There are a number of reasons why employees quit their jobs. When good employees leave, productivity sinks and colleagues have to deal with the increased workload until you find a replacement. The process of hiring and onboarding someone can be a difficult and expensive transition.
When the economy picks up, there are more opportunities for job seekers as companies expand their teams to manage increasing market and customer demands. These companies are willing to offer eligible candidates with better salary and benefits and career progression opportunities to draw them over. However, these are just some of the pull factors.
Do you know what are the push factors that are causing your talent to leave? How can you ensure your best employees stay put?
In our 2018 Employer Brand Research, we found that 38% of employees plan to change their employer this year, and that is 1,449 of the 3,813 people we surveyed. We studied the motivators to find out why they plan to leave their employers.
3 reasons why employees leave.
1. limited career path.
Even though ‘attractive salary and benefits’ is the number one employee value proposition (EVP) driver that Malaysia employees and job seekers look for in an ideal employer, money alone cannot make your staff stay with you.
When employees join a company, they want to know what do they need to do to get to the next stage of their career. This could mean being the top salesperson, achieving set targets or taking on a project manager role that needs limited to no supervision. When these objectives are met, employees expect a raise or promotion.
However, if their expectations are not met, and they are instead tasked with stretched goals, employees may feel that they are being lied to and feel discouraged to work hard for the company. In other cases, companies going through reorganisation and restructuring have to remap their human resource strategy, and employees who are not reassured by their managers of their future may start to seek other career opportunities in the market.
2. low compensation.
When the economy is doing well, employees will start to hear that competing companies are offering higher salaries, sometimes as much as a 40% increment and a promotion if they make the jump.
If you do not act quick enough to match your employees’ salaries with the market average, you may risk losing your best talent to your strongest competitors.
3. work-life balance.
When work piles up and more responsibilities are added to the job scope, employees may find themselves spending longer hours in the office instead of being at home with their family. This new routine causes unnecessary stress on the employee as they feel that they are not only rushing deadlines at work, they are also missing out on all the precious moments with their family and friends. If prolonged, employees may start to feel unhappy at work and yearn for more time outside of work.
Furthermore, digital devices have made it hard for Malaysia employees to switch-off from work as they feel compelled to be ‘always-on’, even during off days. When the stress builds up, your employees are pushed to find a new job elsewhere with an employer who can support their lives outside of work.
take action to retain employees.
In addition to implementing attractive HR policies, it is critical to have open conversations with your staff if you want them to stay with you for the long-run. Regular discussions with your staff give you the chance to find out about the challenges they are facing and learn about their changing aspirations. This way, you can do your best to present them with the opportunities that they are looking for at the right time. Your employees are also more likely to have a positive experience with your organisation.
This is the third year that Randstad has studied the career motivation drivers of more than 3,500 employees and job seekers in Malaysia. Connect with us for a year-on-year recruitment trend analysis and gain insights into what people are looking for, and what drives them to leave or stay with their employers.
Request the Randstad Employer Brand Research 2018 Malaysia country report for more information.