Employees don't quit their jobs, they quit their bosses

So often when I work with organizations and companies experiencing high turnover, I'm reminded about an article I wrote several years ago for NJ Business Magazine Competition vs. Cooperation: How small business owners can create engaged employees and high performing teams "… in most cases, employees do not “quit” their jobs; they “quit” their bosses." This equates to the equivalent of training your competitors' employees because you've invested time and money training them and they leave; go work for someone else and because of their experience is in your business, one of your competitors hires them. On top of that you now have to hire someone else and then invest your time (money) in training  them until they get up to speed in the job.

The cost to the organization

The problem for businesses, however is the people who possess the necessary expertise and job skills will be the first to leave, as indicated in the image and the ones that stay are sometimes the actual cause of the problem, i.e., managers possessing poor communications and managerial skills which creates job dissatisfaction and an unhealthy workgroup climate.

However, business people and managers often say things like, "I don't know what's wrong with employees today; they're just not motivated to work." My response when consulting with leaders in these companies is that maybe the 'wrong' people are leaving and the 'wrong' people are staying… remember, "people who know how to swim will jump ship and the ones who don't will 'hang' on."

But, what can you do? How do you know? Part of the problem is managers with poor communications and managerial skills can go through many good employees before the problem is identified. The issue may not be that people are not motivated; it is just the manager lacks the communications and managerial skills to identify differing motivational factors to appeal to the employees' motivational drives to trigger their engagement with the organization's strategic mission and goals.

When the emphasis is on retention, however, leaders, managers and employees can learn new communications and managerial skills that tap into these motivational drives and instill the engagement of the organization's members, thereby keeping the valuable expertise within the organization.

Diverse Motivation Factors

People are diverse in what motivates them and drives their behavior. There are five different motivators that act as behavioral drivers. They are as follows:

• Personal Achievement: The drive to personally accomplish major goals. This person is results-oriented and will take risks to push themselves to achieve challenging goals.
• Life Balance: The drive to balance work and non-work activities. This person wants flexible work hours and/or telecommuting, enjoys non-work activities, is not interested in overtime work and places a high emphasis on their personal time.
• Individual Autonomy: The drive to act independently and express creativity. This person prefers to do his or her own thing and be independent. They tend to take the initiative and like to develop new ideas, materials and methods.
• Job Security: The drive to find work that provide security and stability. A person motivated by job security prefers a regular income and a predictable, comfortable, clean and safe working environment.
• Status and Power: The drive to seek out opportunities for recognition, prestige, authority and/or control. This person looks for the opportunity to lead and set direction for others. They prefer visible signs of recognition and prestige and focus on career advancement.
• Relationships and Service: The drive to find opportunities to build strong relationships and be of service to others. This person seeks a harmonious work environment in which they can relate to and help others.

The challenge for business leaders, managers and even colleagues is understanding that everyone's motivational drive is different. If a leader, for example is motivated by status and power, he or she may assume that their team members share that same motivational drive. Typically this might work well if they're accurate in that assumption, however, where the trouble begins is when they're not.

A hypothetical communications misfire

A well-meaning, achievement oriented manager thinks he or she is providing a great opportunity to an employee by assigning a highly visible project requiring a good deal of overtime. The problem here is that this employee is motivated by life balance and is not happy about the assignment because of the additional overtime. The manager is baffled by the employees reaction and thinks, "I would have 'jumped' at the chance for an opportunity like this when I was in that job. What's wrong with these people today? They just don't want to work or they just don't care" and has a negative perception of the employee.

Had the manager understood the employee's motivation towards life balance they might have presented the project to him or her in a different way to appeal to this motivating factor; for example offering the opportunity to telecommute while working on the project or additional time off to compensate for the extra time worked upon completion of the project or at least opened the door to communications and collaborative problem solving.

Time is Money

Whether through individualized coaching or formal classes, additional training and development helps leaders, managers, colleagues and employees to understand one another's motivational and communications styles. As the old saying goes… 'time is money.' How much time is wasted seeking solutions to these kinds of communications misfires in the workplace? How many meetings discussing these 'problem' people occur when the problem is actually a communications issue.

