Employees need quality leaders

Wrap it up anyway you like; browse the internet search engines, the academic literature and the gurus' airport books, the evidence is clear: when we choose a job, time and time again we "join because of the job" and "leave because of the leader". Seems we join jobs and leave leaders!

How so? More importantly why so, and do the people in companies who can change this, know?

Let's take a typical recruitment scenario. There will be a job description and job analysis maybe. More frequently there will be an expert job person matching techniques. Job competencies will be well researched and candidates rated for their fit. Pay and reward policies will be carefully researched and tested, cash flows and budgets will be consulted to assess affordability and the risk of exposure to poor employee performance maybe.

Reputation

As these processes roll and roll, perhaps we should stand back and ask ourselves two key questions: "Yes but why do people join us and what can we do to maximise the upside?" Secondly, we should ask, "after all this careful and expensive recruitment and hiring why do people leave us and what can we do about it?"

Here's the evidence accumulated over years of researching employee opinion across the globe. People join companies for five main reasons: job fit, remuneration, company values, reputation and security. Interestingly this is closely followed by work life balance in all markets, with in addition recognition, advancement and leadership skills in emerging markets.

So how can we leverage this knowledge in practice? From the outset online career sites, career fairs and career literature need to get ready for candidates' eager scanning for these factors. So show the care taken in the company to maximise each person's match to jobs, insights into how the pay and benefits are fair, consistent and matched to the market, how the companies declare and make a stand for their values, and the high esteem in which the company is held by the market, together with the commitment to securing work over the long haul. In emerging markets there is a further demand for proof people are recognised and advance their careers and that the leaders are sufficiently skilled.

However whatever the market the evidence is once we have appointed people they require additional assurances to prevent them leaving.

Our research points to these top five additional needs: confidence in the company and "my future", personal growth and development, safe workplaces with respectful and dignified managers who emphasise quality and improvement, corporate social responsibility and leaders who motivate.

The lesson for us all is that we join for the job (and money, make no mistake) and the promises. However after people join, then managers and leaders beware! First ensure these five pre-hire needs and promises and why people joined you are met. Then focus on the next five. There are high expectations of you in terms of breeding confidence, creating a sense of excitement, quality, responsibility respect and dignity.

It's not rocket science, in fact it is the essence of leadership. Gone are the days like 10 years ago when a senior director said to me, "Excitement? Dignity? Respect? They‘re lucky to have a job!"

That company no longer exists — but its talent lives on, respected, valued and dignified, elsewhere.

Vernon Bryce, Managing Partner, Kenexa Middle East