It isn't low pay, though bosses wrongly believe that's the reason

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By James Foster
Times & Transcript Staff

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A recent nation-wide survey of 1,600 employees, developed by www.keepingthepeople.com and conducted by David Aplin Recruiting, reveals why good workers quit, but the striking revelation of the survey is how employees' answers to the question of why they left their jobs were vastly different than what managers and human resources professionals believe to be the reasons why workers quit.

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Employers and employees are far apart on the reasons workers leave their jobs.

For employers, the survey also reveals a serious impact on their bottom line caused by unhappy employees leaving to work elsewhere.

The answers to the survey varied so widely, there appears to be a serious disconnect between employers and employees.

With 44 per cent of managers and HR professionals indicating that voluntary turnover is a problem for their organizations, ranging from a problem for retaining their most valued employees to an out of control problem with extremely adverse impact on business objectives, it's time that organizational leaders recognize the real causes for voluntary employee turnover.

According to Leigh Branham, author of The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: "The important question that remains unasked in so many exit interviews is not "Why are you leaving?" but "Why are you not staying?"

Fifty-three per cent of employees indicated that the thought of leaving their employer caused them, at least to a small extent, to give less effort in their job.

"The survey results back the fact that employee turnover affects your bottom line," said Jeff Aplin, executive vice-president of David Aplin Recruiting.

"What's more is the cost of replacing an employee, including recruiting, orienting, and training, is estimated to be between 75 per cent and 200 per cent of the employee's annual compensation."

These costs are avoidable: 69 per cent of the respondents indicated that they voiced their concern to their manager or Human Resources/Employee Retention staff before deciding to leave their employer, while 21 per cent indicated that they would have changed their mind and stayed if their employer had agreed to try to change the situation. Another 38 per cent would have stayed if the situation successfully changed.

Fifty-one per cent of respondents revealed that they were motivated more by their dissatisfaction or desire to leave than by the attraction or availability of an outside opportunity. The same percentage of managers and HR professionals indicated that their departing employees were motivated more by the attraction of an outside opportunity than by their dissatisfaction or desire to leave.

"What managers fail to perceive is that 'push factors,' mostly within their own power, are the initial stimuli -- the first causes -- that open the door to the 'pull' of outside opportunities."

As a final point, managers should take note of the three things necessary for building trust and confidence among employees: inspire confidence in a clear vision, a workable plan and the competence to achieve it; back up words with actions; demonstrate trust and confidence in your workforce.

David Aplin Recruiting, whose regional office is located in Halifax, was a winner of Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies program for 2007 and requalified in 2008.