My employees keep quitting .....help?

Question

We are a company that does international sales. Our offices are the most impressive in downtown. We are generous with our employees in terms of bonuses and commissions, we are only open on week days, we have pool rooms, exercize rooms name it. Our team is getting smaller and smaller, we have difficulty recruiting qualified people...what am I overlooking? What's missing that I don't see and would attract people here? Any suggestions? thanks

Answer 1

Have you asked your employees, either the ones who have left or the ones still there?

Being listened to and considered "part of things" shows up on surveys of employees as even more important than pay.

Good luck.

Answer 2

You didn't give enough information to be able to form an adequate opinion of what is going on. I know from my own personal experience, that while great perks are good in any company I've worked for, if my bosses micromanage everything I do, if I feel belittled, mistreated or if the rules are so strict and I don't feel I can make an honest mistake without getting in trouble, then I am not going to want to stay there. Are you a family-friendly workplace? If someone's child is sick, do you frown on the person taking off work to care for that child or do you tell your employees that they can't attend a school function for their child and make up the work another time? Do you adhere to a strict timeclock where if an employee is 1 minute late, they are stressing over getting into trouble? I mean, employees should be on time, but sometimes the inevitable traffic jam or other unplanned thing comes up and an employee shouldn't be in so much stress over being a few minutes late on occasion (unless it's a habit pattern).

Do employees feel that there is fairness in how they are treated or how advancement within the company is done? Do they feel there is favoritism or politics or do they have bosses who stand over their shoulder so to speak and demand an accounting of every minute of their day or tell them how to do every detail of their job instead of letting their employees figure out what works best for them to accomplish their job duties? These are questions you should ask yourself. There is obviously something going on if your employees keep leaving. I like what one person answered when they said you should ask your employees when they leave, why it is that they are leaving.

Answer 3

1. Company's vision is not clear.
2. No clear goals.
3. Employees talents, abilities, and contributions are not being fully recognized.
4. No clear path for growth and advancement within the company.
5. Retirement and health care benefits are poorly managed.
6. Hostile work environment promoting stress, back-stabbing, unhealthy aggressiveness that lowers employee morale.
7. Managements' inability to implement effective motivation techniques.

Everything starts within a top. If there are problems like that within the company, the improvement process must start within the top management first. If top management is dysfunctional, the entire company will suffer from the lack of motivation and poor team play.

The best thing for you to do is to create a clear vision and set concrete goals as well as effectively communicate them to the employees. You have to actively engage all the employees into the improvement process because they are the ones that know what is going wrong and needs improvement. They are also the ones who can advice you on the kinds of changes that need to be implemented. Be sure to properly recognize that advice. Good Luck!

Answer 4

There are many reasons why good employees quit; most are preventable. From my years of experience as a consultant, I've identified a "Top Ten" list of reasons why people leave jobs:
(NOT all of them relate to you...but it might give you a clue or two) :-)

1. Management demands that one person do the jobs of two or more people, resulting in longer days and weekend work.

2. Management cuts back on administrative help, forcing professional workers to use their time copying, stapling, collating, filing and other clerical duties.

3. Management puts a freeze on raises and promotions, when an employee can easily find a job earning 20-30 percent more somewhere else.

4. Management doesn't allow the rank and file to make decisions or allow them pride of ownership. A visitor to my website E-mailed me a message that said, "Forget about the "professional" decisions-how about when you can't even select the company's holiday card without the President rejecting it for one of his own taste?"

5. Management constantly reorganizes, shuffles people around, and changes direction constantly.

6. Management doesn't have or take the time to clarify goals and decisions. Therefore, it rejects work after it was completed, damaging the morale and esteem of those who prepared it.

7. Management shows favoritism and gives some workers better offices, trips to conferences, etc.

8. Management relocates the offices to another location, forcing employees to quit or double their commute.

9. Management promotes someone who lacks training and/or necessary experience to supervisor, alienating staff and driving away good employees.

10. Management creates a rigid structure and then allows departments to compete against each other while at the same time preaching teamwork and cooperation.

