Carl makes good money. He likes the people he works with. He’s a top performer among the 30-somethings in the company where he works. He’s also thinking about leaving.
Career Realism recently carried an article that captures the essence of why his company may lose Carl: “Retention Problem? Perhaps it’s a Career Development Problem.” Here’s the money quote.
“Research on why employees leave companies has been conducted for many years and the answers always come back the same – the number one reason employees leave a company is because of an issue with their direct manager (or overall lack of leadership in the company) and the next reason is because they do not feel they have room to grow and develop their careers within that organization.”
In fact, Carl represents the two reasons for leaving mentioned in the article. He likes his immediate boss, but he thinks senior management is shaky, especially after the way they cut people and hours last year. That’s an issue, but it probably wouldn’t be enough to make Carl freshen up his resume.
Then, last week, Carl got together with an MBA classmate who was in town on business. That business was part of a project tied to the company talent development program. When Carl started thinking about how little his company offered on that front, he started by envying his friend and ended by deciding to look around for another opportunity. Does Carl work for your company?
Do you have a real talent development program or do you leave that up to each individual? If you don’t have a program, you’ve decided to leave your future success to chance. People like Carl don’t just want to get glowing reviews and make more money, they want to grow, too.
Carl, and people like him, will seek out companies where they won’t just earn, they’ll learn. The fact is that an effective talent development program is not just a way to identify and groom future leaders. Effective talent development programs are recruiting aids and a retention tool.
Short but sweet. The post has good insight. A lot of top-performing employees usually leave because management fails to develop them. Others, feel too pressured while others just lose their passion altogether. According to The Dark Clouds at Work (http://www.depressionatwork.com) failing to retain your employees can actually lead to bad losses for the company.