Commercial Integrator October 2022 - 8

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AV BRAINS & BRAWN
Why Employees Stay
To explore the importance of effective management, it's first necessary to understand what managing
is and how it has changed. By Alan C. Brawn
IN MY ARTICLES, I tend to focus on topics
we might " know of " or " know about, "
but that perhaps don't really know at an
appropriate level. By reaching that level,
it benefits us with more knowledge and
understanding. In some cases, I reinforce a
reader's thinking; in other cases, I hope to
bring new things to light. And, at my best,
I aim to create an " ah-ha! " moment and
motivate readers to dig deeper.
Well...drum roll, please! There is no
more important topic I can write about
today than why employees stay with a
company, as well as the important role that
managers play in that decision. Don't stop
reading here because you think you already
know. Don't assume! I promise that there
is more to know and consider. So, please,
stay tuned!
Join Companies, Leave Managers
Let's begin with a research report from
Gallup. The report opens with an observation:
" Employees join companies but leave
managers. " The pollster found a
difficult-to-digest truth: 75% of people quit
their job to get away from their manager
at some point in their career. According to
Gallup, " The number-one reason why people
quit their jobs is because of a bad manager. "
Employees who voluntarily left their
jobs did so because of their bosses, rather
than because of their position, the work
itself or the salary. Despite how appealing
a job might be, people will leave in the
absence of a good relationship between
their manager and themselves.
If one of your goals is employee retention,
then please re-read what Gallup
- and subsequently others, including
Harvard Business Review, Forbes, etc. -
have found. Ask yourself if you really know
what you need to know about managers,
their contribution and their impact. And
it's not as simple as a " good " manager or a
" bad " manager.
In an ongoing study of multiple companies
and several hundred employees, asso8
The
challenge of wrapping our arms around the concept of managers lies in the
very hierarchy that characterizes almost all businesses.
ciates were asked anonymously why they
stayed with a company. The data showed
employees stayed because of what the
study called " employee inertia. " In other
words, the study indicated employees tend
to remain with a company until some force
causes them to leave. The concept here is
akin to the concept of inertia in the physical
sciences - that is, a body at rest will remain
at rest until acted upon by a force. Of
course, this invites the question of what
forces might break that inertia.
The report found two issues at play:
The first was job satisfaction, driven by job
requirements and direct managers; the
second was the company environment (i.e.,
company culture) and the degree of comfort
that an individual employee feels within
it. Those two issues are not mutually exclusive;
instead, they overlap, with one affecting
the other. Change takes place when job
satisfaction and company environment turn
negative, reaching an unacceptable level
that initiates a force for change.
Of course, external issues also come into
play. There might be opportunities to consider
at other companies. There might be
Commercial Integrator OCTOBER 2022
personal issues, which can be the initiating
force and break the inertia. But, setting
those external issues aside, does it matter
if companies are attentive to making their
employees want to stay for job satisfaction
or cultural reasons? Yes! Research shows
that it makes a significant difference to the
company, across metrics of performance,
productivity and growth, whether employees
want to stay or just feel like they have
to stay. Next, let's explore what we need to
know and how management has evolved.
Hierarchies of Titles
The challenge of wrapping our arms around
the concept of managers lies in the very
hierarchy that characterizes almost all
businesses.
One subject-matter expert, F. John Reh,
says it best: " Organizations are hierarchies
of titles. The organizational chart or the
structure of the company and the relationships
of the jobs and responsibilities,
from the top down, may include CEO, vice
president, director, then manager. Each of
these people performs separate and critical
functions, enabling the organization to funccommercialintegrator.com
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Commercial Integrator October 2022

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