Now days, attrition is one of the biggest challenges faced by the companies in their path to success. We all are well aware of the reasons for attrition. And in some cases HRD are left wondering on what can be the probable reasons for an employee to leave.
What makes an employee stick to any company? Future security, future growth both vertical and horizontal, job satisfaction, belongingness etc can be the few of the reasons which, if taken care of in the right way, can enable an organisation to maintain a low attrition percentage. And many of the companies do take care of all these aspects with the help of HR tools in ensuring that employees are retained with the company. So when all the factors are dealt with so effectively then why do the companies still face this challenge of attrition?
I have heard people saying very often that employees don’t quit their company they quit their bosses. True? To an extent, yes. Bosses are one of the major factors contributing to high attrition in an organisation. Unsupportive bosses are a strong reason for an employee to leave. Normally for an employee to leave, it is not the 100th factor that contributed to his leaving, it is the 99 factors before the 100th one that made him take this decision. Which means that if an organisation is loosing its talented manpower because of these unsupportive bosses then in a way the main factor becomes the organisation culture and not the boss.
If an organisation is successfully retaining such unsupportive bosses for whatever reason it may be, then organisation culture is the serious threat to HRD in retaining the employees. The compnay is loosing 5 other talented employees who are working under the unsupportive boss who are directly/indirectly influencing the subordinates to leave the organisation. If we see at it in long term, in a way, the organisation is loosing 5 good talented work force who if stay can also be good supportive bosses in future as they will understand the pros and cons of being an a unsupportive one.
In such scenarios it becomes extremely important for the organisation to track the correct reasons for the employee’s exit. And if they are unable to then it is indirectly encouraging the culture of bad bosses and hence will suffer in every way because of the attrition. There are different tracking tools available with HRDs such as satisfaction surveys, exit interviews and frequent polls. These tools should be used time and time again so that the issues of the unsupportive bosses are be taken care of at the right time.
It can be said that organisation culture plays a pivotal role in controlling the high attrition percentages and the one who plays a big role in controlling the same can be HRD as they have all the tools (mentioned above) available in correcting the situation by being impartial to any one particular department or people. They have to take initiatives in bringing up such issues in front of the management and finding a solution for the same. There are many solutions that can put an end to these issues like training the senior/bosses on team work, educating them on organisational values etc and taking actions in case they are found violating them.
As we say that “Prevention is better than cure” hence organisations should also try following the same by setting certain organisational values strictly which can build a positive and motivational organisation culture & atmosphere for the employees working there.
A happy work place can have some very happy people working there who are charged and motivated towards their work leading to very less people leaving the organisation and resulting in low percentages of attrition.
By Ashu Singh
HR Professional