“Even Your Satisfied Employees Are Job Hunting in January,” an article on Salary.Com, reports that finding a new job could be the most popular New Year’s resolution of all. Citing a study conducted by Salary.com, the article notes that as many as 51% of all currently employed workers are thinking of starting a job search in the new year.

If you are a business owner or executive, perhaps that fact should prompt you to set a resolution of your own for 2017 . . .

“I will do more to convince good employees that we are a great place to work”

Pinpointing why workers might be thinking about leaving is an effective place to start. Per that Salary.com survey, one of the biggest reasons employees plan to leave companies is that they want to earn more money. But the survey found that other factors play a role in spurring employees to look for new jobs:

• 60% of employees want to leave jobs because there is no possibility of advancement
• 35% say they are overworked

Why Would Your Employees Want to Leave?

Finding out can be difficult, but not impossible. One effective way, recommended by our Founder Evan Hackel, is to have every manager in your company create a personal and professional development plan for every employee he or she supervises. When managers and employees work side-by-side to create those plans, employees realize that they have a stable future with you. At the same time, they let you know what they feel is holding them back in a positive way, by saying “If we resolve this issue, I’m with you for the long term.”

Another approach is to consistently conduct exit interviews with departing employees. Anonymous feedback surveys can work well too. If you are willing to listen, chances are very good that your employees will tell you what is on their minds.

And Don’t Forget the Vital Tie between Training and Retention

Many studies have found that retention improves dramatically when a company invests in training. One reason is that when employees are trained to master the skills they need to perform their jobs better, they feel less overworked and experience greater job satisfaction. Another is that when companies spend time and money to train employees, those employees realize how much their companies are investing in their futures. The right kind of training also does a lot to make employees feel more connected to your company and to their teams.

We have never heard of an instance when good training caused employees to leave their jobs, have you? Good training is a win/win for company and employee alike. If you would like to make a resolution to review your training in the year ahead, we invite you to speak with a Tortal Training consultant.