Today most of the organizations are struggling with high
Attrition rates and as expected it is HR’s job to control Attrition.
Interesting! If you are an HR professional, you must be smiling J and if you are from Business side,
you must have just reiterated that “oh God…these HRs….What do they do? Wonderful, hold your horses gentlemen and
ladies.
Everybody in their career wanted to resign at some point or
the other. People say it is majorly due to Compensation. I have been interacting
with many people over the last couple of months and would like to share that
the trigger point to resign is not always Compensation but something else. Let
us explore some of the trigger points.
Trigger 1- Autocratic
Leadership is a big de-motivator. It’s a very old saying that people leave
their managers. Unfortunately it holds lot of relevance even today. When you
are not given enough space to take your own decisions and share your viewpoint,
it demotivates people especially your HIPOs.
Trigger 2- Lack of transparency and Inappropriate communication can actually create lot of ambiguity
and dissonance in an individual. Whenever we are making any changes, it is very
important to communicate the change in the right manner. If you are not
practicing Change Management, now is the time. Else we are prone to spreading
too much grapevine and increases people’s anxiety.
Trigger 3- No connect and bonding within teams- Our office is almost like our homes wherein we spend
maximum hours. So if we do not have good connect with our colleagues, or we
don’t see people respecting each other, we get demotivated. Bonding gets
developed over a time or sometimes it is even like love at the first sight J (on a lighted note). But once it is
developed, the outcomes are immense. There is positive environment, there is
trust and you are always ready to go beyond the call of duty. Such culture
encourages people to work as a team and leads to high performing team.
Trigger 4- Poor Listening Skills of the Managers-We all know you love to speak but hold on Sir, please
hear us out. Many a times we make the mistake of overdoing things. The
obsession to talk about only self is alarming. So, watch out. Listen more. The
one who listens learns more than one who speaks.
Trigger 5- Not respecting others viewpoint- Every individual is unique! We work in a set up where
different generations interact with each other and we do have a clash of
personality and opinions every now and then. That is fair as each one of us will
bring in our unique thought process on the table. But as professionals, are we
mature enough to keep our egos aside and appreciate each other perspective?
When an individual feel that he/she is not respected by others in the team, it
diminishes his/her self-esteem which in turn make the person disengaged and may
compel the person to look out.
Trigger 6- Not understanding people’s aspirations- How many of us proactively spend time in
understanding people and their aspirations. Very few. I would say it’s a rarest
trait. How would you connect, shape up the career of your team members when you
don’t even know them? When someone tries to share their aspirations, how many
of us try to make a conscious call in terms of guiding that person to reach
their career goal? This is sensitive and a food for thought for all of us.
Trigger 7- Being
perceived as a biased person- Everybody has their favorites but that should
not stop us from being open towards others. After all, it’s your team.
Trigger 8 – Feeling of boredom- Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a single day in
your life. It is so important to enjoy what you do. If we do not like what we
are doing, or if we find our work boring, then it may also be a reason to quit.
We spend so much time in office therefore it is also important to keep yourself
engaged.
Trigger 9- Micromanagement- This is the last thing your best people wants from you. They want to be
led not managed. As a manager, as a leader, we should be able to bring out the
best in our team members. When you tend to micro manage, you are being a
roadblock in getting their creativity on the table. People feel suffocated in
such environment and always tend to look out for opportunities where they would
be given more autonomy.
Trigger 10- Never
around Boss- This is the very interesting type of boss who’s perpetually
never in the office. They’re not
around. They don’t check in. This person
is more like a celebrity who is rarely seen and would have hardly any time left
for you. You can just wave your hand and say “Hello” to him/her J. People who work with such bosses
find it really difficult when they are put under ambiguous situations. There is
no one who can address their concerns and give clarity. This further make the
people detached.
Trigger 11- The
“I” Syndrome- There are many managers who are their own favorites and all
that they would talk is I did this…I did that and go on and on. Such managers
basically unknowingly convey that they care about themselves more than the
team. Now this really pisses off people when they see this continuously
happening in the team meetings where team members are looking forward to
directions and clarity but all they have to experience is the Boss who is
suffering from an “I” syndrome.
Trigger 12- Stereotypes-
Now this is a very unique way to demean others. I lately heard from one of the
employees where the manager uses to make perception on someone’s dressing sense
and passes loose comments. Because he would strongly believe that girls look
good only in Indian attire and considers western wear as a fashion statement.
As per him, females who wear such clothes should quit. Wow Mr. Manager. Big
Round of applause for you!
Trigger 13-Lack
of Appreciation- A small pat on the back does wonders and who doesn’t want
to be appreciated for their efforts and good work however many a times we miss
on this. We take people for granted and forget to acknowledge them. There is a
catch here. Appreciating people is not enough. Timely appreciation is
important. If people see this missing, they tend to get disengaged and look out
for a change.
Trigger 14- The Big Picture- Let’s park it for now! There are instances where
leaders are unable to align individual goals/responsibilities with the org
vision. But the concern is even bigger here. Managers/Leaders are not able to
show the real picture to their people. This could lead to lot of ambiguity and
a person at a lowest level may feel just lost. So people want to get out of
this confusion and want to be at peace.
Can this also trigger the person to resign? I leave this food
for thought for you. Signing off for now.
Smiles
Ritu
Note-This blog is not to offend anyone in person and
is written purely basis my own experience and insights shared by people around
Very well written Ritu !
ReplyDeleteThanks Vishal
DeleteExtremely true. Good one. Keep Writing
ReplyDeleteThanks! Would like to know the name of the person who wrote this comment.
DeleteVery well said and some of the points mentioned like The "I" syndrome, Micromanagement,Lack of Transparency etc. are too good for any industry, any sphere however I still feel that as owners of the culture, sentinals of recruitment for success, Talent Management encompassing Employee Engagement and also EVP we have a far larger roles to play in collaboration with business and other stakeholders. In today's world HR is far well equipped and far more trusted in leading these initiatives. We might now have control on the "Pull" factors but we can definitely play a pivotal role in controlling the "Push" factors. Attrition greases the wheel of Talent Management but to what extent is what HR must have as a strategic planning towards.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your insights Aishwarya. Yes, I agree with you that we as HR professionals have much more larger and strategic role to play. Lot of actions would emerge from all the triggers points that I have mentioned in the blog. "EVP" is crucial and good to have from broad strategy perspective however it is important to drill it down to granular level as many a times we get lost in the HR jargons and miss out on small incidences that impacts our people everyday. We need to make things simpler and easier for people. Stay Connected and keep sharing your thoughts :)
DeleteVery well articulated Ritu... These to my mind are the real reasons why people quit... And I like the word trigger used by you, that is exactly how I like to describe this... of all the exit interviews I have taken so far, there is a reason people quote and then there is a trigger which is the real reason why people quit. I strongly believe it is important for us as an organization to understand the trigger and have mitigation plans around it.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely Vidhu.Thanks for taking out time to read this and comment.
DeleteHigh time people management becomes a course in b schools. Comprehensive note : keep writing ! Keep sharing :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Subroto. That's a great idea! In fact aspiring HR professionals needs to pay little more attention to organizational behavior and it's applications at workplace.
DeleteGood read!! To know the actual reasons is very important while working out on a problem!
ReplyDeleteGreat insights :)
Thanks Arshita�� I hope I am not giving you any of these triggers ��
DeleteThis is one useful article.
ReplyDeletePoints well made.. ��
Thank u Radhika 😊
DeleteThank u Radhika 😊
Delete