workers want to feel like they are a participant in the success of the company – not just completing tasks. This is supported by 85% stating they are motivated to work harder when they receive recognition for their efforts. Sadly, 58% of the respondents didn’t feel their manager/company even recognized their accomplishments.
Know Your Workforce
You cannot keep everyone happy. Top performers, however, often have expectations that differ from others. As a top performer, their value in the marketplace makes it easy to find another position. As such, it is important to ensure they remain satisfied so they do not start looking. But, how do employers know what it is that is important to each individual? It is obviously not a one size fits all solution.
Harvard Business Review (HBR) published an article in 2014 entitled “What High Performers Want at Work”. This is important as HBR stated a high performer can deliver 400% more productivity than the average performer. But, what is important to your top performer?
Within our Prevue Suite of reports, the Approach to Work indicates where they fit on a scale (1-10) for topics like:
- Focus on Work: Works to Live versus Lives to Work
- Compensation Preferences: Identifies whether they are more motivated to work by a secure salary or by performance-based remuneration.
- Approach to Risk Taking: Measures from 1 for the avoidance of risky behaviour to 10 for willingness to engage in risk
- Preference for Change: All workplaces change. The need to change is lower and slower in structured settings with a steady rate of fixed routines. It is higher and faster in dynamic environments with a swift pace of variable tasks. This scale shows the level of change that would support optimal performance.
Set a Benchmark
As a proud supplier of Prevue HR solutions since 1996, we have seen employers successfully replace a top performer by comparing applicants to a benchmark. If you have a top performer that is leaving, ask them to participant in a customized benchmark/job-fit creation for their position before their departure. Ultimately, you will set their results as a point of reference against which candidates are compared and assessed.
If you would like information about the Approach to Work Report or creating a benchmark to retain or find top performers, please reach out to SmartHire® today!
Check out our recent blogs:
Comments are closed.