How to Prevent Employees from Quitting

It is inevitable that, at some point, an employee in a company will think about quitting. When a good worker decides to leave, it can affect staff morale, increase workload, and affect productivity. So, any way that an employer can prevent an employee quitting can only benefit the company. In fact, it never has to be inevitable that an employee decides to quit.

In this article, you will find out what you can do to increase employee retention.

Reasons why employees decide to quit

Before you work out a way to prevent your most trusted employees leaving, it’s important to understand why they may think about quitting in the first place.

There can be many reasons why any employee makes up his mind to leave. This could be due to better career opportunities, not feeling engaged, being unhappy, dealing with micromanagement, or some other personal reason. So, in many cases, addressing those issues should make it possible to retain your best employees and prevent them from quitting.

Of course, there can be certain circumstances when it’s not possible to avoid a good worker quitting. A survey by PayScale found that the most common reason for looking for new employment was higher pay. Unfortunately, it may not be possible for your business to offer pay rises to everyone. But, getting a raise was only one of the preventable reasons why people quit.

The same survey found that 16% of employees who are thinking about quitting do so because they are unhappy. Also, 2% of those surveyed wanted a more flexible work schedule and 7% wanted a promotion.

How to prevent employees from quitting their job

Let’s look at 5 ways to prevent workers from deciding it is time to look for employment elsewhere.

1. Communicate openly

One of the best ways to ensure employees feel happy and engaged at work is to encourage open communication. Communicating freely allows you to give staff positive and constructive feedback. You also get to hear about any issues, grievances, or problems that may affect their happiness at work.

2. Provide career opportunities to prevent employees quitting

Career progression is important to most employees and a lack of opportunities can cause them to look elsewhere for work. Many studies show that career satisfaction is closely linked to opportunities to progress in the company. So, it is important to have a compensation plan that is in some way linked to the performance of the business.

3. Have flexible workplace policies

More and more businesses are finding that allowing for more flexibility at work helps prevent employee turnover. With improvements in technology, it is easier to arrange for telecommuting and working from home. Also, allowing for flexible work scheduling is another way to help keep employees happy in their job.  

4. Promote work-life balance

Allowing for great flexibility at work helps with another way to increase job satisfaction and prevent employees quitting – better work-life integration.

For example, a 2017 study found that there is a link between good work-life balance and an employee’s intention to quit. The study found that understanding the personal lives of employees affects how they view their careers. When employees perceive that their boss understands demands in their family life, they feel better about their job. This can have a direct correlation to their intention to quit.

So, when HR departments and bosses promote work-life balance, they are able to foster high levels of job satisfaction and retain their best talent.

5. Have clear objectives and goals

Making sure that your employees understand your organisation’s mission or department goals in an important way to keep them engaged. Employees who feel part of a team that has specific goals are more likely to stay with the company.

One way to implement this is to have a policy of objective and key results. The sets out a list of objectives and goals on how to reach them. Also, each objective is linked to a specific, measurable result. This can help to give employee focus on their work and develop a strong corporate culture. In the end, you may help your best employees from quitting.