You’ve probably heard that people don’t leave jobs, they leave managers. A recent Gallup study found that about half of all U.S. employees have left a job to get away from their boss. High employee turnover is costly. A study by the Society for Human Resource Management found that employers will need to spend the equivalent of six to nine months of an employee’s salary to find and train their replacement. If nearly half of all U.S. employees are leaving jobs to get away from their bosses, why are the other half leaving?

Poor Communication

Forget the “my door is always open” approach. For most employees, a fear of embarrassment or reprisal prevents them from really expressing themselves. Employee communication that doesn’t inspire dialogue leads to greater employee turnover.

No Opportunities for Growth

When top performers hit the ceiling, they’ll start exploring their options. No one wants to stay in a dead-end job, and when an employee starts feeling trapped, they start looking for a new opportunity. An employee quickly senses when their professional growth isn’t supported by management. What is often seen as additional costs by management should be viewed as an investment. For example, the cost of a college course or industry conference will still come in under the budget of replacing an employee.

Other Contributors

Other contributing factors to high employee turnover are a lack of purpose in their work and no camaraderie in the workplace. When employees spend most of their time at work, they want their work to have meaning and to enjoy the people they do the work with.

Preventive Steps

Being mindful of the contributing turnover factors can help you address retention issues before they come to fruition. Evaluate gaps in your retention efforts and identify the factors that are causing the most turnover. With a clear understanding of why employees are leaving, you can take proactive measures to keep your top performers on board.

About NextGen

NextGen is the brainchild of longtime telecom professionals with nearly 50 years of experience and millions of dollars in Telecom Recruiting Services. We focus on establishing long term relationships with our clients and candidates so we can recruit the best and the brightest in the telecom industry. This ‘quality over quantity’ approach is at the heart of everything we do and has resulted in successful job placements at Fortune 1000 firms worldwide.