5 organisational rules that drive away great employees

  Irrespective of how essential or significant they may be, some organisational rules and policies tend to turn employees off, eventually leading to exits

   Apeksha Kaushik, TimesJobs.com

 Employees are one of the key internal stakeholders for any organisation and nowadays great efforts are been made to put a check on the attrition rate. This is primarily due to the growing realisation among companies that higher number of exits can lead to a negative impact on the company’s goodwill and also add up to the recruitment costs.

TimesJobs.com talked to experts to understand what usually drives away top talent.

  1. Rigid punch-in deadlines

 Some companies don’t consider the fact that some of their employees might be fighting their way through the long traffic snarls to be able to reach office on time. “Companies need to get a bit soft at such occasions. Policies such as work from home might prove effective at such occasions,” feels Saif Ahmad, founder CEO of Hallwaze Inc., a provider of cloud-based collaboration and messaging platform for enterprises.

  2. The great hierarchy system

 The never-ending reporting structure and unavailability of a mentor leads to a suffocated working environment for many people, says Ahmad. Initiatives such as lunch with juniors and top management sitting with executives during working hours have increased productivity of many organisations.

  3. Experience over competency

 Many companies give weightage to the years of experience of an employee than the person’s competency, says Sunil Goel, MD, GlobalHunt, an executive search firm. “Promotion, grades and benefits are based on years of experience than competency. Though some organisations, especially the new-age businesses like startups, e-commerce, banking, IT, ITeS is breaking these rules,” he says.

  4. No work-life balance 

 “It is imperative for any organisation to value the human capital and keep into consideration that while some of the well-performing employees might deliver great results at a stretch, they are humans at the end of the day,” says Ahmad. Companies need to give such employees a break between long working hours and introduce the concept of fun activities in office, he says. These initiatives inject enthusiasm and passion towards work among the employees.

  5. Love your department only 

 “Millennials today want to explore dimensions beyond their realm. In the process of learning, they realise their love for a specific role or an area of expertise. However, organisations don’t give the flexibility of moving beyond one’s role or department. The best approach is to create an environment of open learning across departments,” feels Ahmad.