It is often said that employees leave companies mainly because of bad bosses. But this is not entirely true as the numbers of those leaving good and bad bosses are almost the same. This is the outcome of an interesting study by Ravi S. Gajendran and Deepak Somaya, assistant professors from the University of Illinois. The results of the study appeared in the US magazine Personnel Psychology and were also described in an article on the Harvard Business Review website.
The authors of the study, which was supported by the Foundation of the world's largest professional organisation of human resources managers, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), conducted research among more than 700 employees of a large multinational IT company. The employees were asked to evaluate the quality of the leadership skills of their superiors. Each manager was then assigned a score indicating how good leaders they were in the eyes of their staff.
Eighteen months later, the researchers returned to the survey participants to find out who had left the company. It was a total of 128 people. These people were then interviewed by an independent consultant to explain why they had left, what was better in their new jobs and how they perceived the brand of their former employer.
Result: Good bosses motivate employees to leave
It emerged that good bosses who give their subordinates interesting assignments with greater responsibility in fact produce suitable candidates for a better job elsewhere. The employees are happier and gain more experience but leave anyway. However, unlike their colleagues who left because of dissatisfaction with their superiors, the "happy quitters" remember their former employer positively and continue to spread its good reputation.
Quality leadership is no guarantee of employee retention but it does play a vital role in employer branding. Employers should also should try to give employees wishing to leave counter-offers. The authors summarised their three main recommendations for managers and companies as follows:
1. Leadership does not help retain employees
Certainly not on its own. Companies should look for and implement other mechanisms for retaining quality employees who have been raised by good leaders.
2. Good leaders create a strong community of former employees
People change jobs quite often today, which is doubly true in the IT industry. However, they carry good relationships with former superiors with them everywhere and thus help to build the reputation of their former employers.
3. The actual exit experience is very important
If departing employees are further to spread your good name, they must be given a positive experience right at the end. Replace tedious exit interviews conducted by HR with interviews led by direct managers. Those leaving should be told how valuable they have been for the company and that you would like to keep in touch in the future.
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