Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue IV, 2012 | Page 78

People
By Mel Kleiman

Magnetic Managers
Retaining your top employees

H

ow do you feel when a valued
employee gives notice? Are
you shocked? Disappointed?
Do you feel like you’ve been
jilted? Do you have the uncomfortable
feeling it was somehow your fault? If so,
you are probably right.
The #1 reason really good people leave
is because they are dissatisfied with their
relationship with their immediate supervisor or manager. You may have heard the
old saying, “People join companies, but
they leave their managers.”
While that great employee probably
told you the reason was “for more money,”
a study of more than 19,000 employee
exit interviews by the Saratoga Institute
found that only 12 percent of employees
left their jobs in pursuit of higher-paying
positions. On the other side of the equation, nearly 90 percent of employers think
the #1 reason workers leave is for higher
salaries, but only because that’s what they’re
most often told. (No one with any sense is
going to jeopardize their work record and
references by saying something like: “I’m
fed up to here with your management style
and I’m not going to take it any more.”
“They offered me more money” is a white
lie that saves face for both parties.)
At a recent seminar, I asked more than
300 attendees how many of them had a
great boss. Just over 25 percent raised
their hands. I then asked that group
if they would consider leaving that
great manager and taking a new
job if someone offered them a 5
percent raise. No hands went
up. “How about 10 percent?”
Still no hands. “15 percent?”
About 20 hands went up. At 20
percent, almost all the rest of
the hands went up. Bottom line: It
takes a lot to pry great people away from
what I like to call “Magnetic Managers.”
While not everybody can be a great
leader, anyone can become a Magnetic

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Multi-Unit Franchisee Is s ue IV, 2012
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