Why your Top Employees Want to Leave

Why your Top Employees Want to Leave 

A study was done by the Harvard Business Review, that determined what the top three things the top talent or what most employees are looking for in a company. They quote the following: the top talent really wants to be "feeling  that [they] make a meaningful impact in identifying with the company's mission and believing that it does some good in the world”. Employees want to have a feeling that they are making a meaningful impact, they want to be able to identify with the company's mission, and they want to believe that they're doing good in the world. People want to do work that matters. That's the number one thing according to this article and many others, that employees want. 
 

ATTRACTING THE TOP TALENT 

Do you want to attract the top talent? Then your company must have a mission and a purpose, that makes the world a better place. The work that you are doing within your company, needs to be genuinely helping other people and has to make an impact on other people. That's what employees want! 

An additional study from Inc Magazine, found that 51% of people that are currently employed right now, are actively looking for another job. That is over half of your staff right now, that are actively looking for another job. It's over half of American’s that are currently working in the workforce right now, who are looking for another job. Why do you think this might be? It's because they feel like the work that they are doing, doesn’t have meaning! This is a big deal. The tasks that your employees are doing and the reason why they come into work every day, should have meaning, because it makes an impact on other people.  

NOT GETTING THE MOST OUT OF OUR EMPLOYEES 

Deloitte found that after thousands upon thousands of research of different companies across all kinds of different employee types, 88% of people who are currently employed, are not giving their best at work. We as business owners are not getting the most out of 88% of the employed staff. 

Do you know what the 12% had? The people that were not just working to their potential but exceeding what they had as the bar for potential, all had one thing in common: they had PURPOSE. 

They believed that the work that they did was having an impact, and that belief and that purpose that they aligned with, was the reason why they showed up to work every day.  
 

GIVE YOUR EMPLOYEES PURPOSE 

You may think that money is what motivates people and that money is how you are going to find the best talent. Or you may think that you must put in your job descriptions, announcements or listings, that you are going to pay a lot, therefore you are going to get a lot of good talent.  

Yes, money is important, since it provides for people a lot of different things like food, shelter and all the basic needs that are out there. But the reality in our society, is that most people, or at least most people that you are going to be looking to employ, don’t necessarily struggle with basic needs.   

Again, money is important, and it is part of their motivation, but according to all these studies, if you want to get the most out of your team and if you want to attract the top talent, it’s purpose. 

Here's further proof- if you hire people with money motivation, that is a fundamentally selfish thing. That means you're hiring people that are all about themselves. If you've ever tried to manage someone who is super selfish, it's toxic to the culture and it’s extremely hard to manage and it doesn't really work out.  Money isn’t necessarily going to be the answer.  

Ask yourself this:  

If you're having money as the primary thing to attract the top talent, what will happen when another job comes by that’s going to pay more? Your employees are going to leave because they’re motivated by money. That's not the type of person you want to come work for you, or someone who’s going to build your company culture and put it in a great place.  To attract the top talent and to have a company culture that’s going to thrive, you need to have purpose and people who will align with that purpose.  

Another study showed that people who were graduating with their master's degree (meaning people who had higher education and an impressive resume), were willing to take a 25% pay cut in order to work for a company where they could do work that matters and do work that had an impact. 

Consider this: a lot of the new top talent out there now are willing to get paid less and save you money, if you have a purpose. 

ALIGNING WITH THE COMPANY’S PURPOSE 

My staff at Stewardship is awesome! They are some of the most amazing people ever. I often get asked how I found them and how I am willing to get them to do what they do. The answer is simple: they all align with the company purpose. They want to love people through finances genuinely, and that's how I'm able to get what I get out of them.  They will run through brick walls to serve other people because they care about other people and they want to make that impact. It's worked for me and I know it'll work for you. 

CALL TO ACTION: Do work that matters. Create a purpose statement for your company that people can align with, unify around and pursue. 
 

In Harvard Business Review's article, they conclude by saying their “data suggests that people are very clear on what they want at work and they fundamentally want the same things”: they want to do work that matters.  

PRO TIP- Look at your company culture this week. Look at your business. Look at all the tasks that are involved. Evaluate that this week and see if your staff are actually doing stuff that matters, and can you take the task that they are doing and tie it to a great purpose that makes an impact. 

Comments or questions? Get in touch or leave a comment below. 

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