The HR Disconnect

The HR Disconnect

Recently TalentDrain conducted an interesting piece of research, with HR practitioners and 'leaving employees'. In looking at some of the data, it does become clear very quickly that there is certainly a dis-connect when it comes to why HR think employees have left their company, and the 'real reason' from the leaver.
When many companies recruit staff they use some form of analysis or assessment, to help in their process, but it has become apparent that on leaving, there are many companies that rely just on opinion and gut reaction. The cold hard fact is that staff retention is the 'poor cousin' in the whole recruitment cycle within companies. They seem happy to keep recruiting new staff, but pay less importance to why their staff are leaving.
So, looking at some of these gathered facts that HR believed to be true:

1. Salary and awards are the most important factors in maintaining someones commitment to the organisation.  WRONG - Personal growth is ranked as the most important factor by leavers.
2. The Professional staff are most likely to leave for a competitive salary. WRONG - It is the sales people that are more likely to leave for a better package than the managers.
3. CORRECT - employees were thinking about leaving for between 3 -6 months.
4. CORRECT - more women leave an organisation than men due to bullying or harassment.
5. The majority of people leave their job because of their manager. FALSE - Only a meagre 13% use this as the reason for leaving. (although I am not sure if this is a little low - are you going to cite your manager as the reason for leaving and then want a reference of them?)

We all know recruitment is expensive, but surely if companies looked after their employees and understood what makes them happy and motivates them (a little simplistic I know, but a good starting point anyway), then it would go along way of reducing recruitment expenditure.