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A recent spate of surveys and commentary confirm what has become clear from my conversations with top performers over the last eight to ten weeks: many of them will move jobs as soon as their existing employer is in recovery from the recent economic collapse - some as early as Q1 2010.
Why now? Why change jobs when things are getting better, not worse?
7. Weariness
Exhaustion, plain and simple. It's been a tough two to three years, and your top performers are tired. And you know the saying - 'A change is as good as a rest'.
6. Trust
Trust in authority has taken a battering during this last downturn, and you are the public face of trust for your top performers. Even if you've done nothing wrong and everything right, even if you're held in high regard individually, you represent the untrustworthy old guard. They'll move somewhere new to start rebuilding that trust.
5. Fit
Like an old set of dentures, your veteran top performers don't 'fit' in the organization as well as they did. You've changed, the business has changed, the industry has changed and they've changed. What was once a seamless relationship now has irritating edges, chips and crevices.
4. Spring, Easter, Bunnies, etc.
Business-wise this last few years have felt like winter to many people, and your top performers are no exception. They've been loyal enough to stay the course while things were really tough, but as soon as there's a change in season, and they can honestly say they've seen you through the worst of it, they'll go to warmer climes to start something new and fresh.
3. Challenge
Top performers want new, positive challenges. They can only thrive on negative challenges for so long. Your competitor's hiring process emphasizes new challenges, your 2010 'maintenance and recovery' plan does not.
2. Impact
Top performers need to feel they're making a real difference. Nothing is more frustrating to them than a sense of stagnation. Right now, your organization reeks of stagnation ('s not your fault - it's just a fact).
To them, your competitor looks like a bright new opportunity to make a real impact. And of course, your competitor will ensure that the opportunity to do so will be front and center in their hiring process (whether it's true or not).
1. Control
The #1 reason your top performers will leave next year is simple: to restore a sense of control over their lives. They have dedicated the last few years to loyally doing things they don't enjoy and wouldn't do naturally (retrenching, firing people, taking back tasks they'd long since delegated), and as soon as they can look in the mirror and honestly say they've got you over the hump, they'll go elsewhere, to restore the sense that they are once more in control of their own destiny.
None of this is inevitable, but unless you make changes now, it is very likely to happen. Next up - what to do to keep your top performers.
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Comments
11.11.09
Great post! I think this could be very valuable for any company - whether hit by the economic collapse or not - in terms of retention and why employees leave. The grass is always greener... so they say.
11.11.09
Thanks Katelyn.
You're right a lot of the principles apply for employee retention at all times. The are just particularly magnified in this economic downturn.
11.11.09
Great post! I am in the process of resigning from my job right now and many of these reasons ring a bit of truth to me.
The question to me then becomes, how do you keep the top performers?
Particularly the stagnation reason seems to be possible to solve with a transfer and / or promotion to a new position within the company right? I think it also would help solve some of the trust factor. You put a top performer under a new supervisor who can now earn the trust back.
I think that my company could have kept me if they would have avoided a couple of these reasons.
11.11.09
Hi Luke -
Thanks for your comments. You're right. A transfer or promotion certainly would help provide a fresh challenge and renew trust but it would still be a tough thing to do.
Keep an eye out for the next post which will discuss other ways to prevent top employees from leaving.
03.19.10
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03.19.10
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