Given our background in recruitment we have heard many interesting reasons for wanting to move on, but typically they fall into one of 5 categories:
- “Mis-sold the role” – typically a hangover from a poor recruitment process where expectations have not been set correctly.
- “Looking for a new challenge” – this covers a multitude of things including lack of training, lack of variety and general malaise.
- “Lack of opportunities/progression” – people who have been passed over for promotion or have a long serving boss often quote this.
- Salary – most candidates achieve their biggest pay rises when they move jobs and teams are often very unbalanced depending on when people joined.
- “Not the company I joined” – this might be a response to growth, decline, new management but is basically badly managed change.
All of the above can be managed if you keep an eye on staff morale and have regular one-to-ones. Getting your recruitment right up front, and implementing a structured way of assessing how your staff feel is much more cost effective than having to replace them.
Some scenarios simply can’t be managed. One I heard was “I’ve just split up with my girlfriend, so I don’t want to work with her anymore.” Not much you can do when Cupid is involved!
