Over the years, I’ve had a number of clients mention that they were having trouble hiring good people. They would get plenty of applicants, but not of the caliber they were looking for. Which of course, led to an enlightening discussion.
I asked those clients this: “Why would a good/competent employee leave their current company? Is it for better pay? No. Is it for better benefits? No.”
Which brought us to this insight…
Most often, a good employee will leave the company they work for because of the culture.
They leave because they don’t like how people are treated at their company. Culture is not simply an HR feel-good issue. Culture affects a company’s ability to attract good people and impacts the company’s turnover rate – either driving it up or keeping it down.
Two additional insights come from this understanding:
The first insight is that if you want to attract high quality job candidates, it’s important to incorporate aspects of your company culture in the job ad. It will attract better employees and will result in stronger engagement, which leads to improved profitability.
The second insight is that if you want to reduce turnover at your own company, ensure everyone – especially the leaders – live the company culture. A culture only works when the leaders live by those values and behaviors, and don’t tolerate non-aligned behavior by others.