Why do people leave organizations?

Disclaimer: This article is meant for experience sharing, resulting out of my professional experiences, clubbed with experiences shared by like minded HR professionals. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is unintentional and purely coincidental. The point of view is solely an HR Manager's perception. Feel free to comment.

Why do people leave organizations?

Group dynamics has been the single most intriguing factor during my entire career so far. I have changed companies to get a flavour of a different industry sector, just to observe how human beings behave in an organization under different environments. Not much has changed since Maslow scripted the Theory of Motivation. Just that the magnitude of needs have grown multi-fold, or let me put it this way - 'wants' replaces the 'needs' to quite an extent.

People tend to leave a Large Organization due to any the following reasons:
• False commitments - Commitments while hiring, that never get fulfilled post hiring (When recruitment becomes merely a performance target and not quality standard, the end result is disaster);
• Pay or role Parity / equity issues.
• Lack of challenge in work - Absence of a learning curve, no one to technically look up to; No desire to achieve higher goals; No scope of exploring opportunities within the organization; overseas opportunities etc.
• Lack of direction - Sink or swim scenario, absence of documented processes & procedures.
• Hiring mistakes - Gap in aligning people's skills to the right job.
• Performance Appraisal process - When the process becomes a number game and managers have no choice but to skew ratings on a normalized bell curve.
• Work relationships - Personal biases, wavelength issues, absence of a common company culture.
• Un-ethical business practices - e.g. - Compromising on quality; breach of mutual trust, compromising on core org. values, etc.
• Micro-level management - Un-due work pressure from the reporting authority, absence of a clear well documented goal sheet, Intrusion in personal space than focusing on result.
• Bad Boss – Humiliation by boss, un-fair treatment, undue work pressure, stretching the teams to work beyond limits and without purpose
• Work environment, logistics – Monotonous work ambience or infrastructure, e.g. poorly lit work space, insufficient number of rest-rooms, lack of hygiene at work place, Non availability of food and beverage around the work premise, transportation challenges, shift timing issues, non-availability of crèche.

Besides the reasons mentioned above, People tend to leave a start-up Organizations due to any the following reasons:
• Financial crunch - Delayed payment or non-payment of wages / salaries
• Lack of aggressive sales plan; lack of enough business
• Lack of empowerment amongst teams
• Lack of basic amenities, facilities and benefits
• Lack of direction / business plan
• Lack of organizational vision
• Lack of communication between management and employees