Brain-drain is undoubtedly an important problem in some companies, where it sometimes even generates difficulty for meeting the profile demand due to the employee-drain rhythm. Henry Ford already talked about how expensive it was training employees and having them leave (but insisted too on the fact that it was much worse not training them and having them stay). 150 years after Ford’s words, this problem is still unresolved, and it has probably increased in some sectors.
Most employees, especially when talking about qualified jobs, don’t understand the idea that most of our grandparents had in mind of working for the same company for a lifetime. Times have changed, and we currently work towards motivation and by projects; we want to grow professionally wherever we are, feel good with ourselves, feel useful, and move forward year after year. The fear towards a job change has disappeared.
Why is there brain-drain at companies?
Among the most usual reasons pushing an employee to leave a company, we find the following:
- Lack of flexibility.
- A poor working environment.
- Excess of workload (or sometimes lack of it!).
- A limited or non-existent career plan.
- Disagreement with the corporate values.
- A salary not matching the employee’s talent or expectations.
Even though we must recognise that nowadays employees value many more things than just getting their salary paid in their bank account on the 30th of each month, for the 63% of employees the salary continues to be the most important factor for choosing a company to work for. Nevertheless, economic moments cause a slight change in opinions and we can see that once the hardest part of the crisis is over, the importance of work-life balance has increased by 10 points.
If you notice that employees are constantly leaving your company, maybe it’s time you think about what you’re doing wrong and try to find out which aspects are unbalanced. To avoid brain-drain, tools such as the annual employee climate survey we carry out at BETWEEN allow us not only to measure our employee’s satisfaction degree, but also to know their concerns and needs. Thanks to it, very valuable data is obtained, like, for example, that 79% of Betweeners would recommend us to their friends and relatives as a company to work for.
The emotional wage, more than a salary
The emotional wage is quite a new concept that has become very fashionable over the last few months, and about which you might have probably read in some articles or infographics. The emotional wage is everything that the employee receives independently of his/her salary; either social benefits (training, restaurant ticket, subsidised nursery, etc.) or intangible ones (good working environment, work-life balance, teleworking, etc.)
This kind of non-monetary payment is the key to loyalising employees and retaining talent, and it is also a measure for avoiding brain-drain. Furthermore, it is also a good way for attracting new interesting profiles that may sometimes be recommended by employees who feel good at the company and identify themselves with its values, and who finally end up being its ambassadors.
Those companies that understand the importance of the balance between a good emotional wage and a good salary obtain a clear productivity increase that affects directly the company’s results and helps avoid most brain-drain cases.
