How to retain your best employees - 4 reasons they don't quit
Read time: 3 minutes | By: Alistair Cox - CEO Hays | July 29, 2021
Our achievements as an organisation are all down to our people, many of whom have been with us for decades, literally. Not many organisations in this day and age can say they have employees who have been with them for 10, 20, 30 or even 40 years.
What is it that makes employees stay with one business for so long, particularly when we hear all the time that people these days want to work in a more fluid, project-type way with multiple employers?
How to retain employees?
1. Feeling a sense of purpose
A huge driver for me personally is that I have a clear and profound purpose to what I do, and what we do as an organisation. I worked out that in my decade as CEO, we have placed around 4 million people into their next job. That’s massive and it’s really compelling. Every day we as a business are transforming lives. That’s pretty powerful stuff.
2. Not being bored
So, another reason I think employees tend to stay with an employer for a long time is the fact that they don’t allow themselves to get bored, and their employer doesn’t let them either. It’s a two-way thing.
A good employer should constantly push its employees out of their comfort zones and away from the familiar. Similarly, employees shouldn’t simply sit back and wait for opportunities to come to them; instead, they should actively seek them out.
3. The people
Long-serving employees tend to enjoy and get fulfilment from the other people they work and interact with every day. After all, it’s often these relationships that have the biggest impact on our working lives.
We all know someone (probably many) within our own organisations that we’ve learnt from, aspire to be, respect, admire and have fun spending time with. It’s these bonds, solidified over time, which often make it harder to leave an organisation. It’s also these bonds that create a sense of belonging and camaraderie which are the roots of great team work, future thinking and ultimately a feeling that we’re ‘all in it together’.
4. A sense of belonging
They’re emotionally invested, and to them, it’s not just a job – it’s a part of their lives and their own life story. And, just like every other part of their lives, they want to see it succeed. So, they feel compelled to be a part of the next chapter, and the chapter after that, and the chapter after that.
So, those are my four points. You’ll notice that all of them touch on how work makes us feel, not on the material things such as money and benefits. Whilst there’s no getting away from the fact that those things are important, what’s more important in my mind is that I work for an organisation that makes me feel good, fulfilled, valued, and, importantly, excited about the future we can create together.
About the author
Alistair Cox - CEO Hays
Alistair has been the CEO of Hays, plc since Sept. 2007. An aeronautical engineer by training (University of Salford, UK, 1982), Alistair commenced his career at British Aerospace in the military aircraft division. From 1983-1988, he worked Schlumberger filling a number of field and research roles in the Oil & Gas Industry in both Europe and North America. He completed his MBA (Stanford University, California) in 1991 and returned to the UK as a consultant for McKinsey & Co. His experience at McKinsey & Co covered a number of sectors including energy, consumer goods and manufacturing. He moved to Blue Circle Industries in 1994 as Group Strategy Director, responsible for all aspects of strategic planning and international investments for the group. During this time, Blue Circle re-focused its business upon heavy building material in a number of new markets and in 1998, Alistair assumed the role of Regional Director responsible for Blue Circle’s operations in Asia, based in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. He was responsible for businesses in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. Subsequent to the acquisition of Blue Circle by Lafarge in 2001, he also assumed responsibility for Lafarge’s operations in the region as Regional President for Asia. In 2002, Alistair returned to the UK as CEO of Xansa, a UK based IT services and back-office processing organisation. During his 5 year tenure at Xansa, he re-focused the organisation to create a UK leading provider of back-office services across both the Public and Private sector and built one of the strongest offshore operations in the sector with over 6,000 people based in India.
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