How to Keep Good Employees from Leaving

Finding and keeping good employees continues to be a difficult challenge for employers. First, let’s explore what we mean by “good employees”. What are the common or quality characteristics that employers consider for good or better employee? The following traits separate the good versus the average employee:

• Interpersonal Skills – strong communication skills; exhibits high level of professionalism; has an open-minded approach to new ideas; ability to interpret nonverbal communication patterns of behavior.
• Integrity – honest about their work progress; ethical in all their work; aware of their company’s core values; makes their decisions based on transparency.
• Dedication – positive attitude toward their job; on time for all work-related assignments; passion for their work; goal oriented and more likely to improve qualities needing improvement; demonstrates flexibility when assigned project tasks.
• Reliability – show up to work on time; meet deadlines (consistently); provide high-quality work; shows initiative when needed; exhibits eagerness to take on additional responsibilities.
• Confidence – understands the relationship of productivity and confidence and believe in their abilities to successfully complete tasks; tend to embrace challenges in the workplace; knows when to ask for help; adapts quickly to new role; strong willingness to improve skills; listens more, speaks less.
• Independence – comfortable working independently as well as working with a team; has good time-management skills; resourceful; stays focused on task completion; ability to be critical of their work and makes necessary changes.
• Leadership Potential – strong organizational skills; ability to inspire others; can identify a team’s strengths and weaknesses; inspires others; exhibits confidence in ability to lead teams; provides feedback in a constructive way; highly promotable.
• Self-Awareness – aware of personal strengths and weaknesses; has strong emotional intelligence; understands role on his/her team; doesn’t hesitate to ask for and learn from feedback.
• Critical Thinking – a skill that involves looking at an unresolved opportunity (aka a “problem”), examining different perspectives and developing a realistic solution; traits include being aware of crucial details, asking the right questions, thinking outside the box, recognize the need for change and providing helpful solutions.

Based on the above traits of good employees, wouldn’t we want to do everything we possibly can to prevent them from leaving? Absolutely! Especially since over the past couple of years more businesses and organizations have seen a surge of good talent leaving. Employers have been struggling to keep good employees and find new ones.

The challenge is to ensure that your company has set in place an infrastructure that will minimize the best talent from leaving. Keeping good employees and attracting new ones will require being more people focused and re-evaluate how current employees are being treated. Know that many reasons why employees leave their job is under the control of the employer. Your organization’s culture, environment, a bad boss, employees’ perception of their jobs, and growth opportunities are all factors the employer affects.

Here are some suggested ways to encourage individual employees, with above average talent, hardworking, and potential for growth, from leaving:

Stay in touch with what your best employees are thinking. Are they satisfied with their work environment? Are their needs being met for challenge, belonging, development, and meaningful task assignments? Does their boss provide opportunities for communication, problem-solving, feedback, and
recognition?

Ensure that each employee is fully engaged, excited, and challenged to contribute, create, and perform. Avoiding this support risks losing employees to an employer that is willing to help their best to be passionate about their work.

Boss relationship – Employees do not need to be friends with their boss, but they do need to have a very positive working relationship. A toxic relationship between a boss and a direct report undermines an
employee’s engagement, confidence, and commitment to the company. DDI research, published in DDI’s Frontline Leader Project, shows that “over half of employees leave their organization because of their boss”. In 2022, Goodhire, a company that provides employment screening, announced they had
conducted a survey of 3000 American workers. They found that of those workers more than 80% “would consider quitting their jobs because of a bad manager”. Often bad managers lack key qualities like honesty and authenticity.

Help your employees grow their skills. Encourage your best employees and those you believe have the potential to learn and grow in your company to keep them stimulated while developing skills. Offer them personal development training.

Recognize employee accomplishments. Most people want to know they are appreciated. However, only offer praise if it is warranted and when it is, show your appreciation with a genuine smile that reaches the eyes and expresses believable meaning. False praises are taken with a grain of salt. When productive employees are recognized for their efforts they are more likely to feel valued. Typically, they become more committed to the company and their boss gains more respect from them. To recognize their accomplishments in a tangible and public way, you may want to host an annual awards ceremony.

Re-evaluate compensation. Inadequate compensation is one of the key reasons why employees leave organizations. Compensation is a significant reason for job dissatisfaction. Review your salary structure often to ensure that you are offering competitive wages and benefits.

Hire the right person. Avoid rushing to fill a position until you have the right person. Be acutely aware of your organization’s recruitment policies and employee turnover rate. Turnover rates and training costs decrease when you take the time to hire the best fit for the organization’s needs.

Maximize employee potential. Employees with promising potential must be encouraged to do their best. If you do not utilize them to their fullest potential, they are more likely to go elsewhere. It’s up to you to
discover their potential and make the most of their talents and/or skills.

Vision sharing. Management should share with mployees the organization’s vision and how that employee has a significant role for making a difference. Emphasizing how their work really matters, employees are more likely to be encouraged to become more fully committed to the goals of the organization.