We’ve been harping about why retention is so important for organizations, but maybe you haven’t been listening. Or maybe you don’t care. So fine, if you don’t care about keeping your best employees happy and engaged at work, you might as well do your best to drive them away. Here are our top tips for getting rid of your good employees:
Send The Wrong Message To Employees
Yes, almost every organization’s goal is to be profitable and successful, but all good organizations have deeper missions and values that are just as important, and that the workforce should be emulating. However, if you don’t clearly communicate those values, or mix your messages, your employees won’t know why they are coming to work for you every day – and they’ll look to go elsewhere.
Keep Like With Like
Homogenous teams are boring and don’t help employees advance. Don’t mix generations, or skill sets, or experiences on teams. Keep them simple and safe and cause your team members to look for better opportunities to learn and grow.
Skimp On The Training
Learning initiatives are expensive, and honestly, do employees really want to spend work time learning new skills? Well, yes, but do you really want to equip them with skills that will make them more valuable on the job market? Never mind that they would be more engaged with your organization and better equipped for more work with you; they don’t really need it.
It’s All About The Nitpicking
It’s time to be a busybody manager! Make salaried employees punch a time clock, and measure hours spent in the office instead of work output! (from personal experience, this is a great tactic to alienate workers and disengage them from the organization! Show them you don’t trust them.) Watch their social media use like a hawk, discourage them from “wasting time” socializing with coworkers, and generally exude an air of distrustfulness that reminds them of an Orwellian nightmare.
Nice work! Those top performers are sure to run for the hills – or at least for an organization that will work with them to engage them in meaningful work and mentor them in their careers. But you don’t need high performing employees, right?
As it turns out, it’s not just established employees you can drive away. You can alienate new hires as well, setting them up for dissatisfaction and ensuring that they will leave your organization within a year. Find out how in “How to Lose a New Hire in 10 Days.”