How to find out why your staff is leaving

Here’s my latest article on McKnight’s Long-Term Care News:

How to find out why your staff is leaving

During the Q&A section of my McKnight’s Fall Expo webinar “Letting them go with style,” the conversation turned toward why staff members are leaving their long-term care positions.
As I pointed out then, workers often give plausible but incomplete reasons for leaving their positions because they plan to work elsewhere in the industry and don’t want to burn any bridges. Others exit without giving notice. Without knowing the real reasons why employees leave, it’s difficult to make adjustments that will lessen turnover.

Challenging assumptions

Organizations sometimes disparage the departing employee rather than look at what might have contributed to their resignation. Psychologically speaking, this lessens the “narcissistic injury” of someone leaving. A narcissistic injury is one that hurts our sense of self. Rather than feel the pain of being rejected, we reject them.

A typical assumption is that there was something wrong with the resigning worker. For example, they weren’t dedicated enough, they didn’t appreciate the benefits of the organization, or they weren’t very good anyway (the “sour grapes” effect). This leads to the sweeping conclusion that you just can’t find good people these days.

Rejecting someone who has left us may help us get over failed romantic relationships, but it’s a missed opportunity in business, especially if our workers keep marching out the door in droves as they have a tendency to do in LTC.

For the entire article, visit:

How to find out why your staff is leaving