What are the most common reasons for global talent turnover, and how can you address them?

A high attrition rate highlights a toxic culture. When employees constantly leave your company. Alarms bells should be ringing. There are red flags within your culture. And your business won't be winning. Creating a caring, safe, supportive and inclusive work environment where mental health is openly discussed and addressed is critical for nurturing a healthy and productive workforce.

1 Conduct 360 feedback surveys to identify what the managers do well and where they need better leadership skills, and provide them with training and coaching to those struggling managers. Help your managers to become leaders. Good leadership is key to good retention. 2 Create a Recognition Culture. Insufficient recognition is why 25% of all people surveyed leave their jobs. Fix this or learn to live with the attrition. Hold managers accountable for seeking out and recognizing employees who go the extra mile to make a customer happy or correct a broken process. Create awards for exemplary performance and opportunities for everyone to bask in the glow of positive recognition for a job well done.

Global talent often leaves due to a lack of cultural fit, indicating misalignment with values and norms. This disconnect leads to frustration and conflict. To mitigate this, assess candidate cultural compatibility pre-hire. Offer cross-cultural training and support to incoming talent. Foster a diverse, inclusive culture valuing differences. This approach prevents issues, ensuring employees feel welcomed and integrated into the organization and host country.

Global talent often departs due to limited career development opportunities. Expecting growth in skills and experiences, they might feel underutilized or stagnant, particularly if hindered by language or visibility issues. To retain such talent, provide clear career paths, regular feedback, and recognition. Offer access to mentoring, coaching, and learning resources, fostering an environment conducive to their professional advancement and fulfillment.

Global talent often leaves due to dissatisfaction with compensation and benefits. Varying personal situations, industry norms, and comparisons with peers can impact their expectations. To prevent this, conduct comprehensive analyses considering cost of living, taxation, and market rates. Offer a competitive package reflecting their value. Tailoring compensation and benefits to recognize their contributions helps retain global talent and avoids feelings of being undervalued or underpaid.

Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is a challenge for global talent due to factors like long hours, travel, time zones, and cultural adjustments, impacting their well-being and performance. Supporting them involves fostering a flexible and understanding work culture that respects personal boundaries. Providing resources and assistance to cope with the demands and transitions of global work enhances their ability to manage work-life balance, promoting better engagement and performance.

I recently reviewed the research on the factors associated with employee turnover. While they are not focused specifically on global talent, they can be applied to global talent turnover: -Low job satisfaction -Low organizational commitment -Toxic leadership -Negative work culture -Harassment/incivility -Job stress -Overtime -Workload -Job-related-stress presenteeism -Burnout Toxic leaders create a negative work culture where employees are given unmanageable workloads, which necessitate working long hours, creating stress for employees and leading to burnout and other mental health problems. A toxic culture is stressful for employees and will lower their job satisfaction and organizational commitment, two strong predictors of turnover.