Saturday, October 21, 2006

Why people change their work place so often?

I’ve changed my employer for three times starting from 2004. First for career advancement, then for a better working place thereafter it was all due to frustration. Some pundits say changing the workplace so often is a bad practice and will add negative points for his/her CV.

I my self accept that, but there are things which are originally out of our boundaries and control.

Consider the following case;

I’d join with a SL development centre of a UK based software firm early this year. What their local GM published on the web was “Vacancies for .NET Developers and Senior QA Engineers”.

At the interview they expressed that they are intend to recruit a SQAE but not QAL, but when it comes to the appointment letter, I’ve got to know that they have cheated me from the very beginning; instead of SQAE they have changed the designation to QAL.

Bang, they’d recruited a QAL for the salary of SQAE. Initially my expectations were very high so expected changes in the working environment. It got worst during the next couple of months. By April they sent another carrot on my way. This time the carrot came out as a result of a re-structuring process. They promoted me to the QA Manager position, but no signs in changing the package. Seems these foreigners and their local partners are still having the colonial mindset.

They are good in talking, trying to impress us by telling that; main reason for their business presence over here to get the service of quality labor force. Bullshit, their main reason to operate businesses over here to get the cheap labor. I’ve learnt one thing; people from UK and European Union are so cunning compared to their counterparts from USA. Business people from USA at least appreciate our efforts but it’s hard to obtain such an appreciation from the Europeans.

In my case,

- Corruptions at the workplace

- Visibility over day-to-day activities

- Poor management

- Dependencies over day-to-day job functions

- Technical teams with poor technical skills

- Lack of improved communication skills and facilities

- Lack of appreciation on work performed

- Unacceptable workloads

- Poor project management & scope management

- Hidden agendas and personnel adorations over certain employees

- Poor recruitment process

Leads me to change the employer.

Last couple of days, I was searching for the reasons behind the job frustration and mechanisms to minimize their occurrence at a workplace and found the followings.

Frustration is main reason workers quit their jobs

http://www.onrec.com/content2/news.asp?ID=10102

According to findings from a study by Sirota Survey Intelligence, the biggest difference between employees who continue to work for an employer and those who decide to leave voluntarily is not dissatisfaction with their immediate supervisor – or even with their pay. It is how they feel about the work itself.

The results of the Sirota study of 228,798 employees reveals:

- The biggest difference between employees who intended to leave their employer in one year or less and those who planned to remain for more than five years, was in their overall satisfaction with their employment. There is a 52% difference between the two groups. Only 33% of those intending to quit within one year gave their overall satisfaction favorable ratings, while 85% of those planning to stay five years or more were satisfied overall.

- The second biggest difference (and strongest specific reason) between employees who intended to stay or go was in their satisfaction with the type of work they do – a 39% difference. Only 45% of employees planning to quit within one year were satisfied with the type of work they do, while 84% of those intending to stay five years or more were satisfied with their work.

- Opportunities for advancement ranked in the middle as a reason to stay or go – a 34% difference between the groups. Just 20% of employees planning to quit within one year were satisfied with opportunities for advancement, while 54% of those planning to stay five years or more were satisfied with promotional opportunities.

- Differences between the groups’ satisfaction with their immediate supervisors ranked next to last – a 23% difference. 55% of workers planning to quit within one year were satisfied with their supervisors, while 78% of those intending to stay five years or more were satisfied with their immediate supervisors.

- The smallest difference between the groups was in their satisfaction with their pay – only a 19% difference between the groups. Only 28% of those intending to quit within one year were satisfied with their pay, while 47% of those planning to stay five years or more were satisfied with their pay. “Data obtained over 33 years of employee research shows a very strong correlation between an employee’s intent to stay or leave and actual turnover. Those people who say that they plan to leave shortly have a significantly stronger probability of leaving than those who say they will stay,” commented Nick Starritt, managing director, Sirota Survey Intelligence. He added: “It is not enough to conclude from the research that overall satisfaction with one’s employment is the most important determinant of staying versus leaving. While exit interviews are useful in finding out why people quit, it must be understood that what people say in these interviews is often self-serving. Comments about ‘long-term advancement opportunities,’ for example, may obfuscate the real reasons for leaving.”

David Sirota, chairman emeritus of Sirota Survey Intelligence concluded: “Each of the reasons represents a failure of organizations to create an environment of genuine partnership – where employees like the work they do, their management opportunities for promotion and their compensation. Employees’ needs for ‘achievement’ plays a critical role in whether an employee will stay at a job for any length of time.”