This is not to say problems of insubordination, personnel issues or legal issues do not occur because they do. When they do, however, managers and human resources professionals are better able to handle them because they are not bogged down with managing communications and personality conflicts.

When we invest in training and development we are investing in the future of our business by retaining the expertise we already have, and that investment is the best advertising any company can have.

Customer Loyalty is Not Guaranteed

Last month I cancelled my account with a highly reputable and well-known service provider with whom I had been doing business for over 20 years. Up to this point my loyalty to this provider was so strong that I would not consider changing companies, or even looking at a competitor's product. In addition to that, based upon my relationship over the years I used to reference this service provider in my customer service classes as an example of customer loyalty and never imagined I would ever leave: but I did. The sad part for this provider is that it will cost them at least five times as much to secure a new customer to replace my business as it would have had they been able to retain it.*

What, you may be asking yourself, could have ever caused me to do something I never thought I would? It's not a very long story, but it is one based upon the breakdown of the relationship with the provider.

What Happened

Due to special circumstances, I needed to make some changes to my service requirements. Numerous attempts were made over a six-month period inquiring about these requirements. Each time, the provider's representatives were friendly and helpful. They promised to obtain the information and get back to me, however, I never received the information I was requesting.

The 'last straw' occurred when I spoke to my personal representative directly. Again, the conversation was cordial and the provider was helpful and promised to assist me with my issue but I needed to provide some additional information by the end of the month. I agreed to provide it by month-end and thought the issue was resolved. Imagine my surprise when, two weeks before the deadline, I received a letter from their headquarters office informing me they were happy to retain one part of my business but would not provide me with the additional service I requested because... now get this... they did not have all the required information -- which still had two weeks remaining before the deadline. Not a call from my personal representative... just a form letter from headquarters!

Is this the way to treat someone who has been a loyal customer for over 20 years? I don't think so. At that point, I decided to take the suggestions from friends and family members I had been ignoring for years about another service provider. One phone and I was a new customer of theirs. This company was able to provide the same services and for about half the price. Yes... I knew I was paying the other provider more, but I was doing so because of the quality of the relationship -- not the money.

What to Do

There were a few instances where the original service provider might have been able to salvage my business.

1. Credibility: Do what you say you are going to do. Every time I spoke with a service representative of the first company I was promised a call back which never came. The first time I could overlook as an oversight, however, after the second, third, etc. experience of no contact the company has lost all credibility as far as I was concerned.
2. Honesty: Tell it like it is: When I spoke with my personal representative I was told I had until the end of the month to submit the additional information and then after two weeks received a rejection letter. If the information was needed in two weeks -- tell me. If the timeframe was miscalculated; let me know. After being a good customer for over 20 years I never heard a word back from this person. I thought I might have received a phone call to inquire why I left after such a long period of time; but never did.
3. It is personal: The old saying goes, "It's not personal... it's business." However, relationships are personal; that is why we have our favorite service providers; my hairstylist, my manicurist, my doctor, my lawyer, my financial advisor, my realtor, my insurance agent, my mechanic, my coach, etc. They are all based upon the relationship with the person and are rooted in trust. I enjoy talking to you. I trust and believe what you tell me. Once trust in a relationship is broken, that's the beginning of the end. 

After all the years of being a good customer with this service provider I wondered why I stayed with them for such a long period of time. I realized I paid more money than I had to because of the quality of the relationship and I felt a sense of betrayal for all my years of loyalty. 

Important Questions to Ask

The questions every business person needs to ask is, where in your company are you losing loyal customers because of a breakdown in relationships? How many phone calls are not being returned or customers' expectations left unmet? How many loyal customers are you losing because they became disillusioned and checked out a competitor's product they might not have even considered looking at had their expectations been met? How can you retain these loyal customers?

Savvy business people understand this and recognize that customers will pay more for quality in both relationships and service. When relationships are nurtured and valued, customer loyalty grows and they become fans of your business who will refer you to their friends, family and business associates as well as continue to return to you for more products and services; which in turn contributes to the bottom-line results of your business.

