7 Ways You Might Be Driving Away Your Resources

This is an excerpt from Kantata’s new ebook, “The Guide to Retaining and Growing Your Professional Services Workforce.” Click here to read the full ebook.

While most employees do leave a company eventually as their careers evolve, many businesses actually unintentionally drive their employees away. Here are some of the major causes of turnover in an organization, many of which can be avoided if noticed:

1. Lack of Job Satisfaction – Simply put, if a team member is not satisfied with their position at a company and doesn’t have a general feeling that they are doing something worthwhile, they will look elsewhere.
2. Career Development – More people than ever are changing jobs to advance in their career instead of waiting for a promotion at their current company. If there is no clear path upward in a company structure, an employee will look elsewhere for it.
3. Manager Behavior – We all know the hallmark traits of a “bad boss,” but managers don’t need to be destructive in their behavior to drive away team members. Simple lack of communication, poor guidance, and departmental disorganization can cause frustration that impacts satisfaction, leading to turnover.
4. Work-Life Balance – A major trend highlighted in The Great Resignation is that many employees are not satisfied with the balance between work and their personal lives. The search for a new work-life balance that provides flexibility away from job duties is an increasingly common cause behind turnover.
5. Job Characteristics – Characteristics of a job, including schedules, coworkers, responsibilities, day-to-day expectations, and more are critical in keeping an employee at a company. If these are mismatched with a resource’s expectations, either at the start or as a team member grows in their job, the friction they cause will lead to them leaving.
6. Compensation and Benefits – Sometimes it all comes down to how a team member is being paid for their work. Salary discrepancies and benefits such as time off, insurance, and job amenities can draw employees to other companies that put these benefits at the forefront of their job postings.
7. Relocation – The COVID-19 pandemic caused massive relocations as employees moved away from major cities. And while this causes turnover, the rise of remote work means this doesn’t have to be the reason for losing a critical resource anymore.

While no business can completely eliminate these causes as every employee will have their own personal preferences and needs, it’s crucial that today’s professional services businesses identify which of these are a real issue at their company in order to improve overall job satisfaction.

How to Keep Your Best Employees For the Long Term

Learn more about other trends and traps that might be negatively impacting your workforce, as well as the best strategies to use to retain your most valuable employees in our new eBook “The Guide to Retaining and Growing Your Professional Services Workforce.”