Employees quit their job for many reasons: they follow spouses across the world, stay home with children, or go back to school. Those reasons are hard to address by an employer because they involve life events that are beyond an employer’s control.
Employees also leave for other more ‘controllable’ factors, such as higher salaries, shorter commutes, and better benefits. Most likely than not, your best performers are the ones most likely to leave. And when a top performer leaves, the impact can be disproportionate – and costly.
Low salaries: Main reason MENA professionals quit
The retention of talent has become a challenge for organizations. With the better opportunities and economic benefits offered by other employers, qualified people are constantly moving.
When looking at the reasons that push employees in the MENA region to quit their jobs, our research has always pointed in one direction:
unsatisfactory compensation.
While compensation isn’t the only reason professionals stay in a job, unfair and uncompetitive compensation is often cited as the ‘top’ reason job seekers are in the market for a new role. Compensation issues aren’t only the salary but also the composition of the compensation and the types and scale of benefits offered.
According to “
The Bayt.com Work Satisfaction in the MENA” poll (November 2012), 60.8% of professionals do not feel well compensated in their current job, while 31.6% of professionals say that what they would most like to change about their current job is the salary.
On the other hand, 69% of MENA professionals indicate medium to low level of satisfaction towards their current pay, as revealed by “
The Bayt.com Middle East Salary Survey 2012” (April 2012). According to the same survey, 63% of MENA professionals feel that their salary is lower than the industry standards in their region, while one in 10 respondents say that they have not received a pay raise in the last 12 months.
Another survey by Bayt.com, "
The Bayt.com Middle East Consumer Confidence Index Survey" (March 2013), has also revealed that 46% are dissatisfied with their compensation and allowances.
Recognizing the ‘Human’ in Human Capital
Human capital is the most significant resource of any given business.
Studies have shown, time and time again, that employees who feel valued, recognized and appreciated are the most loyal. As a top employer, you must make sure formal mechanisms for evaluating and rewarding employees are in place, are competitive and are in-sync with industry norms. Do recognize outstanding performance and reward it on a periodic basis. Do set regular special initiatives that identify, celebrate, motivate and incentivize your star employees and promote their loyalty and retention.
Exploring Performance-related Pay
Although compensation is generally fixed for most roles, incorporating some aspect of a ‘bonus’ tied to performance for all roles (i.e. not just ‘sales’ roles) may incentivize employees. Although this strategy may appeal to a segment of your workforce, its implementation needs to be carefully assessed given the associated risks with the measure (lower morale stemming from employees not achieving targets).
Most of the reasons employees leave are because employers don’t think proactively about the steps necessary to make them choose to stay. In the workplace, you have to provide what employees need to do their jobs well – every time, and all the time. You also have to provide that important emotional connection – connecting the heart of the employee to the work, workplace, manager, and team. If pay is one way of achieving it, then why not?
If you pay attention to employee behavior and overall happiness, you will reduce turnover and retain your most wanted employees. If not, you’ll be holding regular exit interviews and goodbye lunches. It’s expensive to recruit a new employee. Why not expend the effort necessary to retain the employees that you have already painfully recruited and hired?
Photo credit: evoo73 on Flickr
