9 Reasons Why Top-Performing Employees Leave

Top-per­form­ing employ­ees are hard to come by, so it can be dev­as­tat­ing for an orga­ni­za­tion when they leave. In fact, only 7% of com­pa­nies feel they have the abil­i­ty to retain top performers.

Why is that? As with all employ­ee reten­tion issues, there isn’t a sim­ple answer. In fact, there are many rea­sons why great employ­ees leave, and those rea­sons can be as diverse as the employ­ees them­selves. There­fore, it’s impor­tant to under­stand why top tal­ent leave organizations.

1. Overworked and Burnt Out

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Many peo­ple strug­gle with feel­ing over­worked and burnt out; in fact, 52% of work­ers in the U.S. feel burnout at work. If an employ­ee feels over­worked from their job for an extend­ed peri­od of time, they will like­ly leave the orga­ni­za­tion. So, super­vi­sors should work to pro­vide a healthy work-life bal­ance for a more sat­is­fied team and to avoid employ­ee burnout.

2. They Don’t Feel Valued

Top per­form­ers are valu­able because they often pro­duce bet­ter results than their peers. How­ev­er, when best achiev­ers don’t get rec­og­nized for the work that they do, they start to look for job oppor­tu­ni­ties else­where. If com­pa­nies don’t acknowl­edge and appre­ci­ate the added val­ue top-per­form­ing employ­ees bring to the orga­ni­za­tion, then they’ll start to feel less moti­vat­ed to put in the extra effort.

3. Lack of Flexibility

Remote work options and work-life flex­i­bil­i­ty are cru­cial must-haves to attract and retain top tal­ent. These top per­form­ers may need to work in uncon­ven­tion­al set­tings and at odd hours, so their nat­ur­al work­flow should be sup­port­ed. More­over, stud­ies show that flex­i­ble work­ing arrange­ments increase job sat­is­fac­tion, health, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, loy­al­ty, and retention.

4. They’re Not as Engaged

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Employ­ee engage­ment is crit­i­cal to reten­tion, and that’s espe­cial­ly true for top per­form­ers. High-per­form­ing employ­ees need an excit­ing and chal­leng­ing work envi­ron­ment that uti­lizes their skillset every­day. As a result, super­vi­sors need to pour atten­tion into ensur­ing their peo­ple are engaged and hap­py to pre­vent them from mov­ing on to the next best opportunity.

5. Career Development is Limited

Top per­form­ers need a clear growth path, so the best peo­ple can see how they can have a long and suc­cess­ful career with their com­pa­ny. In addi­tion, super­vi­sors should have fre­quent career devel­op­ment dis­cus­sions and train­ing to ensure that their team’s learn­ing and devel­op­ment needs are being met.

6. Lack of Creativity

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Top per­form­ers are often wild­ly cre­ative. As a result, jobs that don’t allow them to col­or out­side the lines can quick­ly become stale. Com­pa­nies should let their peo­ple tack­le chal­leng­ing prob­lems, sit in on brain­storm­ing ses­sions, and work out­side their job scope. Super­vi­sors should avoid keep­ing their ris­ing stars in repet­i­tive posi­tions — instead, they should offer oppor­tu­ni­ties where their peo­ple can real­ly shine.

7. Not Enough Feedback

Top-per­form­ing employ­ees want reg­u­lar feed­back. They want to know how they’re doing and where they can do bet­ter. They also don’t want to wait for their annu­al per­for­mance review. Super­vi­sors need to pro­vide spon­ta­neous feed­back and recog­ni­tion, so their peo­ple feel seen and encouraged.

8. They Don’t Have Autonomy

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Com­pa­nies need to allow their peo­ple plen­ty of auton­o­my. In oth­er words, no micro­manag­ing. Peo­ple want to feel like they’re trust­ed and have some own­er­ship over their role and out­put. Lead­ers who micro­man­age their employ­ees sti­fle cre­ativ­i­ty and dri­ve their top per­form­ers away.

9. Lacking Meaningful Benefits and a Competitive Salary

Top tal­ent will not stay at a job where they are under­paid or receiv­ing sub­par ben­e­fits. Peo­ple need com­pre­hen­sive salaries and ben­e­fits pack­ages, and they need those ben­e­fits to be mean­ing­ful for their lives today.

Too often, com­pa­nies offer ben­e­fits that are only applic­a­ble if the employ­ee is sick, retired, or deceased. Instead, com­pa­nies need to pro­vide their peo­ple with per­son­al­ized lifestyle ben­e­fits they can use right away – like gym mem­ber­ships, food deliv­ery ser­vices, ther­a­py, and more.

Retaining Top-Performing Employees

Fringe can help retain top tal­ent by mak­ing them feel val­ued. Fringe’s per­son­al­ized lifestyle ben­e­fits plat­form lets peo­ple choose the ben­e­fits that impact and improve their dai­ly lives the most.

From ther­a­py and edu­ca­tion to sub­scrip­tion box­es and food deliv­ery — Fringe’s plat­form has the ben­e­fits all employ­ees want.

Talk with our team today to get started!