Do People Leave Companies or Leaders?

We can always assume that people leave a company for money and while money is important to people, quite often there is an underlying issue or other motivation for the individual’s decision.
 
Two of the major factors were career progression and culture both of which you, as a leader, are likely responsible for. The leader establishes and decides on the vision, ethos, morale, and so on and the employee will follow. When faced with a resignation, it is very easy to make an assumption that the employee just did not understand the company’s overall vision when really it may have just been the poor leadership they were focused to follow.
Rather than being faced with the inconvenience of a “shock” resignation, it is vital to implement the following steps:
 
1. Ensure you are giving regular coaching and feedback – giving your employee feedback at their annual review just does not cut it. Think of a professional football player they get feedback after every match. It is important to give them feedback on a weekly basis.
 
2. Make sure your employee knows what is expected from them – perhaps they just do not know what is expected from them or have a true understanding of their role. This reinforces the importance of your weekly feedback meetings.
 
3. Implement career progression – do you understand your employees career goals and are they aware of the opportunities open to them. One of the top reasons individuals leave today is because they found a company which highlighted the career prospects.
 
4. Your employee needs to feel appreciated and recognised – your role as a leader is to support and elevate your employee. A simple acknowledgement is often all it takes.
 
5. Ask specifically how their relationship is with their direct line manager – there are many studies which show a huge number of people left due to a bad relationship with their boss and there is a huge correlation between this and their performance. If the bad relationship was felt by a number of employees, that manager might well have been a bad hire. Otherwise it could be a mismatch in personality so it might be a good option to move the individual to another team.
 
6. Promote a work-life balance. Company loyalty is not as prevalent as it once was and individuals, particularly the millennials, expect a more flexible culture which cultivates trust and respect.

About the author
Laura joined Bank of Ireland and over a period of eight years, held a number of roles across the group. Progressing quickly having returned to the Bank after a career break in which she got her first taste of recruitment, Laura was given responsibility for the start-up and management of the Bank’s new digitally focused branch in Grand Canal Dock.
 
Laura left the group to complete a Masters in Digital Marketing in DCU and is a co-founder of Top Tier Recruitment with responsibility for recruitment across Technology as well as other functions. Top Tier Recruitment is a specialist consultancy recruiting for Finance and Technology candidates within the Financial Services and Fintech industries. Contact [email protected] for more information.