MCreates

Recently, my boss asked me to revisit our employee engagement budget and check why, despite our initiatives, our attrition numbers are not improving. Our employee surveys show that our employees are happy, and even got notes from some employees who left that they would have opted to stay but had no choice. But why do the attrition numbers keep going up? If employees are happy, why do they still leave? Should we stop organizing parties, rewarding performers, and organizing some small events to break the monotony at work?

Reading through some articles and studies, employee engagement is more than just reducing attrition. In fact, it is not really about attrition. Let us first define employee engagement. According to Investopedia.com: Employee engagement is a human resources (HR) concept that describes the level of enthusiasm and dedication a worker feels toward their job. Engaged employees care about their work and about the performance of the company, and feel that their efforts make a difference. An engaged employee is in it for more than a paycheck and may consider their well-being linked to their performance, and thus instrumental to their company’s success.

With this definition, employee engagement initiatives are geared towards making employees more connected to their jobs. To be more invested or care more about their work. High engagement means employees are more productive and do not just work for the paycheck. They care about what they do and not just provide the bare minimum. Does this mean they won’t leave? Maybe less likely, we know for a fact that happy employees are highly likely to stay in the company.

So why do we still have attrition? The company is not perfect but employees are generally happy with how the company treats them. So why do they leave:

• Higher pay – no matter how competitive our package is, there will always be a company that offers higher pay. Since the competition in our industry is getting more and more intense, new companies tend to offer higher pay to attract talent.
• Priority changes – employees get married and move to a new place, which impacts their decision. Maybe they need to give way to their partner who works elsewhere and needs to relocate; they need to take care of their parents and become a stay-at-home mom.
• Remote Work – I initially thought of including this in the priority changes but in some cases, it is not really about priority but preferences. Some employees really prefer to work from home over working on-site. Since our company does not offer the work-from-home option, then those who prefer it would jump at an opportunity to do so if the other factors are also aligned – say, everything else is equal, like salary and benefits or higher salary.
• Relationship with their direct supervisor – There will be bad leaders within the organization that can lead to employee attrition. They say that people don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad bosses. I often take this as part of growing pains. When companies grow, there is the tendency to promote people without equipping them with the skills they need to do the job. We promote our top performers and expect them to know how to manage people without guiding them or training them to do so. This results in disengaged subordinates and, in worse cases, leads to attrition.

Sometimes, companies try to directly correlate engagement with attrition. Measuring the effectiveness of the engagement activities on attrition alone will not give us an accurate result. Attrition reasons vary, and as the surveys pointed out, some things are beyond the company’s control. I have also seen companies with very low engagement ratings but with low attrition rates. Employees are disengaged and probably just doing the bare minimum not to be let go. They are not leaving but is it something that we want? Do we want them to stay though they are unhappy? I supposed the answer is no.

Engagement initiatives help ensure that employees are involved and productive because they feel that their employer cares for them and values their contributions. We want our employees to stay for the right reasons. So, how do we address attrition? It should be a combination of doing the happy stuff like office parties, rewards and recognition, and doing regular self-assessments. Check the market for the market rates for the jobs that you have so that you know if you are still competitive or if there is a need to align with the market. Assess your leaders if they can manage and lead their teams. Include growth and development initiatives in the employee engagement drives. Do regular checks with the employees to understand their needs. After all, engagement is not just about parties and pizza, it also includes open communication and employee growth and development.