Why is everyone quitting?

Do you know that a?record number of employees?left their jobs in August?

4.3 million people in the US, while at the same time the number of job openings remains at a record high just because companies try to find enough job seekers to meet demand.

The ''Great Resignation'' epitomizes our new attitude. It is like a developing revolution. Isn’t true that the last two years made us think about our lives? What type of person do we want to become? What kind of job or career offers happiness and a sense of purpose we would like to have?

Employees woke up. If they are not happy with their boss, or the company culture, well, they’re going to go on to another organization that will support them. During my career, as a manager as well as an executive coach I have seen thousands of people quit because of neglect, lack of respect, lack of empathy, lack of career advancement. And what is more interesting is the fact that there are around 10 million vacancies in the US alone, however, people don’t want anymore to accept dead-end jobs and even more, dead-end jobs with low pay.

So dear Manager, I have 3 questions for you:

How can you retain your employees during these times?

Do you know what your people want?

Do you know what?mobilizes and energizes people to perform to their full potential?

One thing all top leaders know well is what their employees want and expect from them.

What our employees want from us as leaders works itself into the acronym D.A.R.T.?

I will go through each letter further down the line, but first, can you guess what each letter stands for? D.A.R.T. is part of one of my leadership programs which I train leaders and managers for.

D = Direction

A = Appreciation

R = Respect

T = Tools

Direction

Do all your employees understand exactly what you expect of them? Do they know why they are doing it? Do they know if they are doing a good job or not? Does each of them know what areas he/she needs to improve??

Appreciation

The single most common cause of employee dissatisfaction, and employee behavior issues, is the feeling that their efforts are not recognized. Your people naturally look to you for direction and support for their day-to-day work. But they also need you to recognize their unique needs, abilities, and potential.

Respect

Your people want to feel as though they’re respected, not only for what they do in the workplace but for who they are.?One of the most important things is that despite their quirks and flaws, all your employees are human beings and fundamentally want the same things – one of the biggest is to be treated with respect.

Tools

Just as you wouldn’t ask someone to build you a house without giving them a hammer, you can’t ask someone to do a job properly without the proper intellectual or physical tools. All too often we get frustrated with our employees because they are not doing what we want them to, but what we don’t consider is whether we’ve given them everything they need to do what we’ve asked.?

We live in challenging, interesting, and VUCA times. I find it important to remember that while sometimes your employee will be able to identify to you the tools, they’re missing to do their job well, many times, they won’t know any different, so they won’t be able to identify what they’re missing. It is up to ‘the leader’ to step back, think about what you gave your employee, to begin with, and what they might be missing to do their job better.

Please remember that this isn’t about whether you’ve made a mistake, but just taking a different perspective on a situation and looking for a way to empower yourself to make it better, instead of waiting for someone else to do it for you.

At the end of the day, leadership is action.