Job hoppers? Your brand sucks.

Rex Huppke wrote an article that appeared in a number of papers this morning on the cost of Millennials' job hopping. Younger employees are simply up and leaving about 30 percent of employers surveyed, leaving these companies with significant replacement costs. This is perhaps reflected in the growing Quits Rate (1.6% in June), which is seen as an indicator of an improving economy.

Losing your workers due to dissatisfaction puts you at a competitive disadvantage. Regardless of the cost of employee replacement, projects are interrupted and dissension forms in the ranks. Your company brand has taken a self inflicted wound.

While you can't keep everyone happy all the time, there are a number of things that go into your company brand: Product, Marketing, Supply Chain, and Culture, and one of these things is not like the others. You can change your product, revamp your marketing, even switch your supply chain, but you need to grow your culture.

To grow company culture, you need to understand what motivates your employees. Furthermore, you need to understand how your needs, the company's needs and employee needs align. How? Just ask. Yes, in this respect, your four-year-old might be smarter than you are. Just keep asking "why?"

Why are our employees leaving? They're unhappy and feel unappreciated.
Why do our employees feel unappreciated? There is no internal structure for advancement.
Why isn't there an internal structure for advancement? It's too expensive.
Why is it too expensive? Our consultant said it would cost XX thousand dollars.
Why is that expensive? Given staff replacement costs, it isn't expensive.
Why can't we do it for less? We can; we'll put our technical writer on the project.

Your people run your company. By taking their needs into account, a fully formed company will take care of itself and continue to grow. Also, happy employees might just stick around for awhile.