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8 things leaders do that make employees quit

2019-09-10T19:37:00-04:00

Employee retention is a big issue in today's job market and many firms have had to deal with the undesirable reality of losing valued team members. While the reasons someone might leave a job are wide and complex, there are some factors that leaders can address themselves to counteract employee departure. In a recent essay, Jon Christiansen, Ph.D., lists 8 mistakes he says leaders do that make employees quit and presents ways to avoid them:

"Mistake 1: Setting inconsistent goals or expectations."

Christiansen explains that "when employees are forced to choose between tasks in order to meet competing expectations, the result is a team of stressed out people without clear priorities." For example, let's say a junior designer has to choose between finishing a set of drawings on time for a project and doing adequate research for a presentation. They know that there's no way they can be late with the drawings, but they also realize that if they don't do the right amount of research they...

When an employee quits, what do you do?

2019-08-06T15:48:00-04:00

Having an employee quit "can feel like a gut punch, leaving managers scrambling both emotionally and operationally," writes Anthony C. Klotz, associate professor at the Texas A&M Mays Business School and Mark C. Bolino, professor at the University of Oklahoma's Price College of Business. The pair expand on the learning opportunity that surfaces after a team member resigns. They encourage leaders to be "willing to reflect on and identify the root cause of such losses."

Many organizations conduct exit interviews to discover the underlying cause for employee resignation, but these often prove ineffective. When a team member quits impulsively, the opportunity for an interview is lost. In the case that an interview does occur, employees can become cautious in being too honest, or they may believe that the meeting is a waste of time, thinking the company won't be willing to change.

Klotz and Bolino provide three recommendations for companies that want to respond to resignations in more co...