Interesting, isn't it, that all ten factors begin with the phrase "Management…."

Answer 5

It is not always the emenities that keeps your employees happy. Make sure you do not discriminate and have a buddy system to make differences in them.

Do you go through an unemployment office to have them put their application in to be screened and qualified for the task at hand??

Have a comittment to quality (CTQ) in place and service. Have safety meetings on the importance of the jobs and the equipment being sold in order to make sure you are successful.
Make sure they understand the importance of the business and maybe ask to have a suggestion box to have their input validated.
Make sure they are a part of the solution not a part of the problem. Offer a paid day off for a (keeping points for no missed days or illness) rewards competition to give them incentives, offer a business picnic once a year to get everybody together to feel like they are a part of something great in doing such a great service.
It is your business, it is up to you to sell your company to the employees as much as the public. Good luck

Answer 6

You're suggesting that there are two main problems.

1) People who work for you are leaving.

2) You are unable to recruit qualified staff.

This may or may not be two separate problems. You may think that you're offering competitive salaries and a nice place to work, but you have to remember that it's a competitive market out there and you are competing with other employers for qualified staff. People who are looking for a job in your field have any number of options and they are going to evaluate the salaries and benefits from all potential employers.

You imply that people are choosing to work for other firms and not yours. Why? It could be any number of reasons:
1) Salary (including options if avail)
2) Benefits
3) Growth prospects
4) Reputation in the marketplace as a good place to work
5) Willingness to investing in your people
6) Is it considered a good place to work - are people competitive internally (backstab, etc.) or do they cooperate and collaborate?

Of course, not being able to retain people may be tied to the same above mentioned reasons, BUT there is also the chance (however distasteful) that people don't like working for you for one reason or another. That's something that's hard to gauge because they may not be truthful in exit interviews. If that's the case, you need to figure out what's going on.

If it's not you but your firm that is the problem, you need to know specifically what the issue is (salary, reputation, etc.) and do your best to mitigate the issue.

Every firm has it's pros and cons, your job (and those of your supervisors) is to make sure that the pro's outweigh the cons. You'll know you've succeeded when people accept jobs offers and current employees stick around.

Answer 7

Do exit interviews with the folks who are leaving, and engagement surveys with the ones who are still there, to learn more about what's important to them (www.surveymonkey.com)

Employees don't usually leave over money, much less over exercise rooms. What WILL drive them out are several things, in rough order of importance:

-relationship with immediate manager - people will stay in lousy jobs out of loyalty to a bad boss; people will also leave cushy jobs if their manager doesn't gain their loyalty and trust.

-perception of company loyalty - does the company take every opportunity to fire employees or lay them off? Do employees feel that they have a future, or that they are expendable. you get what you give here.

-buy-in to company strategy. If employees understand where you're trying to go, they'll often do anything to help you get there. Conversely, if they are dictated to, disenfranchised, etc., they won't know what they're supposed to be working for.

--a united front. If top management's disagreements are visible to employees, it's sort of like living with a mom and dad who fight a lot. Do they really want to be there? Not.

-THEN they start looking at pay, benefits, and all of the other stuff.

Good luck.

Answer 8

I would suggest that you ask people who are still there - AND those who have left (start doing exit interviews - really listen to WHY people accepted other opportunities)

Sales are also high-demand professionals. You mention bonus & commissions, do you have a competitive base salary? Do you have benefits? Check out your competition - or hire a consulting company to come in and figure this out for you.

You may have HAD good compensation, but the market may have changed - it might only be average now ....

Best of luck!

Answer 9

Sometimes the best way to know that is to go to the source. Have you had open and honest conversations with those that are leaving? How about the current employees - what do they need to stay? Just because you offer them "stuff" in the workplace, doesn't make it a happy one. Is there an overbearing boss, for example? An exercise room, just doesn't make up for an unhappy work environment.

Answer 10

What kind of people you generally hire? Business major or medical related major? Do you have competition who give higher salary? Do you offer enough benefit compare to other companies? Do you have a good human resource team? Sometimes it's about the team but not the project......