Actual Comments on Why Employees Leave:

“I was offered a significant but not huge salary increase from another company. The bonuses are better at my new company as well. This wasn’t something I was seeking, but it made the decision easy once another offer was made.”

The Solution

Available dollars for compensation and benefits continue to be limited. The World at Work 2012 – 2013 Salary Budget Survey for 2012 – 2013 shows actual salary budget increases were 2.8% in 2012. Projections for 2013 show a slight increase to 3.0%. Most organizations continue to struggle with managing limited budgets while trying to attract and retain high performers and critical-skill employees.

Without knowing whether the commenting person was either a high performer or a critical-skill employee, let’s talk about pay in general. If organizations are operating on limited budgets and their goal is to retain talent they should not abandon the concept of paying for performance. While it is challenging to figure out how to divvy up small salary increase budgets, it is more important than ever to pay top performers and key talent. Retention strategies like this may mean a larger number of employees do not receive pay increases. This is a difficult message, but it is a message that needs to be delivered in times of tight budgets. The alternative is to give everyone the same or close to the same increase. The unintended consequence of this action is that your high performers may decide to leave.

Thinking outside of the box; what can organizations do to attract, motivate and retain the right people? All organizations are trying to define what makes them more attractive than their competitors. Many organizations facing financial constraints currently offer work-life programs as part of their total rewards portfolio. Organizations that have not adopted this philosophy are at a competitive disadvantage. Successful employee retention strategies can include creating an environment that allows employees to bridge work and home to help maximize overall motivation and engagement. In turn, this creates a competitive advantage whereby organizations can attract from a larger pool of qualified candidates, reduce turnover, and increase productivity and profitability in the organization.

(This blog post is brought to you by HSD Metrics, an exit interview company that helps companies reduce employee turnover by providing automated reference checking, exit interviews, and by measuring employee retention. The comments from exiting employees that are featured in this blog are collected from actual exit interviews conducted using ExitRight®, HSD Metrics’ exit interviewing service. If you are interested in learning more, contact us today. Because we place the privacy of our clients at the top of our priority list; the names of all involved parties are kept completely confidential.)