If you’ve been hustling in the workforce for a bit, then by now you likely recognize companies with high turnover. You know the ones: workplaces where employees commit to a year, six months, or maybe only a handful of weeks before calling it quits.
According to a report by Paychex, 70% of surveyed employees left their company due to low salaries. In this same survey, 53% of employees admitted to leaving because they felt their employers didn’t care about them as contributors to their company.
Financial success and employment happiness are key ingredients to keeping strong employees satisfied at work. Companies that are unable to deliver these career requirements likely experience high turnover for these reasons, along with other problems that cause employees jump ship. In fact, according to Forbes, employee turnover is the highest it’s been in ten years.
Any company that lacks retention is a company you don’t want to work for. It’s a telling sign that employees join the team and leave soon after, with only short-lived careers. If you want to avoid becoming another statistic of employment unhappiness, be sure to follow these tips on how to spot a workplace with high turnover.
How to Spot a Workplace With High Turnover
1. Lack of recognition.
It can be draining to bring creativity, innovative ideas, and new ways of efficiency to your company, only to have your boss or another colleague steal your ideas from you.
How unfair is it to be the brains behind good ideas, only to have the credit taken from you? It’s brutal and extremely unethical. Employees wants to be recognized for the good work they bring to the team. Employees wants their employers to celebrate their victories and demonstrate their value to the team. Bonuses, verbal congratulations, and recognition are some ways employees are bound to feel like valued parts of the team. Use an employee recognition platform software to make sure you are always keeping your employees engaged and feeling valued.
Young professional, if being being credited and recognized for your ideas and hard work is important to you (as it should be), avoid working for companies that don’t care for their employees’ success. You’ll only end up becoming another statistic of turnover.
2. Unfair rules.
If working for one company for a long time to acquire longevity in a career is important to you, make sure you’re on board with your company’s rules and regulations.
A big contributor to high turnover is a company with a lot of ridiculous rules. Employers that micromanage employee breaks, have an intrusive attendance policy, and/or abuse employee personal time should be watched for. Having a lot of unfair, ridiculous rules is bound to send good employees running. Watch for this, peeps!
3. Setting a low bar.
A great example of a company with high turnover is a company that has impossibly low standards for success. What strong, motivated employee wants to work for a company that refuses to challenge hard work and instead encourages laziness? No one.
A low bar means under-performance, which most good employees won’t stick around for. Good employees want to be inspired, productive, and thrive. Avoid companies that don’t challenge you or help you grow. Chances are good that you’ll be bored really fast and on the job hunt pretty quickly, which again leads to high turnover.
4. Misplaced talent.
It can be really frustrating to be a flawless editor, wiz with numbers, or inspirational leader and not have your talent noticed and properly used. Employees with talent deserve to be in roles and companies that properly use their skills and passions.
It’s one thing to have to prove yourself in an industry and company to work toward a managerial role if you’re a strong leader. However, it’s entirely unethical to have so much promise that you never get to use because the company you work for has misplaced your talent and doesn’t get you on track to utilizing it.
If you don’t use your talents and skills at work, you’ll likely be job hunting again soon. Spot workplaces that won’t ever utilize your skills and stay away from them. You deserve to work in an environment that uses your strengths to fullest.
5. Lack of empathy.
While work is work and you usually have to set aside your personal life while you’re in the office, there are times your employer should care about you personally. If you’ve experienced a loss in your family, you’re going through a divorce, or if you have health concerns, your employer should take notice.
A good boss would send you flowers if you’re in the hospital or encourage you to take some time off to grieve the loss of a loved one. Bosses who fail to care will always have high turnover rates. As mentioned in a recent Inc.com article, “It’s impossible to work for someone for eight-plus hours a day when they aren’t personally involved and don’t care about anything other than your output.”
The biggest takeaway from these points is this: good, hard working employees don’t leave jobs unless the job really isn’t for them. More often than not, employees leave because of salary, health benefits, lack of promotion, and the way their bosses treat them.
If you’re job hunting and you hear of companies with high turnover, do your research beforehand. Sometimes gossip is just that: gossip. Other times, though, if a company has a reputation of losing its employees, there’s probably some truth to it. Always follow your instincts, but keep your radar on. You don’t want to commit to a job and workplace unless you really feel it will be a good fit.
Have you ever worked for a company with high turnover? Discuss your experiences in the comments!
About the Author
Rachael is a University of Southern Maine graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and a minor in Sociology. She remotely works full-time as a Senior Content Marketing Specialist for Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. In her leisure time, Rachael enjoys traveling with her husband, finding the next Netflix series to binge, and taking too many photos of her dogs Jax and Kai. Rachael is obsessed with chapstick, favors the Oxford comma, and is a proud Mainer. You'll likely find her exploring New England + beyond.