Are Bad Bosses Driving Your Best Talent Away?

 By Melissa Front 

This is always the question (and sometime the excuse. It’s probably safe to say that most people have heard the phrase “People don’t leave jobs. They leave managers.” But is this true? A lousy manager can definitely contribute to an employee’s decision to leave a company but is it the primary reason employees leave? The short answer is not always. 

There are many reasons employees decide to resign from their positions. Life happens and priorities and circumstances change. And yes, an employee may leave for a higher salary and/or for career growth. Everyone understands this. While companies won’t be able to satisfy everyone, leadership should ensure that their management team is doing everything it can to help support their employees and their growth.  

Managers obviously have an impact on employee satisfaction and, ultimately, retention. Ineffective managers will negatively affect morale and prompt their employees to explore other opportunities. According to Gallup, 42% of employees who voluntarily left their organization in the past year report that their manager or organization could have done something to prevent them from leaving their job. Employees cite several reasons they may blame their manager for their departure, including failure to set clear expectations, lack of support for career growth, lack of concise communication, failure to recognize achievements and offer constructive feedback, and micromanagement. While not all of these can be eliminated, they can always be improved. Through formal training, managers can gain and develop solid communication skills, strong management and leadership skills, and learn how to effectively support their employees and their career goals.  

Here are 5 ways managers can positively impact their employees and increase retention: 

1. Discuss Career Paths 

Share career paths within your organization. Seek to understand your employee’s goals and aspirations and develop a plan together for how they’ll achieve their goals with your organization. 

2. Ask for Their Feedback 

Ask your employees how they’re feeling about their role and if they’re fulfilled. Why guess? Strong leaders want to know what their employees are thinking and where there are opportunities for the company to improve. By asking your employees for their feedback, you’ll demonstrate that you care about them as well as their success in the role. While you might not be able to improve everything, your efforts to use the feedback to drive improvements will be appreciated.  

3. Share Your Feedback 

Take it one step further and share your thoughts and feedback on how your employee can succeed in their current role. Tell them what it takes to master their role and prepare themselves for a promotion.  

4. Learn What Motivates Them 

Find out what’s important to your employees about their job and what motivates them to stay. Are they driven by challenging work, comprehensive benefits, career advancement opportunities or something else? You won’t know unless you ask. 

5. Ask What Obstacles Exist 

Since part of a manager’s responsibility is to remove obstacles and inefficiencies, ask your employees about what hurdles and barriers they encounter in their role. Are expectations clear and are the existing processes working? Could they be improved? Are there other frustrations that exist? Employees will feel engaged and heard, both of which will help their sense of value to the organization. 

Effective leaders take the time to have regular conversations with their employees and ask these important questions. These ongoing discussions uncover the things that are most important to employees.  Strong managers ask the harder questions and don’t let little gaps accumulate to a point where an employee is seeking a new role. Demonstrate how to be a strong manager and an effective leader so your employees will want to stay and, if they can’t, then you’ll have given them the best training and tools necessary for their career growth. And eliminated their ability to blame a bad manager for their departure!   Ready to hire some great managers and team members? At TalentRemedy, we help companies like yours find and retain top talent faster and smarter. Our expertise, combined with cutting-edge tools, makes hiring more efficient, especially when it comes to in-demand talent. If you're looking for a tailored hiring approach that delivers real results, let’s talk! Reach out to us at info@talentremedy.com or 703-362-0175 to explore how we can streamline your recruiting process and help you find the right fit (without the guesswork).