Bad Managers Are the No. 1 Reason People Leave Their Jobs

If you asked the typical employer why most people decide to leave their jobs, many are still under the impression that it has to do with finding better financial gratification elsewhere. However, a recent study by Gallup revealed this to be true only 12% of the time. Yes, only 12% of employees leave because they have found better money at a different company.

Perhaps, employers feel less bruise to their ego when they feel that most of their employees leave their organizations due to money as the sole factor. In this case, less welcoming to them may be the results of a similar study, also by Gallup, which showed that three-quarters of employees leave jobs because they couldn’t stand their bosses. Now, the truth can really be painful since there aren’t a whole lot of other substantial reasons as to why anyone would want to leave their company. The dominant reason has to do with one and only one thing – their bosses!

Why do employers miss this crucial point when the results of doing so are staggering? In fact, lost productivity results in over $360 billions of dollars in losses each year, according to another poll done by Gallup. Ignorance alone is not enough to explain the demise of this situation. Most employers, managers and bosses are simply not equipped with the tools it takes to keep employees engaged on the job and face many common obstacles, a few of which are mentioned below.

Obstacles Facing The Employer-Employee Relationship

Perhaps one of the top obstacles facing most organizations is a lack of communication, which quickly leads to disengagement. Employees not only want to become recognized for their work but also want to receive feedback on a regular schedule, as it is precisely this consistent feedback that brings out the ultimate potential of employees.

Furthermore, employees should feel a sense of confidence that their management is doing the right job to fulfill the needs of its employees. The best organizations have excellent mentoring programs in place that help form powerful bonds between the workforce and its corresponding leaders. There should also be a great deal of support and guidance along the way to ensure creative and productive employees who are driven to take risks and add to the innovative driving force that rules the top businesses from every sector today.

Another common obstacle occurs when employees seem to lack a sense of direction and purpose. Employees want to feel like they are working toward the greater good of the company, as this is the best way for them to feel engaged. Having a platform in place that spreads pertinent information about the company vision is a powerful way to keep everyone at the same wavelength. There are now a plethora of ways to make this process easier including the use of video and other electronic means.

Finally, there has to be a sense of empathy to ensure that leaders always take the appropriate time to listen to the needs of their employees. It is important that everyone is treated like a human being, as employers listen to all of the concerns that an employee may have. This can lead to constructive ideas to fix inherent problems in the organization, while showing the workforce that the upper management division truly cares about their needs. Special programs can be set in place to ensure real-time communication of important goal-setting events as well as developmental programs to bring out the employee’s best performance.

Tips To Avoid Becoming the Stereotypical Bad Manager

Perhaps everything comes down to developing a sense of trust between all of the team members of an organization. For example, managers who don’t develop a good level of trust of their team often end up doing much of the work themselves unnecessarily instead of leveraging their time and effort with the rest of the team. This only worsens the problem, and leads to further issues with bad communication, disengagement and lost productivity in time.

It’s now more important than ever to find the time to uncover why your employees are feeling disengaged from their work. If you are already losing employees, be sure to put the right surveys in place to find out why people are becoming disengaged and see if you can pick their brains for suggestions to avoid it from happening in the future. It is also important to recognize the efforts of everyone currently found on your workforce and to give them consistent feedback about everything they’re doing, whether it meets your expectations or not.

In such a fast-moving business world, there is simply no time for disrespectful communication or ungratefulness. Some bosses feel that it’s OK to treat people below them disrespectfully as a way of making themselves feel more adequate, but nothing can be further from the truth. This only brings negativity into the equation and reduces productivity in the end. Also, employees should never be treated like a mere commodity, where little value is placed on one’s work. Simply giving your employees a few word of thanks for their service from time to time can truly go a long way!

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