I once worked with an organization in crisis. There was a mass exodus of employees. People were fed up with too many decisions that, shall we say, didn’t line up with their expectations.
Geniuses with decades of experience were walking out the door.
This organization did not think it had a problem. After all, they had no problem attracting new employees.
But as I told you (and anyone could have), untested and inexperienced people cannot replace your high-performing employees.
New hires are not a capability. They are an investment. Maybe one day they’ll deliver returns on that. Or maybe they’ll move on in less than a year.
Change always hurts, even when it’s an improvement.
Replacing a known artist with someone new is especially painful.
Some organizations are hungry to grow, others want to keep what they have, and others need to downsize.
Either way, pay attention to who is leaving and why.
I can give this advice with confidence. A lot of what I say is stuff you may already be doing. But this? This is what you need to hear.
Because if there’s a mass exodus in any area, you probably weren’t paying attention. Employees will put up with a lot if they feel their concerns are noticed by their senior leaders.
My philosophy is simple. I set a tripwire, a threshold that tells me when to really sit up and pay attention. The exact number varies between organizations: McDonald’s thrives on high turnover, mainly because it has procedures in place.
Maybe for you, you want a tripwire as if 25% of your people leave in any given year.
The point of a tripwire is that it gives you something to do when certain conditions are met. I promise to do this when the tripwire is activated:
Panic.
If enough employees leave in a short time, I assume there is a problem and the problem is me.
Yes, even if there are retention issues throughout the industry lately.
Yes, even if you talked to those who are leaving and they had good reasons. It doesn’t matter if they won the lottery or if their mother is sick: leaving is still leaving.
This is the benefit of panicking, whether there is a problem or not:
Your people are going to panic. Now they have to do the work of a team with much fewer people.
By asking if there’s a problem, you show you care and help them manage their new workloads.
And, just maybe, you learn of any fundamental issues that are driving your people away.
This all sounds pretty obvious. But let me tell you, any leader who does this will stand out. A simple inquiry shows that he is paying attention and willing to make life easier for his people.
In my decade or so of office work, I’ve never seen a leader do this. Senior leaders didn’t notice a crisis even when, within six months, 80% of a team left…and the other 20% said they were looking to move on. Even when the remaining team members approached them and did the math, the leaders couldn’t see the problem.
“We can always hire more people!”
Hiring people is brutally difficult.
Solving problems is always easier.
Especially when your first step is to approach your people with an open ear and an even more open mind.