Replacing staff is a costly and time-consuming process but the power is in the employers’ hands. Below are the top 5 reasons why employees leave early and what can be done to avoid this happening in your workplace:

• Relationships with Co-workers:

When you’re spending 7+ hours with your fellow colleagues every day, having a positive and stable friendship with them is crucial, especially when working in a very small tight-knit team. If employees are unable to form these relationships then their motivation will most likely be reduced, along with their self-confidence and happiness. Although the working environment doesn’t have the primary aim to build friendships, it’s is still an important part of every working day.

• Relationship with Boss:

Employees don’t need to be friends with their boss but they need to have a positive relationship. The boss is too much of an integral part of their daily lives at work for an uncomfortable relationship. The boss provides direction and feedback, spends time in one-to-one meetings, and connects the employee to the larger organisation. To have a toxic relationship with the person an employee reports to undermines the employee’s engagement, confidence, and commitment. A bad boss is also one of the main reasons employees quit their job.

• Overworked:

Although the workplace should challenge an employee and put their skills to the test, being over worked can produce very serious negative side effects. Workplace stress and illness can develop due to being loaded with too much to do in too little time. Working the typical hours of Monday-Friday 9am-5pm can be stressful and tiring in itself, let alone being loaded with additional pressure. Managers should check in with employees on a regular basis to see how they are coping and what they can do to reduce stress.

• Bored and Un-challenged:

Following on from our previous point, although an employee doesn’t want to be over worked and stressed, they also don’t want to be bored and un-challenged. A fine line between the two needs to be met to result in the best possible outcome. In most cases employees want to expand on their current skill set to improve their desirability in the working world, so if they find themselves bored day after day they will start to explore other opportunities and eventually resign.

• Lack of Training:

Improperly or untrained employees often express frustration that their employers overly rely on them being a quick-learner and don’t provide them with enough training, mentorship or plain guidance and direction to be successful on the job. A lack of training often results in unnecessary errors, reprimands and low employee morale. When an employee regularly feels defeated, they are prime for voluntarily exiting the company to find an employer who will take the time to train them to do their job and do it well. Businesses must set-aside time to properly train their employees, partner them up with senior employees who can walk them through the ins and outs of the job, and give the employee continuous guidance and feedback to improve their performance, ensure their success and the company’s success.

Information sourced from The Balance and Forbes