At one eighty we are constantly speaking and meeting with people who are potentially looking to leave their current employment situation. Therefore over the years we have managed to gain some significant information around the trends and reasons people look to leave their jobs. Here are our top ten in reverse order:

10) Non flexible work environments – companies need to move with the times and those that don’t trust their employees to deliver without managers standing over them will lose top employees. For most professional roles, remote access is a given and can be performed in cafes, the car, home, the beach…. virtually anywhere.

9) Complete career shift – full credit to the people who have the guts and determination to take this route. A complete career change and therefore often an element of re-training is a less common reason for changing jobs, but we do see it on a semi regular basis.

8) Money – In an ideal world this would not be the main motivating factor, but in fact if it is, questions need to be asked of the candidate. However various organisations do not keep up with pay scales for high value staff. We often see this in the 1-4 years’ experience range, a time in candidate’s careers where they become highly valuable and are able to competently do what is required of them, but don’t always see the monetary rewards

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7) Relocation – Interestingly more common now are Kiwi’s returning home from overseas stints, and even the net migration rates have been driven by a lack of immigration to Australia. We also often see candidates relocating to various parts of the country, some to Nelson, Tauranga for lifestyle or Auckland for greater career opportunities.

6) Lack of forward project workload – at the end of the day, the top candidates want to work on the best projects, if the current employer is not winning those for whatever reason then this becomes a big reason for people to look at their options.

5) Lack of challenge – similar to point 6, but most employees enjoy a challenge and go to work to learn, interact and further themselves (at least these are the sort of people you should be targeting to hire).

4) Lack of onboarding – onboarding begins at the first interaction with the company, right through interview stage, offer, keeping in touch throughout the notice period, first day, first week, first month and first 6 months. General consensus is it can take 6 months for employees to truly feel a part of a new organisation.

Onboarding is not about reading through a few policies and given access to the intranet.

3) Culture fit – generally in actual fact this means not being given the stark realities of what the job/company is all about. I often advise clients to try and put the candidate off in the first interview, make sure they know all the positives AND the negatives – you will end up with a much better hire.

2) False promises – If as a hiring manager or business owner you are going to entice people through promises of career advancement, additional training, extra benefits, then make sure you follow through. Candidates often leave (not 180’s!) during the first 6-12 months because initial promises were forgotten.

1) The boss – Simple, obvious and in our mind the single number one reason for leaving a job and in fact staying in a job comes down to your boss. A good boss will be your advocate, mentor and motivator. A bad boss will watch over you, take your achievements as their own and generally make your life miserable. My number one piece of advice to candidates when deciding on job offers is to gauge how you feel about the people you will be working with and for. If your gut feeling is positive, then run with it. Simple as that really.