People have different kinds of motivations. Visual individuals are motivated by things they see. On the other hand, auditory types are satisfied with what they hear. Lastly, the kinesthetic ones are moved by actions and movements.

If you are a leader in an organization, it’s important for you to know your people and understand their individual motivations for sticking with the company. Sometimes, we believe that if it pays well and if we have lucrative incentives and bonuses, our employees will stay with us regardless of the circumstance we put them into.

The sad truth is, employees can disregard the lucrative pay and benefits anytime if they find solid reasons to say bye-bye. That reason could be as huge as not growing professionally and personally on the job, or as simple as personal, and as specific as not having a nurturing environment, or depriving assistance to employees who got out of alcohol abuse treatment.

Regardless of the reason, leaving employees is a serious concern for the management.

Here are the top 5 reasons why employees leave their high-paying jobs.

They are no longer growing in their role and the company. 

David Foote of Foote Partners said that regardless of if the pay is good or not, if employees, especially the performing ones, feels like there’s nothing for them on the job, they will not hesitate to leave. If they feel like their career isn’t going as planned, even if you promote them, they might decide to leave still.

According to Wendy Duarte Duckrey, VP for Recruitment of JP Morgan, it is important that your employees know of any available career opportunities within the company. Also, it is equally important that you know their career goals to be able to pair them with the right opportunity.

Take for instance the case of a Customer Service Associate who is flourishing in her role. Since she has been a constant performer, she was promoted to take on the role of a Team Lead. However, what the management failed to realize is the fact that this person is not comfortable to take on this role and is keener on bagging the Customer Associate Trainer post. Despite the prestige of the post and the huge increase in pay, the newly-promoted employee resigned. This is one classic example of what Duckrey pointed out.

They are susceptible to abuse while on the job.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why employees leave a high-paying job which exposes them to physical, mental, verbal, or psychological abuse. We work to earn a living if we intently subject ourselves to any kind of harm while on the job, it’ll totally defeat the purpose.

Though in most workplaces physical violence may be rare, there can still be violence in the form of bullying, blackmailing, and verbal attacks. These are non-negotiable and should be reason enough to leave.

Imagine an employee being stigmatized or ostracized by his colleagues with the mere fact that he is currently in alcohol abuse treatment. This is clearly foul, and if the management doesn’t act on this, then, they can’t blame their performing employee for saying goodbye, with or without consent.

Their work has become monotonous. 

If an employee is no longer challenged in her job, she can easily become bored. Consequently, if one gets bored, she will no longer feel motivated. Rather than waiting for the termination notice, she will gladly exit gracefully and find a job that will ignite that passion and commitment again.

To help keep employees riled up, Life Speak suggests the following methods:

  1. Reward excellence by incentives like cash bonus or simple acknowledgment during monthly meetings.
  2. Send employees to training, workshops, and seminars that would help them learn more and enhance their skills.
  3. Switch up your office by redecorating, by introducing artwork, or by putting up small changes that could perk up the team spirit.
  4. Let different departments mingle over lunch or simply encourage the same by designing your workspace to facilitate interaction.
  5. Offer job rotation programs, wherein employees can switch roles and functions with people from different departments.
  6. Solicit your employees’ ideas on how to improve the processes and the workplace in general.

They feel that their company will desert them in difficult times.

Some managers and business owners neglect the fact that their employees also check how loyal they can be to them in times of need.

If, for instance, your employee sees the boss treating a colleague who is battling a traumatic event harshly, they will think that they will be treated the same way if they are in the same boat. They will then start to question their loyalty to you and the company. This feeling will soon breed insecurity which could end up in resignation.

To avoid losing good employees, it is important for the managers and leaders of the company to be empathetic towards all their employees and be honest and fair in your dealings with them.

It would also be beneficial if you could cultivate a nurturing environment in the workplace by taking care of employees who need special help. An example of this would be to support AA meetings for employees who are receiving alcohol abuse treatment. Your compassion could make your other employees feel that you are one family and that you won’t leave them in times of need.

  1. They found better opportunities somewhere else. 

Since people have different needs and aspirations, it’s impossible to please everyone. Same goes with your employees. Despite the perks and the benefits you offer, if they see better opportunities somewhere else, employees can leave without batting an eyelash.

You can still do something 

The challenge for HR practitioners and managers, in this case, is how to keep your employees satisfied and motivated to stay in the company.

This would call for another in-depth discussion, but the point that we are trying to drive now is you can do something to make your employees stay with you for as long as your company is operating.

The key is getting to know them more and to work on that knowledge.
