8 reasons why employees resign their job and role of leadership

For any company employees are the greatest assets. It goes by the saying Employees don't leave the company but leave their managers or leaders . In this post , the author shares some of the 8 top reasons why employees resign where leadership and management plays an important role.

1. Change Management decisions

One of the most important factors especially when there is a change in high level management. Company leaders and managers should be very careful during the transition phase as there will be lot of ambiguity on the job security , support for their interests and ideas from the new management . There are examples of few companies who lost more than 50% of their staff and even on the verge of getting closed for sensitive decisions . New management have to spend time understanding the team dynamics for a brief period before attempting any drastic changes in the processes . Exhibiting trust in the existing team is most critical.

2. Better offers

Industry pay-scale standards keep changing periodically. In the current competitive market , companies stay on the hunt with competition offering attractive offers. Be it through friends working in other companies or scanning on the job portals , employees tend to find their value . During appraisals company leaders have to consider this aspect. If employees get a feel they are underpaid , they may start looking for alternatives.

3. Repetitive activities

Employees who are proactive and intuitive look towards learning and involved in activities which are unique in nature. They tend to get bored easily if working on the same domain or topic for long time which has same job nature. Such employees share such subtle feedback which their managers have to understand faster and involve them in new activities. If they fail to notice such feedback , after 2 to 3 such instances employees get triggered for alternatives.

4. Cascading effect

This comes out of sheer insecure fear factor. Employees get to feel insecure about their future when one of their immediate or top manager / leaders of the team resign from the company. They have a ambiguous mindset whether they will be adopt to the new changes and requirements of the new management. This is quite catastrophic in small size companies where many members under a leader start searching for alternatives and may affect the business. In few cases it may also be a group of close employees with emotional attachment. Leaders can tackle such situations through faster transparent communication inducing confidence in the group

5. Shift in Career

Some employees may have decided to shift to a different industry , learn a new skill for which there is very less or no opportunity in the current company , shift from a private job to government job with a view of stability. Usually there is very less chance to retain such employees on resignation. Leaders through regular one to one casual interactions may try to understand such plans of employees and plan their team activities and backup accordingly.

6. Low growth opportunities

Growth is subject to factors such as Position , Nature of work , Pay-scale from one employee to other.  One employee may have a mindset on exposure to new skill as growth , while other may see rising pay-scale and position with more experience as growth. Many employees tend to get more confused with this aspect . Some find their friends switching from one company to other with a higher pay-rise and start thinking and stressing of less possible growth in their current company even when they love the current job. In few cases especially in small size companies , employees who are hard working may find it stressful when promoting to a new designation takes longer even while they are already capable such positions early. Some expect transparency in the growth roadmap of the company be communicated to them to gain confidence on future new technologies they get opportunities they work on.

7. Toxic work culture , Need for Open culture

Company culture is crucial factor for new employees.  Aspects such as interactions freedom for ideas and knowledge sharing , freedom to experiment , cross function interaction flexibility , communication transparency , are some of aspects viewed by employees as factors for their faster growth. Leaders and managers should promote such practices enabling more engagement. Absence of these factors may lead to employees think their ideas get restricted. Managers have to ensure a good achievement in appreciated in general and any improvement feedback should be discussed one to one separately.

8. Irregular work load

Workload should be even across all members in the team. Uneven workload creates an imbalance and adds to employee stress. Unplanned random work allocation , staff under-sizing resulting in more workload are some reasons which lead to top performing employees look for alternatives. Managers have to carefully monitor the workload and support efficient employees.

Do you agree with these reasons . Do share your comments.