| A SPECIAL PUBLICATION BY MyJobMag
Every Nigerian employer knows the feeling. A high-performing employee submits a resignation letter, not because they dislike the company, but because an opportunity abroad promises greater financial security, career growth, and a better quality of life.
This is no longer an occasional HR challenge. It is a business continuity challenge, and the reality is that no organisation can completely stop the Japa movement.
However, organisations can significantly reduce avoidable attrition by building workplaces that employees genuinely want to remain in.
That is the philosophy behind MyJobMag’s HR Leader’s Playbook for Managing Japa-Driven Attrition, a practical framework designed to help Nigerian employers move beyond reacting to resignations and start building resilient organisations.
If you haven’t downloaded it yet, you can access the complete HR Leader’s Playbook for Managing Japa-Driven Attrition here.
This article breaks down a simple, practical blueprint any Nigerian employer can use to hold on to their best people for longer, even in a market where “abroad” is always calling.
The 10 Step Blueprint for Retaining Your Best Staff from Japa
Here’s a preview of the blueprint you can use to retain your best staff from Japa:
Step 1: Understand Why Employees Really Leave
One of the biggest mistakes employers make is assuming that salary alone drives Japa. While compensation matters, it is only one part of a much bigger picture. Japa is driven by a combination of push factors and pull factors.
Push factors include:
- Economic instability
- Declining purchasing power
- Limited career progression
- Poor management
- Inadequate healthcare
- Infrastructure challenges
Pull factors include:
- Higher salaries abroad
- Better career opportunities
- Stable economies
- Modern work environments
- Improved quality of life
The implication is simple. If you focus only on increasing salaries while ignoring employee experience, career growth and leadership quality, you are only addressing part of the problem.
Step 2: Identify Employees Before They Decide to Leave
Most resignations do not happen overnight. Usually, employees leave clues months before submitting their resignation. If you notice any of these signs in your employees, they may be deciding to leave:
- Reduced interest in long-term projects
- Requests for reference letters
- Increased conversations about relocation
- Disengagement during meetings
- Declining interest in promotions
- Frequent discussions about opportunities abroad
Recognising these signals early allows you to have meaningful conversations before employees mentally check out. Retention should never begin after a resignation letter arrives.
Step 3: Build a Compensation Strategy That Protects Employees
No Nigerian organisation can consistently outbid employers in London or Toronto. But employers can reduce financial pressure by designing smarter compensation structures. Examples of smarter compensation design include:
- Inflation-linked salary reviews
- FX-protected bonuses where feasible
- Transparent total reward statements
- Benefits that address real employee concerns, including healthcare, housing support, education assistance and emergency financial support
Retention is not only about increasing salaries. It is about ensuring employees understand the full value of working for your organisation.
Also, employees are more likely to stay when they feel their employer understands the financial realities they face and is making genuine efforts to support them.
Step 4: Make Career Growth Visible
Many employees don’t leave because they dislike their current job. They leave because they cannot see their future. Clear career pathways help employees answer one important question:
“If I stay here for the next two years, where can I realistically go?”
As an employer, you should:
- Define promotion criteria
- Create internal mobility programmes
- Invest in learning and development
- Pair high-potential employees with executive sponsors
When growth is visible internally, external opportunities become less attractive.
Step 5: Invest in Better Managers
Research consistently shows that employees often leave managers before they leave organisations. According to the DDI Frontline Leader Project, 57% of employees have quit a job because of a bad manager. Even generous compensation packages cannot compensate for:
- Micromanagement
- Poor communication
- Public criticism
- Lack of recognition
- Toxic leadership
We recommend that you implement the following:
- Manager effectiveness audits
- Leadership training
- Regular feedback systems
- Psychological safety
- Respectful workplace practices
Improving management quality can significantly improve retention. A talented employee with a bad manager will eventually walk, no matter the salary.
Step 6: Create Flexibility That Improves Daily Life
Workplace flexibility is no longer an employee perk. It is becoming a retention strategy. Flexible work arrangements can reduce some of the daily frustrations Nigerian professionals face, such as:
- Long commuting hours
- Fuel costs
- Traffic congestion
- Work-life imbalance
Hybrid work, flexible schedules, mental wellbeing support and healthy workplace boundaries all contribute to stronger employee loyalty.
Step 7: Conduct Stay Interviews Instead of Waiting for Exit Interviews
Many organisations spend time learning why employees left. Few spend time understanding why their best employees are still staying.
A Stay Interview is a structured conversation designed to uncover issues before they become resignation letters. The key questions to include in your stay interview are:
- What makes you excited about coming to work?
- What frustrates you most?
- What would make your role more fulfilling?
- Do you see a future for yourself here?
- What can we improve?
These conversations often reveal small issues before they become expensive problems.
Step 8: Build for Continuity, Not Perfection
The truth is that some employees will still leave regardless of what you do. Successful organisations prepare for this reality instead of hoping it never happens. So, we recommend:
- Succession planning
- Knowledge documentation
- Cross-training
- Building internal talent pipelines
- Graduate programmes
- Strong onboarding systems
Business resilience should not depend on one individual. While building internal succession plans is essential, every organisation will eventually need to hire externally for certain roles. The speed and quality of those hires often determine how quickly business operations recover after an employee leaves. That’s why many organisations complement their retention strategy with a trusted recruitment partner to help them source, assess and hire exceptional talent across various industries, making it easier to fill critical vacancies before productivity suffers.
Step 9: Make Company Culture Your Competitive Advantage
Culture is usually the deciding factor when employees compare similar opportunities. Based on our experience working with thousands of employers, organisations that retain talent consistently create cultures built around:
- Psychological safety
- Transparency
- Recognition
- Respect
- Inclusion
- Meaningful work
Employees who feel valued, heard and respected are significantly more likely to remain committed, even during difficult economic periods.
Step 10: Don’t Wait Until You Need to Replace Someone
Retention and recruitment should work together. Even organisations with strong retention strategies will eventually need to hire new talent. Having a reliable recruitment partner reduces the disruption caused by unavoidable departures and helps organisations quickly replace critical roles with quality candidates.
Final Thoughts
The Japa phenomenon is reshaping Nigeria’s labour market, but organisations are not powerless. The employers that thrive over the next decade will not necessarily be those with the biggest payrolls.
They will be those that intentionally invest in employee experience, leadership, workforce planning and organisational culture. Retention is no longer simply an HR responsibility, but a strategic business capability.
If you’re ready to build a stronger retention strategy, download MyJobMag’s HR Leader’s Playbook for Managing Japa-Driven Attrition for practical frameworks, ready-to-use templates and actionable strategies designed specifically for Nigerian organisations.
