I Love You, Man!

Being the leader of your organization seems tougher than it used to be, doesn’t it?  Not only do you have the day-to-day work of your business to get done, but you also have to plan ahead, solve the unforeseen problems that pop up, and manage, motivate, teach and guide your employees.  It’s this last group of responsibilities that is the most challenging for most business leaders.  And lately, it seems as though one of the precursors to even getting the chance to lead a team, is the challenge of finding good employees in the first place.

So all the more reason that we should be paying a lot of attention to not only how to find the right people in our businesses, but more importantly, how to retain them.  Losing people costs money.  Tons of studies have been done on this, and although various statistics are reported, it seems safe to say that turnover costs your business around 30% of each employee’s salary who leaves.  So if you are focused on cost reduction in your business, think about reducing the cost of turnover, and keeping that 30% in your pocket!

But how do I do that, you might ask.  After all, you can’t control your employee’s aspirations, or make them like their job, or prevent their spouse from getting a job out of state, right?  Well, true...  But do you know the #1 reason why people leave businesses?  It is because of lack of appreciation.  That’s it.  Simple.  How much time can it take to say “thank you” once in awhile?  How about a pat on the back for solving a problem, or getting a new customer, or high quality work?  Would it kill you to write a short hand-written note saying congratulations and thanks for a work anniversary?  I’ll bet you could do it if you thought of it as a cost reduction measure.  And guess what… it is!

It turns out that the reasons people change jobs has less to do with the outside influences in their lives, and more to do with what is happening in the workplace.  And most often it has to do with how they are led.  So that means you do have control if you are the leader of your business.  How you lead determines how loyal your team will be.  It’s up to you.

What are some of the other reasons people leave businesses?

•     No one listened to their needs.
•     A chance to learn new skills.
•     They have too little time away from work.
•     The workplace is perceived as unsafe.
•     Their work is not challenging enough.

We as leaders can control all of these factors to a large degree.  We just have to focus on our own responsibility to actually act like a leader and create the environment for our employees to gladly follow us.  Start with saying "Thank You".