 

 

*Reichheld, Frederick F., 1996, Harvard Business School Press, Bain and Company, The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits and Lasting Value

This is the third part of a series based on my experiences driving in New Jersey. For anyone who may not have been here, in New Jersey the 'rules of the road' are unique and I've learned some valuable lessons from many of these experiences behind the wheel.

As an independent business professional as well as a member of the adjunct faculty of several colleges I have the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the state to perform a variety of functions.

On one of those days I was scheduled to be at a client event during the day and booked for a speaking engagement in the evening at a location approximately an hour’s drive away; so I planned my day accordingly being sure to leave plenty of time for travel between engagements.

During the course of the day everything went as planned and I departed from the first event with plenty of time to get to the second, relying on the GPS for directions to get from Point A to Point B.

Let Me Over!

It was rush hour when I approached a very large, busy toll plaza. I needed to get into the far-right lane and cross several lanes of traffic to access the exit leading towards my destination. As I exited the toll booth and attempted to merge right towards the exit, I was unable to get a break in the traffic which caused me to ‘zig’ instead of ‘zag’ and I missed the exit. “No big deal,” I thought. “I’ll just make a U-turn at the next exit.” Things turned from bad to worse, however, because this next exit, which leads to a major city, was undergoing construction and the traffic was bumper-to-bumper in the opposite direction.

Note: In my earlier entries, you might recall me mentioning I'm a strong extrovert and tend to 'converse' with the GPS as well as other drivers on the road, which seems to be a common occurrence, not only in the Garden State.

The Point of No Return

At this point, I have no place to go. This is the only road in or out and I’m caught in a traffic jam from hell; traffic is at a standstill and barely crawling along. Now I’m screaming at the GPS, “What am I doing here? I don’t want to be here… I’m not supposed to be here and now I’m stuck in this traffic jam that is moving like a pack of migrating turtles!” This tirade began to include the other drivers; those less than intelligent people who didn’t know how to drive and wouldn’t allow me to access the lane so I could take the proper exit. It was their fault! If only they had moved over I wouldn’t be in this mess! I began to engage in self-pity, saying things to myself like, “I’m going to be late for my speaking engagement. I’ve never been late before. What am I going to do? I’m not even going to have time to even eat dinner.”

Instant Replay

While all these things were going on, I remembered my reactivity experience. Remember, my last entry about those ‘other people?’ Instant replay! I told myself again, “I teach this stuff!” and realized I was being reactive to my environment and blaming others for my predicament instead of being proactive. I realized it was not the other drivers' fault, but my decision to choose to drive safely and avoid the possibility of a traffic accident. I accepted responsibility for myself and my behavior.

I continued my commute. Somehow, I felt a sense of freedom and empowerment once I accepted I was in this predicament as a result of my own choices. Since I had allowed extra time in my travel plans I arrived at my destination with plenty of time to spare and even had time to stop for dinner. My presentation was a success and everything turned out fine.

Lesson Learned

Upon reflection, later I realized that no matter how much I ‘teach this stuff’ I’m only human and when things don’t go according to my plans I still run the risk of being reactive to circumstances. The key is to recognize my part in the matter and re-frame it to take responsibility for my part.

Reactivity in the Workplace

A question to ask is, "Where in the workplace is reactivity interfering with the effectiveness of the organization?" Think about how team members’ reactions to circumstances can affect the work environment? Ask yourself, "What would a day at work be like if all employees, leaders, colleagues, support staff, etc., were proactive instead of reactive?" Then think about what the impact would be on productivity, employee morale or bottom-line results and what needs to be done to make that happen.

Self-Empowerment Starts With the "Self"

The programs contained in the Curriculum for Self-Empowerment are designed to provide solutions to business and work-related issues. Based on the Ten Characeristics of Self-Empowerment, participants learn and practice empowering skills and behaviors that assist in overcoming business, work, and self-management issues from a leadership perspective. Contact me if you'd like more information on overcoming these business challenges.