Every industry is struggling to attract and retain top employees. Figuring out why staff might be leaving your marketing firm gives you an edge in keeping your best workers. While some reasons might be obvious, such as moving on to a better position not available in your firm, other causes might be a bit more subtle.
Source: https://www.statista.com/chart/29071/number-of-resignations-in-the-us-since-january-2021-by-industry
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, people have left their jobs in droves. By November 2022, nearly 19 million people quit the leisure and hospitality industry alone. Many others left business services, retail and health care.
What Is the Main Reason Employees Leave a Company?
The Pew Research Center surveyed employees to find out who quit and why in the months following the pandemic. The number one reason people left their jobs was because of the pay. Around 63% said they left because the pay was too low, while 37% of them stated it as a major reason.
If you’re paying your workers competitively, there are a few other reasons professionals leave their marketing firms and seek other employment. Check if you’re doing any of these things and fix them to keep your top employees.
1. Standing Over Their Shoulder
People don’t like to feel you don’t trust them to do their work to the best of their ability. Your hardest workers want you to give them the freedom to finish their tasks without reporting constantly.
With so many people working from home now, a lot of companies have added trackers that keep up with the time worked. Unfortunately, these trackers also take screenshots and track productivity. Just knowing someone is looking at everything you do as though they’re standing right over your shoulder can be detrimental and some will leave your company.
2. Not Offering Perks
Replacing one of your employees can cost $10,000 or more, so it’s crucial to offer them perks to keep them on the payroll. Working the same job day in and day out can lead to boredom. One way you can keep things exciting is by offering perks your competitors don’t.
Ramp up the employee break room space, take them all on a retreat somewhere nice and give them a stipend to travel. Things such as voluntary time off are also attractive to many workers.
3. Lacking Promotional Opportunities
Most people want to work hard and learn new things on their way up the ladder. If they put in the time and effort, they want to see they’ll be rewarded with raises and promotions to build their skills and reputation.
If your company doesn’t have a way to offer promotions and help people move up in the company, you may find you lose them to a different position at a business with more opportunities.
At the same time, you really need to have a clear structure for how promotions and raises occur. If the employee does A, B and C, then D happens. Moving into management positions should happen because of the actions of workers rather than who is liked the best.
4. Feeling Disrespected
Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1310979/main-reasons-leaving-job-us
Approximately 66% of people left a job in part or whole because of lack of respect at work. Sometimes the issue is with management and at other times it is the entire company culture. It may be due to discrimination as well.
One of the best ways to avoid employees leaving for this reason is to do as much training as possible. Teach your workers about what it means to respect others. Give them opportunities to work with people diverse from them and see one another’s abilities.
5. Forcing Them Back Into the Office
In recent months, more and more companies have moved away from a remote model and forced workers back into an office setting. Many employees got used to working from home and have no desire to commute back and forth.
Things such as work/life balance are more important than ever before. Spending an hour each way driving to and from work, having to take or buy lunch out and the distractions at work make it undesirable to work in a corporate setting.
Forbes recently reported on a study showing 25% of all professional jobs are now remote, and the number will increase into 2023. Workers who want a remote position are very likely to leave a company that doesn’t allow telecommuting.
Offer workers the option to work remotely or hybrid-remote, where they go into the office one day a week for meetings and work from home the other days.
6. Facing Childcare Issues
The pandemic also changed education and forced many parents to serve the role of teacher as their children moved to e-learning days. Now that employees are heading back to office buildings, some schools are still having students do some work from home.
For example, during snow days or inclement weather, school districts might cancel school and have the kids attend classes and submit work online. Parents have to be on hand to ensure the work gets done in a timely manner.
If a child isn’t old enough to be left at home alone, the problem is even greater on e-learning days. One or both parents have to change things around for the sake of their young children.
One thing companies can do to keep highly qualified employees facing childcare issues is set up some policies to allow them to bring their children with them on snow days or for the employee to work from home at least occasionally.
7. Burning Out
Even people who love their work sometimes feel burned out and overwhelmed. It’s natural for managers to put more work on the most reliable employees. You know they’ll get the task done and do it well. Unfortunately, adding too much to someone’s plate often results in poor work/life balance and burn out.
Avoid burning out your best workers by providing them with plenty of paid time off. Give them flex time so they can leave early if they’re having a rough day or have a family crisis. Check in to see how they’re doing and if you can do anything to ease their burden.
How to Keep Your Employees Happy
One of the best ways to keep employees with your firm is to communicate with them. Ask them how you can improve their work experience. Let them know you don’t want to lose them and they can always come to you if they’ve received another job offer to see if you can match it for them.
Look for little ways to show your appreciation and let your staff know how valuable they are to your team. When you give your employees rewards and perks, they’re more likely to feel appreciated and stick with your company for life.
About the Author: Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. She was the creative director at a digital marketing agency before becoming a full-time freelance designer. Eleanor lives in Philadelphia with her husband and pup, Bear.