Why Employees Become Disengaged and Leave
When managers or supervisors are asked why good people leave, most respond by
saying “its about money”. Or, they simply dismiss the departure matter-of-factly by
stating that the employee “received a better offer”. As noted by Beverly Kaye, author of
the book “Love ‘Em or Leave ‘Em”, managers often blame organizational policies or pay
scales for the loss of talent. (Kaye and Jordan-Evans, 1999)
Contrary to expectations, research indicates that money is not even in the top five
reasons employees give when asked why they are leaving an organization. The way an
organization distributes money indicates what management really wants however. It
sends a message to employees whether the company truly pays for performance;
incentive plans indicate service or sales to customers; and an organization that pays and
supports employee development will generously pay for academic and training courses.
Salary and benefits tend to attract people to organizations, but are not usually the
reasons employees leave (Herman, 1999). Listed below is what pay really means to
employees (Dibble, 1999):