Ten Great Ways To Lose Good Employees As supply chains tighten and the tempo of the global economy accelerates, pressures are increasing on employees in America. Reports of stress, anxiety and exhaustion are becoming more frequent, and many companies are becoming frustrated as some of their best employees decide to leave, rather than endure the strain. Often good employees are lost because managers are pursuing practices that push them out, showing insensitivity to individual needs or to the job assignments of their staffs. Here are ten ways that companies cause good employees to jump to competitors, start their own businesses or switch to a career they feel is more rewarding. 1. Don't provide objectives or realistic time frames. While managers may grasp the business objectives of their departments or divisions, their employees often are kept in the dark. Moreover, managers may be demanding considerable overtime work without explaining why projects are being compressed into last-minute schedules. Management should make staff aware of the company's goals and the reasons for the critical time frames in which they are working. They should detail the rewards to the employees that lie at the end of the effort, such as direct incentives or growth of the company that will allow more resources for salaries, benefits and expansion of human resources to ease the load. 2. Don't communicate with employees regularly. Employees may translate management's failure to communicate as a lack of concern for their interests or suggestions. Studies have shown that "being in the loop" is one of the most important factors contributing to job satisfaction. Once objectives are set, management should provide ongoing communications with employees to describe progress being made, exceptional efforts, barriers and customer response. 3. Use email as your primary communications method. While it's easy to blanket the company with electronic messages, most employees who work at their computers all day long value relationships and human contact. The most effective communication usually results from managers meeting in person with their employees on a regular basis to supplement other communications, such as newsletters, postings, memos and one-to-one messages. Body language carries much of the message when managers express enthusiasm, concern or appreciation, and the managers in turn can observe the body language of staff during the meeting to discover their levels of satisfaction, confusion or apprehension. Moreover, in a meeting setting, the manager is certain the message is being heard, whereas electronic communications may be more easily ignored or misinterpreted. 4. Don't provide a means for employee feedback. Communication within a company should always be a two-way process. Managers fall easily into top-down communication patterns, but methods must be available for employees to indicate their needs for clarification of assignments, goals or policies; ideas for improving operational effectiveness; or warnings about impending problems they foresee. This feedback may be part of general staff meetings, individual meetings with managers or written suggestions. Management always should respond promptly to written feedback to reassure the employee that the communication has been received and is being considered or to deliver a specific answer. 5. Don't conduct exit interviews. If management does not know why its employees are leaving, it never will be able to retain them. Exit interviews always should be conducted with employees who make the decision to leave the company. The purpose of the interview should be to discover problems that the company can resolve to halt dissension and raise employee satisfaction. These problems may center on flaws in policies, entrenched misperceptions, recurring difficulties with individual managers or parity issues surrounding pay scales and benefits. 6. Impose your own holiday schedule and observances. Managers must be sensitive to diversity among its staff, building enough flexibility in the company's holiday and time-off schedule to allow for observances of religious holidays among its entire employee base. Many companies have switched from a fixed schedule to a paid-time-off program that offers a set number of days for holidays, sickness and vacation time, to be used at the employee's discretion, with the usual approval of management. Managers should be cautious with holiday decorations, as well. For example, non-Christian employees may view a nativity scene outside their office door as a religious observance that shows lack of sensitivity and appreciation on the part of management. 7. Take away key benefits and incentives. Some companies have created incentive plans (such as bonus programs) for employees to reach specific goals and then, after the goals are reached by some, cancel future incentives to save money. In effect, they are abandoning the incentive because it works. When incentives are developed, managers should be certain they will become available to all who qualify, and they should become a foundation for building even more ways to encourage good performance. A major incentive for many workers is the company's benefit plan-healthcare, 401k contributions and other perks. If any of these benefits are eliminated or significantly altered, both financial and family pressures on employees may escalate and job satisfaction can plummet. Work with the company's benefits agency to find ways employees can reasonably share in the cost of their benefits without losing valuable programs altogether. 8. Fail to reward employees for good work and individual achievement. Too often, managers set goals and difficult timelines that employees succeed in meeting and never recognize the effort of the individuals involved. Meetings with individuals and notes to their file are important first steps in recognition, but exceptional effort should be made known to the employee's peers as well to set an example throughout the company. Recognition of individuals can backfire, however, if management ignores the team effort involved. Those who may have been slighted may magnify the oversight into a general feeling that management does not appreciate them. Managers should be certain to acknowledge every individual who contributed to a particular success. 9. Ask them to work long hours but don't provide sustenance or recognition. Managers should recognize that projects requiring long hours can be both physically and mentally taxing. If employees are expected to remain at their desks, management should provide meals and the opportunity for recuperative or recreational breaks. Substantial overtime can be difficult for families. In recognizing employee achievement, a note to the staff member's family expressing appreciation for the employee's devotion and recognition of the family's burden can help generate more positive attitudes toward the company. 10. View employees as easily replaceable, interchangeable elements of your company. Employees want to be valued for their distinctive skills. Managers should recognize these abilities and assure the employee that they are valued throughout the company. For their part, managers should seek to understand the underlying value of individual employees who may be looked upon as unofficial leaders by other employees, may carry social clout within the organization, may be a source of counsel for their peers or may otherwise influence the staff in ways that are informal but nevertheless very important to the employees. Losing a key individual of this sort can be very costly and detrimental to employee satisfaction levels.