Why Employee Satisfaction Surveys and Employee Exit Surveys make good sense

In a competitive world with the need for businesses to be more streamlined and productive a company can often find itself with a workforce working under pressure resulting in low moral and high staff turnover. The benefits of a company having a highly motivated workforce can be considerable and the two goals of having a workforce that is both motivated and productive should not be regarded as being mutually exclusive to one another.

Left unattended employers run the risk of alienating their employees, events can cause employee frustrations to boil over resulting in employers finding themselves on the back foot, faced with a problem that cannot be ignored.

Ideally employers would take time to understand the needs of their employees and learn from their experiences of working on the front line, but employers are often themselves tied up day to day fighting their own fires.

By automating much of the intelligence gathering process and providing the findings in a format that can be readily analyzed online surveys provide employers with an efficient, effective and low cost method to help achieve a pleasant working environment, where staff satisfaction and productivity is high.

Dissatisfied & Unproductive

The are many reasons why employees may be dissatisfied with their job and more often than not staff frustration is channeled into a demand for higher salaries and less hours. Employers, who tackle these issues head on, making it all about salary and hours, will often find themselves dealing with the symptoms and not the root cause.

It’s not about Money

The following are common barriers to achieving productivity, none of which are likely to be resolved by increasing salaries or reducing hours:-

- Out of date working methods

- Lack of proper tools and equipment

- Out of touch management

- Inadequate training

Many studies have shown that salaries are rarely the number one priority of employees and providing an employer is paying market rate they would be fundamentally wrong to think that paying higher salaries is the answer to all employee problems.

Take the case of a single mother who is juggling a full time job with the need to look after two children. Out of frustration she may demand more money so that she feels that she is able to cope where a better solution, for both her and the company, may be more flexible working hours.

It is About Communication

It is important for any company to encourage communication. Company's that make communication between personnel and management difficult, or take the view that if personnel have a problem they will say something, can often delude themselves into thinking their workforce is content when it is not. It only takes one small problem and one disgruntled employee to feel aggrieved for an entire workforce to develop a destructive ‘them and us’ attitude.

Improving Communication

One to one meetings between employer and employee would be ideal but in practice only practical for very small businesses.

Regular meetings between management and worker representatives are good in theory but they often become talking shops and can begin to loose their edge as the participants become familiar with one another and the forum runs the risk of being hijacked by the more extrovert personalities.

Suggestion boxes are useful but can be viewed as token efforts by management as they wait for personnel to highlight a problem.

Newsletters can be a positive step, but their purpose is generally to inform and not discuss issues.

Keeping the Initiative

An employee satisfaction survey run on a regular basis is able to ask each employee specific questions and represents a pro-active management initiative where the whole workforce can be consulted on various issues. Surveys are able to provide a level playing field between the quieter and more vocal employees.

Consultation should not be seen as a sign of weakness, a confident manager will take counsel from all quarters before making a decision. By issuing a survey and keeping the initiative the employer is able to tackle problems from a position of strength as opposed to waiting for problems to fester and then develop out of proportion.

Small problems left unresolved can lead to a situation where a minor problem might break the camels back and the workforce mood change from positive to negative over night.

It’s Quick and Easy

For the majority of companies online surveys represent a proactive and low cost solution. They are quick to design and for many companies, where the majority of personnel have desktop computers, they are quick to deploy direct to the individual.

In situations where individuals do not have personal access to a computer there are still many options available to implement the online survey solution such as giving access to a shared computer, operator input or, as a last resort, a hardcopy survey.

Job Satisfaction

There are many elements that go towards providing an employee with job satisfaction, from the working environment, working methodology, working ethos, company ethics to having good and effective management. Job satisfaction brings benefits through improved motivation and productivity from a workforce that feels that they are treated as individuals and not a commodity item.

Inform and Educate

An online survey can also be used to educate and pass on to the workforce important information, the ‘message’ is consistently delivered and does not suffer from the Chinese whisper phenomenon where a message can be distorted as it is handed down.

An online survey can explain a difficult situation and get valuable feedback from the employees as to the best solution. It is rare in this situation that the workforce would appear negative and more likely that they will feel informed and empowered that might in itself turn a potentially negative problem into a positive challenge that unites the workforce.

Exit Surveys

Exit surveys are an excellent way of ensuring that when personnel leave an organization they are leaving for the right reasons and not due to reasons that if appreciated earlier could have been addressed and resolved by management. Although identifying a problem may not prevent a person leaving it could solve an unappreciated issue that may, if left unchecked, result in other key personnel also leaving.

Analyzing the Results

Having consulted the workforce with an online survey the results are available for instant analysis. Common and specific problems can be easily identified and brought to the attention of senior management who will then have the opportunity to address the issues that have been raised.

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