Why do employees quit?

Author: Balaji is on 'The HR Store' with his second guest post. (You can read his first guest post here). In this post, he brings his global/multi-geographical managerial experience to answer:

Why do employees quit?

Read on to know the major reasons...

There are tons of articles written and tons more on what to do if you think its time to leave your job! Owing to my experience of working with people at various leadership roles and having a fairly large and diverse set of teams over the years, here are the reasons I've uncovered as to why some one would want to leave a job. And a small quirk on what to do in those situations..... not in any particular order... the order of these points seem to be different for different folks... it is the idealogy of what is more important to you at that point in time when you took the decision!

I'm not really excited to come to the office on a Monday morning and am desperately waiting for the weekend

Try and spend some time to figure out what is the real reason for your lack of motivation. Did something your supervisor said tick you off? Or did the PYT opposite cube reject your advances? Really. That’s reason enough for someone to quit! It’s happened.
What ever be the reason, be mature about it and realize that a similar situation can arise in your new work environment as well! If you are able to tackle it now, then you will be clear in your actual intent of searching for a new job!

The company I work for is not known in the industry!
One of the companies I worked for in the initial segment of my career had an impressive clientele and interesting projects to work on. The company was not well-known; it was a startup. These kinds of companies, according to me, are the best places to begin your career! The startup companies in their intent to establish themselves might not be willing to pay well enough for talent, but are more than willing to elevate/promote someone internally at a later time. Also, start-ups let you unleash your creativity in the craziest of ways and really get away with it, in the name of experimentation and learning.

Am I making enough money?

This is a very situational and sometimes tricky situation to deal with. If you put your resume to pasture and got nabbed by some one paying an insanely huge amount (in comparison to your current paycheck) to have you on board... it sounds too good to be true... it most probably is true! But, if you have niche skills which actually got you a job that pays well, you should either negotiate with your existing company (providing you are not peeved with them totally) - remember the big fish small pond idiom? OR just take the new job and move on! Just don't burn any bridges! Do remember to keep your finances in check and have the ability to plan and project your expected earning requirement (for your planned expenses) - sounds tough, doesn't it?

Do my opinions count at work?

You would be surprised at how many people gripe that their opinion does not count, their voice is not heard and that they are just a part of a team! In this day and age of communication and openness, voicing your opinions actually mean a lot! Try and communicate during group meetings and brainstorming sessions.

Am I at the cutting edge?

This is a constant question which a lot of folks face, given the constant changing face and pace of the current job market! There are several scenarios here....are you in a position where your skills are not being used to the max? Are you working on something irrelevant, or having too much time on your hands? Then it is time to either have a talk with your supervisor or if you've already done that, evaluate your options and maybe its time to move on! If you are in a position where you constantly feel left out of the technical aspects of the work, you either need to upgrade yourself to the need of the project you are engaged in, or move to a different project/job where your current skills are in demand.

There will come a point in your career where you will need to make a decision whether you want to continue down the technical path - which will be a constant technical skill upgrades OR move into a different career path - say management. Again... management positions are not everyone's cup of tea. There is a fine balance between technical knowhow (not necessarily the technical skill required to complete a project), people management, politics and diplomacy. Work with your supervisor to use external facilities for getting trained in the required skills or you could even check you’re your internal training department.

Is there a Career path?

Defining a career path is as important for yourself as defining the route you will be taking while driving from point A to point B! If you do not define a career path for yourself, you are going with the flow, and not on your path! You may get lucky once in a while and land a plum position, but luck cannot keep you going forever, can it? When was the last time you've had a career path discussion with your supervisor and your HR? Part of your annual goals and objectives should be aligned towards your career path and assist you in attaining your personal career goals. If that is not happening, time to discuss with your supervisor.

Though this is not a major reason to leave an organization, I have faced situations where there is role-stagnation and you've done everything you need do in the role. You might feel challenged. You know every curve ball that this job is going to throw at you! There is lack of interest in you to perform the role.

We can go and find a multitude of reasons for wanting to leave a job and look for another, but the # 1 reason which a lot of HR folks state is that you don't leave an organization, but the company of people you work with! Which in a way is true.... it is the people who make up the organization. If you are unable to work with the people around you, look for the reasons, who knows, small changes may make an ocean of difference! Sometimes it may be an attitude adjustment.... in you!

Do remember... a lot us are are working in a very competitive global environment now. No longer in a plum government job, where seniority automatically begets you a promotion - unless you are actually in a government job! If you are not smart enough, an opportunity, either internal or external, may pass by you before you know it! If you have considered all options and are all set to make the career move... make it smart, keep your options open and keep the relations with people intact!

About the author:

Balaji is a seasoned manager with global experience in the IT industry, spanning multiple service & business lines. He has worked with several multinational companies and is currently working in the PMO office of a global equipment pooling organization.

Awards aren't retention tools? Or are they?

Here’s the situation:

A manager has got to choose a top performer for giving the quarterly/annual performance based award. Should be a cakewalk, no?

