What Causes Employee Turnover?

Why Does Turnover Happen?
According to LinkedIn’s 2019 Workforce Learning Report, 3.5 million Americans quit their jobs every day. That staggering statistic deserves the attention of leaders far and wide.  The fact is: regrettable turnover has far-reaching negative impacts on the organization.

What is regrettable turnover?
Regrettable turnover is when an employee chooses to leave the organization, and it has a negative impact on the team.

How does regrettable turnover affect the organization?
There is a growing body of knowledge on the causes and effects of regrettable turnover and leaders can’t afford to turn a blind eye to it. Why? Because often times, it’s your high performers that leave first, creating a negative domino effect. Your remaining team members are left to shoulder a heavier workload and increased responsibility, hindering their ability or desire to perform to their potential.  Your workplace culture suffers, which negatively affects the customer experience because the quality of your business outcomes decreases.  If your customers aren’t happy, they will stop doing business with you, resulting in decreased brand loyalty, dwindling revenue, and poor reviews.  Eventually, your bottom line is impacted and your certainty in the future of your business becomes uncertain.

What causes regrettable turnover?
There are a few factors that cause regrettable turnover, most of which deal with the work environment and the people within it.
Team members must work in an environment where they feel safe to speak up when they experience an issue or find better ways of doing something.  They must also feel comfortable being themselves and sharing their great ideas.

There is a term for this type of safety. It’s called Psychological Safety.
A work environment that lacks psychological safety is one where team members feel their ideas are belittled. Where they are punished or embarrassed for being themselves. Where they are bullied by the people they work with and they’re made to feel inferior. A work environment lacking in Psychological Safety causes team members to grow increasingly disengaged and eventually, they will leave the organization all together.

It is up to the leaders of the organization to ensure the work environment is one that brings out the best in each team member. One that values them as the assets they are to the organization and all of the unique talents they bring to the table. Leaders can do that by ensuring the work culture is one that fosters Psychological Safety.

How to nurture an environment rich in Psychological Safety
Being a strong leader is so much bigger than knowing how to “manage” employees. It means having the skills to navigate tough discussions, provide feedback, and support positive interpersonal dynamics among team members. It means recognizing people's strengths and leveraging them so your team (and your business) shines. It means recognizing incivility and bullying and putting a stop to it once and for all.

There are plenty of leadership books out there, many of which contain outdated leadership coaching models. They lack the advancements that have been made in the knowledge base of effective leadership over the years. But even if you do grab yourself a book with contemporary leadership practices, you still need support as you work to upgrade your leadership skills, which is no easy task.

Your best bet is to team up with a coach whose expertise is to develop a leader’s ability to inspire teams to produce exceptional business outcomes. A coach who knows how to help you inspire psychological safety in your business unit.

You can’t learn that from a book alone. You learn it from talking through the real situations you're experiencing while gaining the knowledge and skills in real time.

​Stop letting your teams and customers suffer from the effects of turnover and poor performance. Do something today to make positive change in your workplace culture and stop the bleed of regrettable turnover.

Click the button below​  to sign up for our free Masterclass and learn how to stop wasting your valuable time and hard-earned money on turnover in your organization today. Raise your game as a leader!

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