Employees don’t just wake up one day and place in their resignation letters without any reason. They do so to search for greener pastures; more money, enhanced work-life balance, better opportunities to grow their careers, or to wriggle out of a toxic or unproductive workplace.
However, turnovers are voluntary and involuntary.
Voluntary turnover is when an employee quits the company to find a better position at another company, encounters a conflict with a supervisor, or a personal reason, such as medical treatment or just having enough time with family.
On the other hand, involuntary turnover is when an employee is laid off or fired, in order to reduce staff because may be it isn’t doing so well financially, the company’s focus has changed, or an employee is misbehaving or breaking company laws.
High voluntary turnover signifies huge organisational glitches that need to be solved as soon as possible. But what causes employee turnover in the first place?
Peace Musiime, an accountant in Kigali notes that when employees realise that their morale is destroyed, the company imposes stress on them, or they’re not motivated to perform even better, chances are, they would choose to leave the toxic environment.
She believes that in order to solve this problem, companies should be concerned about what is happening and notice why workers act the way they do, hence finding solutions.
Musiime stresses that continuous overwork leaves employees with no option but to leave, just for the sake of their wellbeing. For her, there is no problem working extra hours once in a while and in case of an emergency, but ordering employees to work extra hours or report to work over the weekend is tiring.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention-CDC, shares that over the past four years, physical overexertion has been the second leading cause of injury and illness that kept employees from being able to go to work. Likewise, overworking has been linked to mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.
The World Health Organisation-WHO now considers depression the leading cause of disability. Healthline points out, being overworked can mean many people forget (or simply do not have time to) properly eat or drink. This problem could potentially lead to hypoglycemia (a condition in which your blood sugar level is lower than normal) and dehydration (when your body doesn’t have as much water as it needs.)
Musiime notes that managers must look through the overwork problem and make sure that those with more tasks are given assistance, provide staff with expertise or training to do work in a more professional way, or search for the root cause and evade it immediately. It is rare for overworked employees to be happy and enjoy working.
William Niyonzima, a business personnel explains that sometimes employees choose to leave the company due to ‘bad bosses’-these are poor at communication, demand authority, lack leadership skills, bully, don’t walk the talk, among other qualities.
He further says that if the CEO and the managerial team notice that best-performing employees are leaving the company, they must check the manager’s behaviours, or ask the departing employees to fill the form that highlights why they’re leaving the company.
"Alternatively, you can ask the remaining employees if they have an issue with the manager, if so, warn him or her, but if the situation worsens, fire them,” Niyonzima says.
He also stresses that boredom could be one of the many reasons for employee turnover, for instance, when some employees feel that they’re not learning anything new from the company, boredom sets in. Some workers don’t align their passions with their job tasks, so it’s obvious that they will get bored of doing something that they’re not interested in.
Niyonzima states that once the bosses notice boredom or lack of morale among employees, they should provide them with learning opportunities such as training or conferences so as to better their skills.