Since he must have mentored, trained, tracked, monitored and given feedback for each team member’s performance over the last one year. Each one of them must have contributed their bit and in cases even gone beyond their scope of work. The review exercise isn’t done just for the purpose of the awards. It’s a critical part of the annual review process. Every thing gets captured. These stats help a manager identify the top performer. Well, that’s the ideal situation.

Apparently, that’s not what happens in most cases. I’m a big fan of performance based awards. As the name itself indicates, it purely based on performance. Yet, I’ve often come across managers who want to give out performance based awards to employees who show signs that they would quit soon (offer in hand!) or have started looking for better job opportunities with a competitor. That’s something that I strongly disagree with. Awards then serve as just another retention tool. I’m averse towards managers who use it for that purpose alone.

Yes, there are folks who do suggest that awards are part of retention strategies. That’s valid if you do have well defined criteria/parameters to judge performance and reward accordingly. Everyone on the team then is aware of their standing and hence decision making is a lot more transparent.

Here’s what an award really shouldn’t be:

• Lucky draw. You have one award to give; put names in a hat and pull out a lucky one! It’s just plain ridiculous. No. I’m not kidding. It’s happened.


• Make the award a cyclic trophy. This year Employee A gets the award, next year it’s Employee B’s turn!


• Popularity contest. Truly, this one takes the cake. I’ve been part of discussions where manager’s wanted to give performance based awards to their fave team member, who also happened to be popular among other team members. Again. It’s plain ridiculous.


• Have as many award categories as possible. It makes a manager’s job easy when he can choose multiple people from the same team for different awards! Sounds crazy?

All of the situations mentioned above do exist.

Employee recognition makes a huge difference and it is a big deal. Period. However, employees will take it seriously if it’s done in a transparent manner and managers play a vital role in deciding a recipient of the award. It’s obvious that the repercussions of an incorrect choice could be drastic. It’ll end up hurting team morale, causing rifts between team members, brings down productivity and not to mention the obvious, lot of exits.

The role of HR in this process is to ensure that key parameters for awards revolve around being fair, transparent and consistent. Get managers to stick to these parameters. If not, get rid of the awards. It's better to not have them, when it causes more issues.

• Have you received an award recently? Or anytime in your career?


• You felt you deserved to win that award that your colleague won?


• What has your experience been with performance (or anything similar) awards?

Would love to hear your thoughts. It will help other folks to deal with situations better. It will also help me to share your thoughts with people who frame criteria for identifying performance awardees.

That would make life at work a whole lot better.

Employee Value Proposition

In turbulent times such as the current situation, it’s just as hard to let-go of people while trying to NOT create panic among folks the Company wants to retain!

So what can be done to communicate effectively the company’s stand in a turbulent situation? How to let employees know of where the company is going? A good ‘Realistic’ vision holds the key to success and surely the company wants its best people to be with them, while trying to achieve the targets. A down market can be turned around to work in a positive way if a good plan is laid out.

It’s time to get the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) ready for circulation! Yes, you heard it right . EVP’s were mainly designed to be used during recruitment to attract potential candidates, but the times have changed and so will strategies…

What is an EVP? – It’s a simple plan to let candidates/employees know what they’ll get in return for their performance.

What does it contain?

- EVP’s are like a fact-file of information about the company. It contains info about the company’s history, area of work, vision, investors, revenue, work culture, clients, work ethics, etc.,

- Mostly importantly, the EVP will focus on the TOP 5 Reasons to work for the company! (PS: Everyone love TOP 5/10 reasons, it makes things a lot clear)

- It highlights - ‘What-You-Get’ for ‘What-You-Give’! Simple and to the point.

How does this work in the current situation? –Stretch the plan to accommodate the re-jig in the organization due to lay-off’s…means that the individual performances will now have to double, the employees will need to stretch, but the company will respond with rewards.

Why the EVP?

- It’s always better to communicate openly and pro-actively, than let employees know of the company’s plans through non-confirmed rumors at corridor-meetings, near the water-cooler, sometimes at the stairway too!

- The EVP will ensure that the employees know what they are getting into! The ‘No-Surprises’ approach will work for the best

- The message is clear; the company is going a bad-phase & needs the support of its employees to tide over the rough patch!

- EVP’s will also ensure that the company’s vision is clear to the employees! It will act like a ‘Compass’ giving the necessary directions while at sea! Its turbulent after all and you don’t want your ship to be swayed to no-man’s-land!

- This will also lead to losing more employees (mainly to your competitor). Mostly lost will be the weaker lot - folks who believe that the situation will not affect the competitor! It’s good to let-go of them, since eventually they do more harm than good for your plans

- Highlight the reason’s why you feel the EVP will work, such as, good cash reserves, leader in the particular market-space, strength in performance, committed clients, etc.,!

Everyone is facing the heat, the better equipped ones will survive…the rest.....will be history!


Any thoughts?

- The HR Store