Top performers leaving in droves - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Top performers leaving in droves - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog One large company finds that many of their top performers are absconding: Its like clockwork. Every year a portion of our top talent decides its time to move on. Once those bonus or holiday checks are cashed, the flood gates open and the resignation letters start flowing in. Theyve done an exit survey among the top performing employees leaving the company: Of the 178 files, 83 people listed money as a reason for leaving. 62 listed it as the only reason. Their conclusion: They must adjust salaries and compensation. My conclusion: Theyre wrong. Heres why. Theyve been asking employees who have already taken new jobs, and the reason they took those jobs may well be a higher salary. But theres a more pressing question: Why were these top performers looking for a new job in the first place? Take a closer look at that, and I bet youll find that money doesnt matter much. Many of the truly great workplaces who enjoy extremely low employee turnover rates, set salaries at about market-average. Most of their top employees could switch jobs tomorrow and get 25% more at a different company. They dont because they really, really like their jobs. When I asked the readers of this blog what makes them happy or unhappy at work, salary only cropped up once, and that was a too low salary making someone unhappy. My alternative conclusion: This company needs to focus less on salaries and more on making people happy at work. Theres more here: What does not make people happy at work (but lots of people think it does) Think a raise will make you happy? Think again! Happiness leads to success Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related