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Why Your Top Performers may soon be Resigning

By Vahid Haghzare, Director Silicon Valley Associates Recruitment &
Armie Garcia, Marketing Associate, Silicon Valley Associates Recruitment

One of the top IT Recruitment Agencies in Hong Kong, Dubai, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Singapore, and Japan, SVA Recruitment is an IT and employment agency that provides jobs, executive search, and recruitment services.

Introduction

According to a new report by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, apparently, over 4 million employees left their positions in July this year. And an unprecedented peak of under 11 million available jobs was reported by employers.

The IT industry is hit hardest, with 80% of tech managers saying they’ve seen a rise in turnover in 2021. Which of course is good news for IT Recruiters out in the US.

But this is not an exclusive problem in the USA. Silicon Valley Associates Recruitment has been noticing a similar trend in our IT Recruitment agency in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Dubai, Japan, and Singapore.

Top workers resigning is especially difficult to take, and it is happening at an alarming rate.

Keeping great talent can be difficult when other companies are competing to poach them. And some companies are not able to respond or act immediately to avoid loss caused by an offer of huge salary increase elsewhere, or effectively negotiating a sufficient counteroffer”

The knock-on effects of losing good talent are also damning. Other employees’ productivity and morale go down, and coworkers are burdened with more tasks.

But prevention is much better than finding a cure. So, finding out the reason why good employees are quitting is the first thing you must do before you can carry out a plan to increase staff retention

Here are some of the most common reasons why your talent has or maybe planning to quit, according to SVA Recruitment Founder and Director, Vahid Haghzare:

1. Low Engagement Levels

Quite simply, employees who feel engaged by their roles, the company purpose and direction, and their personal development opportunities internally are going to stay no matter who approaches them.

Those employees who are more detached from the company’s mission, vision, and values are likely to quit and pack up when something better comes around.

From the 2021 Gallup survey, 15% of tech workers in Asia are said to be ‘actively disengaged’ which is a notable number in the workforce.

“These employees are not engaged with their current roles or workplace. Yes, they will be professional, present, and do their tasks every day, but once another opportunity comes up that speaks more to them, or is financially higher, they will leave. Even if they are generally settled in the existing job”, says Haghzare.

Paying attention to the subtle signs is important for you as the employer to notice if one of your team is actively engaged or disengaged.

Managers are highly advised to observe their employees. The following signs are usually red flags-

1. Calling in sick more than usual
2. Doing their tasks to a bare minimum
3. Not interested in participating enough in social activities

Compare this to an engaged employee who-

1. Gets to work early, and even works weekends or public holidays to catch up
2. Goes above and beyond the expectations to do the very best work possible
3. Keen to interact with other team members, do things together out of work

“Avoid comparing employees, you should assess them individually. Base your assessments on their productivity and quality of work,” says Haghzare.

“Some of the signs you may look out for are when one of your employees who used to start early every day and clearly trying their best at work, all of a sudden start to come to work late, leaves early, takes days off and the quality of their work is obviously not their best effort.”

2. Employees don’t quit jobs, they quit managers

The first thing you should actually look into when you lose one valuable employee(s) is the management itself.

The engagement of employees is very much down to the manager. Why did they not find a way to engage the person? As the person who interacts with the talent every day, this is a key part of their responsibility.

Of course, managing a team is never easy. As the leader, you will have to look at them individually, and spend time to know each of their needs, and how to enable them to execute their job with their best ability.

Clear and reliable management is what every employee expects. They want to work where their work is valued. If they don’t see these factors, they tend to quit.

“The management should interact directly with their employees every day. They are expected to respond quickly and deliver a firm decision to certain situations, and responsible for the results” says SVA Recruitment Director Vahid Haghzare.

In their defense, managers are not usually born, and many companies do not invest in training so when their proposed leaders make that step up, they are equipped to handle the requests and refinements of the managing.

Just because someone was a great Software Engineer or individual Sales, doesn’t mean they can instantly become a Team Leader. Training is needed to help managers to lead their teams.

“This has become a persistent matter. A high-performing employee is promoted to management positions without sufficient training, which frustrates the teams under these unprepared managers, and they end up looking for alternative and better career development paths within and outside the company,” explain Haghzare.

See also: Technical Debt’- A reason why your Software Developers may be considering leaving your company.

3. Not enough opportunities for growth of employees

One of the biggest reasons top talents quit is they don’t see any progress in their careers.

“Top performers are very demanding. That’s why they are the best. They may be engaged and performing for you now, but eventually, they will want more. They will want the next step. Top performers don’t stand still’, says SVA Recruitment Director Vahid Haghzare.

Working on the latest technology or tools; learning the latest skills (technical or non-technical); seeing gradual growth in responsibilities; and of course, regular increase in earnings. These are all considerations a company must make to satisfy the insatiable demands of their top talent.

On the point of responsibilities or promotions, don’t assume this means they want to become managers or leaders.

“You should also consider putting up a non-managerial career path because not all your top workers want a managerial position when it comes to increasing responsibilities or earnings”, says Haghzare. Otherwise, they will look for another company that will provide them with that.

Additionally, people’s plans change. What your top performer was seeking last year, may not be what’s going to drive the next year.

“The key to having a successful relationship is having frequent discussions with your valuable workers, you may ask them regularly what’s making them stay or what they like about the current position, and where they see themselves in the future”, Haghzare explains

Experts encourage more frequent performance reviews as feedback is highly important for your teams. It will also help you improve and satisfy your employees more.

Managers are advised to schedule a call or video meetings to converse with their team frequently, to give them a chance to raise concerns and suggestions

Your organization may be at risk of losing connection with your workers and increasing the possibility of them leaving if they are not being given valuable feedback by their managers or discussing their changing career goals at the bare minimum of once a year.

Might be interested in: Alternative Careers are to look out for if you are a Programmer

4. Your policies are too firm and lead to burnout.

Even before the pandemic, flexible scheduling was common already in the IT industry.

Today, if you want to keep your workers, you should really be providing them permanent options to work from home.

Workers don’t want to stick to their desks all the time or every working hour, they are also humans who need to bond with their families.

“They want the flexibility where they can reside where they want and have flexible rest times too”, Haghzare advises.

Burnout is one of the leading factors that lead your employees to leave.

See: Why Programmers are Feeling Burned Out, and How to Avoid It

A recent SVA survey found that 54% of tech workers are feeling overwhelmed with tasks and 40% already feel worn out.

It is extremely important to pay attention and listen to your employees’ concerns and challenges to keep valuable workers in your company.

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Silicon Valley Associates is ideally positioned to support the continual demand from tech companies and IT Departments looking to hire in Hong Kong, Asia, and Worldwide. Please let us know if you would further advise on the above topic or your hiring needs