I think you have that the wrong way around? People leave managers not companies, at least that is the phrase I've often heard. But is that 100% true? As someone who has had some dubious managers over the year, and been one myself, I'm not sure I 100% agree with that statement anymore.
Yes of course, a manager who makes your life a living hell at work absolutely can be the catalyst for someone pursuing a job change. But in my experience, it's not the only reason why a company's employee retention gets challenged when your employees start to look elsewhere. I've often been in the opposite situation, where someone has said, "I love working with you", but I can't stand the environment or don't enjoy the work anymore. Kryzer, reporting on an Adam Grant & Facebook study, reports the same, stating that "Flying in the face of the old adage, Facebook employees weren’t leaving because of their bosses, they were leaving because of their jobs".
I want to put forward 3 arguments of why I think people leave companies, and not just their managers.
1. A manager is just a small cog in a wider system
Managers often lack the power or autonomy, especially in larger organizations, to make the decisions that impact the day to day running of their team. Everything from metrics, to compensation to strategic focus. There is a system that a manager works within, and if this system withholds autonomy (or investment/budget) for a manager to positively impact their own team, it can lead to attrition. In fact, it's sort of inevitable. The people who know what that team needs to succeed and thrive, aren't being given the autonomy and power to help their team thrive, then of course it will flounder. A manager is also just one of the people that an individual interacts with in their day. In my field of customer experience, customer teams interact with so many other teams and individuals that have the potential to impact on someone's enjoyment of their role - from the customers themselves to sales, marketing,product etc. If there is a strain in any of these relationships that a manager doesn't know about, or can't solve, then it puts your team member at risk of attrition, despite your best actions.
2. We need to hold companies, not just managers, accountable to why people leave
If you only hold (*note the deliberate use of the word only - I am not advocating that no accountability lies with a manager, I am arguing they are not solely accountable) a manager responsible for the attrition on their team, then if they are not actually the problem, you are preventing real change from happening. We've probably all seen that. Three people leave a team, that manager must be doing something wrong. Perhaps. But not always. What if they're leaving as the company refuses to pay market value, even though the manager has advocated for that? I've been told before "you hired them, so it's your fault if they leave". And I really owned that, because personal accountability matters to me, it's essentially the only thing I have under my control. But it was misleading. Because as these people walked out the door, it wasn't because of me, it was because of workload, company culture and compensation. All things that are potentially under the influence of a manager, but certainly not within their direct control.. Working with customer experience teams, often for traditional companies, your work isn't as highly rated and so valued as compared to traditional, well understood, teams like sales or product. Therefore I've often found myself in situations where I passionately care about the customers and teams under my control, while my leadership tell me what I do is "not (as) important", or still needs to be "proven out" or some iteration of "we don't value or believe that what you do is important". That is all related to the company needing to do better when it comes to upskilling and uplevelling their knowledge and value systems, not anything an individual manager should try to hold themselves accountable for. Do better companies.
3. Great managers encourage career progression through many avenues
If a company cannot deliver on career growth in a timely fashion, in my opinion, a great manager should absolutely be encouraging their team to spread their wings. Your job as a leader is to help people grow and unlock their potential, not limit their potential by keeping them stuck in roles that either don't align with them. In my career, I've experienced three avenues by which I can help my teams unlock their full potential 1. Climb the career ladder within the department they've been hired to. These are your Senior promotions, or promotions from individual contributors to Team Leads and Managers. This is the ideal career path that you hope for when you hire someone to your team, because it is a sign you are growing together. 2. Help them find roles within the same company that matches their skills/competencies and values. I've helped people make moves into product roles, from customer service to customer success, or explored roles in Learning & Development. 3. If we can't find a win-win on options 1 or 2 despite your best and repeated attempts, then sometimes the best thing for both the individual and the organisation is to help them explore a different reality, which may include outside of your company. Not all attrition is bad either for the individual or the company, as when you leave a job that's not aligned with you, you open up the potential for you and your replacement to find their dream job.
So next time your company is talking about retaining their talent, let's not just ask the manager about their last career conversation or development plan, let's ask the company what they are changing and investing in to pull their weight in retaining their staff.
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