The struggle is real and costly

Organizations and industries of all stripes and sizes are faced with the struggle of retaining talent. Everyday many employees are opting to leave lucrative careers that they enjoy and value. This revolving door creates an untenable situation for Human Resource departments as they try to provide in a timely manner replacement staff best fit for vacated positions.

Employee replacements are costly for the employer. The time and cost required to replace employees, have sparked discussions and plans to identify incentives that would encourage more employees to stay. Promotions, increase in pay, remote work opportunities, childcare support, or maybe a paid fitness center subscription?

What will reverse the revolving door trend?  These suggestions although worthy of consideration are inadequate to address the reason employees decide to leave. The suggestions seem to imply the main reasons people leave a place of employment is because of benefits offered. The underlying belief for these suggestions seems to be --improved benefits lead to longer retention.

Quite the contrary, while better benefits might encourage employees to stay longer, as external motivations influence of the benefits are short-lived and fall short of addressing the reasons many choose to walk through the workplace revolving door. The deciding factor is not the quality or type of benefits for those who enjoy the work. It’s something more fundamental and deeper.