Top Reasons Your Best Talent Is Leaving You

You've worked hard to claw your business into its current position and undoubtedly, your workforce has helped your business get to where it is. You and your employees have reached a point where you are all cogs in a machine, working in synergy with each other. But what would happen if one of your star players were to leave? This scary situation for employers is unfortunately a reality as more workers are quitting their jobs today than at any point since 2010.

While there are definitely forces that are out of your control to stop your best people leaving, if you create an environment (and build relationships) that makes them feel challenged, engaged, valued, and rewarded you can raise the chances of retaining your top talent.

Here are the top reasons as to why your top talent are leaving:

1. Dissatisfaction with job or responsibilities

Great workers want to be learning and growing on the job. There is always room for growth and skill development, even if they are a seasoned pro. Increasing an individual's autonomy in their role can be a great way of giving them more responsibility while still getting all the work done.  

2.  Being unchallenged and dis-engaged them

Smart workers don’t want to feel like they are working in a repetitive role full of boredom. They need to have their minds engaged and their creativity challenged. An example of how you may engage someone in the workplace might be to allow them to shadow someone else from another part of the business for a day. 

3. Lack of a sense of belonging 

On a human level, everybody wants to feel liked and cared about, or at the very least like they belong somewhere. As an employee, they want to feel like you care not only about their career but also on a personal level. An aspect of Transformational Leadership is treating employees like individuals and not just another member of the team. The old saying of "leave your emotions at the door" is no longer valid. Employees who have fun with their colleagues and look forward to being at work are more likely to stay in the long term. Letting them feel like you care about them gives them the confidence to have a voice which may lead to innovations within your business and increased productivity!

4. A misalignment between personal leadership styles and the leadership style that is required to lead effectively.

It's hard to find a balance between micro managing and being a ghost in the workplace. Your best talent want to be given enough rope to accomplish their duties and tasks themselves. Similarly, being an absent or avoidant leader by only checking in with your staff once every few months will drive them away. It is essential to find the right balance between the two ends of the spectrum and a good way to assess how you are going is to simply ask your employees "Are we meeting enough for you to be as effective as you can be?".

As the saying goes: “Employees don’t quit working for companies, they quit working for their bosses”. It is clear that these small changes that you can immediately implement will pay off and prevent your top talent from needing to look for another job. 



To find out who your top talent is, our partners, Psych Press are talent assessment and development Psychologists. Psych Press have a large selection of in-house and customisable assessment tools that link personality to performance prediction for a variety of companies. One such tool, Business Personality Reflections (BPR) has been used for a multitude of roles to ascertain a strong fit for recruiting decisions. Based on a wide field of research and multiple industry norms, this assessment provides a full report for your informed decision. To find out more visit the Psych Press Business Personality Reflections page or contact them on (03) 9670 0590. 

5 Essentials Qualities All Great Leaders Have

You have likely all been in this position... You have a leader who is great at doing some things and less than great at others. This raises the question, what does a great leader look like? Here are 5 essential attributes all “great” workplace leaders possess. Better understanding what these qualities look like will likely not only help you appreciate your leadership but hopefully incorporating them into your work may mean  that next time a leadership position becomes available within your organisation, a tap on the shoulder may not be a long-shot.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence consists of the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, as well as those of the people around you. This is essential to gain insight into how the people around you feel, think, and interpret their responses to actions or decisions. This allows leaders to effectively pre-empt and intervene in any conflict between people and help them maintain a happy and task-oriented workplace.

Wealth of Knowledge

It is important for a leader to be aware of the people around them as well as the market, competitors and any relevant information that may become available in the future. Understanding why mistakes have happened in the past within the company and competitors is essential to prevent them being repeated in future, when a leader is aware of this they can quickly act when a situation is becoming similar to a prior error. Knowledge of competitors allows a leader to be more effective in identifying holes that have been left out and creatively add to the business for a more distinguished product or service.

Confidence

Having confidence is essential for any leader, without confidence a person may seem flawed and that makes them hard to follow. Those who are being led are inspired to work much harder and efficiently if their leader is confident that their task will be effective.

Integrity

Integrity is one the highest valued traits that staff desire from their leaders. Being consistently honest and forthright shows staff that they know exactly where you stand as a leader, will respect any boundaries you set in place and will be more likely to reciprocate the same way. As a leader becomes more powerful, having integrity shows that you’re not working out of self-interest and the world revolves around more than just yourself.

Optimism

Optimists help to keep everyone future orientated, in a leadership position they manage with hard work and dedication towards a common goal. Followers become much more inspired to work to a common goal if their leader sees a bright light at the end of the tunnel. They have an unconditional positive regard for any obstacle that may arise, being able to take the best from the worst situations. For most businesses something will inevitably go wrong, an optimistic leader will bounce back faster and with a better attitude to deal with future complications.

With these traits a leader can be effective in targeting the market and rallying their followers to achieve the best possible outcomes in any business.