Even though
unemployment remains high, employers are reporting there’s a talent shortage in
this country. What that means is this: Your most talented employees know other
jobs are waiting for them. Are your managers doing enough to keep them?
The old adage
— people quit their boss, not their job — is true, according
to Eric Jackson, who holds a Ph.D. in management and is the founder
of Ironfire Capital LLC, which runs a tech-focused hedge fund.
Translation: While
pay and benefits are obviously important, so is liking the person you work for.
Jackson recently
pointed out on Forbes.com the most common reasons employees quit
their jobs — and guess what … all of them can be blamed on managers.
So it stands to
reason you may want to double check that your managers aren’t driving talent
away with these detrimental practices:
1.
Piling on work
When companies were
shrinking their workforces during the Great Recession, the people they opted to
hang on to where obviously the most talented. But that often resulted in the
work of the recently laid off getting dumped on those who were considered
“lucky enough to keep their job.”
The problems: A lot
of the reassigned work was beneath employees’ talent level, and companies
forgot to readjust the workloads when they began rehiring again. Worse yet,
some companies never got out of the mindset that it was OK to pile extra work
on the backs of the best employees.
Managers need to
constantly revisit the work responsibilities of employees — especially those
with the most talent — to make sure they’re doing work commensurate with their
standing in the company.
2.
Micro-managing
Not all employees
need to be — nor want to be — managed the same way. Poor performers tend to
want constant attention and direction — but not top performers.
Chances are your
best employees don’t want someone constantly looking over their shoulder. They
want to be trusted to get their work done without constant check-ins and
direction.
As Jackson points
out, another common problem is that individuals who’ve recently been promoted
to management tend to want to make sure those who’ve taken over their old jobs
are doing things the exact same way they would’ve — after all, that’s what got
them promoted.
But this will drive
good employees crazy. Give them a chance to make the job their own.
3.
Being invisible
Managers can also
be too hands-off — either by not being in the office or by keeping their door
closed to those they’re supposed to be managing.
Employees need to
know their managers are present and accessible.
4. Not
recognizing others’ feelings about personnel moves
Nobody likes feeling
overlooked for a promotion, but it happens all the time. Managers hire people
they like over the most qualified candidates.
While you don’t
want to rob managers of their power to select who they want to fill open
positions, you also want to make sure they’re not just promoting their
“friends.” Make sure there’s a process managers have to follow, or criteria
employees have to meet, before people are promoted.
It’s also a good
idea to let employees in on what those processes or criteria are.
5. Not
defining career paths
Talented employees
want to know where they’re headed — or, at the very least, where they can go
within the company and what it’ll take to get there.
Make sure your
managers are having these conversations with their direct reports on a regular
basis.
6.
Running terrible meetings
There are a million
things managers can do to create terrible meetings — from letting arguments
break out, to letting the conversation stray, to letting them run for hours.
Managers should
take the pulse of employees when it comes to the meetings they hold. Do
employees dread coming to meetings? Are some employees constantly asking to be
excused? Do some appear inattentive?
Find out what it is
employees don’t like, and fix it.
7.
Being ‘above the team’
Some managers are
only interested in protecting their own interests, position or power. These are
not leaders.
You want managers
who’ll go to bat for their direct reports, and treat them like teammates — not
underlings.
It’s impossible for
employees to grow if they have a manager who’s constantly beating them down.
8.
Failing to put the firm’s future into focus
Almost as much as
they want to know where they’re headed, employees want to know where the
company’s headed.
This is especially
true for talented workers, who tend to be more interested in their long-term
prospects than others. If they sense there’s no big picture, or the
picture keeps changing, they’ll look to jump ship.
