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Write You - Excessive Turnover (ET) Management
Many people who set up as consultants never make more than a minimal living. They get some clients who like them, but are so dependent on these few businesses that the resignation of a key contact can destroy their business for months ahead.The problem? They're nice folks who do a great job and have lots of experience, but they're not indispensable or even memorable. They can be replaced any day by another nice person with, apparently, just as much to offer. Or, more likely, by a new college graduate from a big consulting firm with minimal expertise but the power of the big brand name.Being THE expert (or at least THE expert in your neck of the woods) is prett
The main cause of excessive turnover is inadequate management practices. Given the sophisticated society we live in excessive turnover should have been eradicated long ago. ET is bad for your business and bad for employees, as anyone interested in, or struggling with, this subject surely has figured out already.
But why are so few companies dealing with it in a productive manner? The reasons are many. 1) They haven’t actually seen the effect on the bottom line; which is not to say it isn’t there – it certainly is – but it may not have gotten enough attention to extract the actual dollar figure and attack it as a priority action item.
Bootstrapping in the context of business start-ups refers to the use of creative financing approaches such as leveraging personal savings, credit-card debt, loans from friends and family, bartering, and other means to launch a business. Some business founders use bootstrapping because they have no other choice. Just about anyone who has approached a bank has learned that “only established businesses need apply.” Bankers typically look for cash flow, assets, an established customer base, and a successful track record on the part of the business that is seeking a start-up loan. Obviously, this is a short list that is impossible to fulfill when you are just getting started
The concern is that this is not just an occasional problem for many retailers and other companies in the service industry. It is an on-going state of affairs. It has become a ‘mission critical’ item that goes unrecognized as such. C level individuals absolutely must become involved with this epidemic called excessive turnover.
The research is out there. We know it’s very expensive to attract and train high caliber employees. Why, then, do so many organizations treat excessive turnover as normal and acceptable? The answer, simply and unfortunately, is lack of awareness.
Often top management is unaware of the root causes of excessive turnover and, as a result, their questions to high level subordinates focus on the activities taking place to attract people to fill vacancies (job fairs, advertisements here, there and everywhere, possibly the use of a professional recruiter, word of mouth, etc.) and those activities are pushed very high on the priority action list. The question to subordinates should be “Why do we have excessive turnover?” and “What is being done to ensure that we keep the good people we already have?” Why not put ‘hiring and keeping good people’ high on the priority action list? And I mean high…right up there with sales and profit.
When you define ‘good people’ for your particular business it is highly likely it will include some form of performance or productivity criteria. You don’t want to attract and retain nice people, or sweet or happy or kind people. You want to attract and retain people who are ‘good’ based solely on your particular company’s definition of ‘good’. Someone else’s definition of ‘good’ just won’t cut it.
Why not set up a new department to delve into this area? With all due respect to Human Resources professionals everywhere - and I mean that sincerely - the HR department is not the place to start with this new endeavor. An ‘attitude survey’ alone won’t serve the purpose. An ‘open-door policy’ won’t serve the purpose. Exit interviews won’t serve the purpose. You must have objective, sales and customer service oriented individuals looking at operations and asking quality questions in order to figure out what kind of management employees are being subjected to in the organization. Top performers, or producers, usually know what they do and do not like; what inspires and motivates them to perform. Getting them to tell you what those things are is the difficult part.
The main cause of excessive turnover is inadequate management practices. Given the sophisticated society we live in excessive turnover should have been eradicated long ago. ET is bad for your business and bad for employees, as anyone interested in, or struggling with, this subject surely has figured out already.
But why are so few companies dealing with it in a productive manner? The reasons are many. 1) They haven’t actually seen the effect on the bottom line; which is not to say it isn’t there – it certainly is – but it may not have gotten enough attention to extract the actual dollar figure and attack it as a priority action item. 2
It seems that some things never change. As adults, we hear through the media, about the lack of ethics and the consequences of ethical lapses. They capture attention in almost every venue – from broadcast to internet to print. Whether we hear about Enron, HP, or Martha Stewart – one thing we know is that the choices we make can have a profound impact on the consequences we live.Not only are adults aware of the ethical issues in our country, but youth are also bombarded with choices and ethical issues. Recently a “Teen Ethics Poll” was released by JA Worldwide™ (Junior Achievement) and Deloitte & Touche USA LLP (Deloitte). The results, featured on the Junior Achieveme
The research is out there. We know it’s very expensive to attract and train high caliber employees. Why, then, do so many organizations treat excessive turnover as normal and acceptable? The answer, simply and unfortunately, is lack of awareness.
Often top management is unaware of the root causes of excessive turnover and, as a result, their questions to high level subordinates focus on the activities taking place to attract people to fill vacancies (job fairs, advertisements here, there and everywhere, possibly the use of a professional recruiter, word of mouth, etc.) and those activities are pushed very high on the priority action list. The question to subordinates should be “Why do we have excessive turnover?” and “What is being done to ensure that we keep the good people we already have?” Why not put ‘hiring and keeping good people’ high on the priority action list? And I mean high…right up there with sales and profit.
When you define ‘good people’ for your particular business it is highly likely it will include some form of performance or productivity criteria. You don’t want to attract and retain nice people, or sweet or happy or kind people. You want to attract and retain people who are ‘good’ based solely on your particular company’s definition of ‘good’. Someone else’s definition of ‘good’ just won’t cut it.
Why not set up a new department to delve into this area? With all due respect to Human Resources professionals everywhere - and I mean that sincerely - the HR department is not the place to start with this new endeavor. An ‘attitude survey’ alone won’t serve the purpose. An ‘open-door policy’ won’t serve the purpose. Exit interviews won’t serve the purpose. You must have objective, sales and customer service oriented individuals looking at operations and asking quality questions in order to figure out what kind of management employees are being subjected to in the organization. Top performers, or producers, usually know what they do and do not like; what inspires and motivates them to perform. Getting them to tell you what those things are is the difficult part.
The main cause of excessive turnover is inadequate management practices. Given the sophisticated society we live in excessive turnover should have been eradicated long ago. ET is bad for your business and bad for employees, as anyone interested in, or struggling with, this subject surely has figured out already.
But why are so few companies dealing with it in a productive manner? The reasons are many. 1) They haven’t actually seen the effect on the bottom line; which is not to say it isn’t there – it certainly is – but it may not have gotten enough attention to extract the actual dollar figure and attack it as a priority action item.
The typical American business comes in all types and sizes. In fact, one might argue that there is no such thing as a “typical” American business. The business community in this country consists of multinational corporations having tens of thousands of employees, countless small sole proprietors with just a single employee and virtually everything else in between. One thing that almost all of them have in common is that they must deal with the responsibility of paying employees and complying with numerous payroll related tax and regulatory obligations. This can be an especially burdensome task for small business owners. Larger companies can afford to have full time st
When you define ‘good people’ for your particular business it is highly likely it will include some form of performance or productivity criteria. You don’t want to attract and retain nice people, or sweet or happy or kind people. You want to attract and retain people who are ‘good’ based solely on your particular company’s definition of ‘good’. Someone else’s definition of ‘good’ just won’t cut it.
Why not set up a new department to delve into this area? With all due respect to Human Resources professionals everywhere - and I mean that sincerely - the HR department is not the place to start with this new endeavor. An ‘attitude survey’ alone won’t serve the purpose. An ‘open-door policy’ won’t serve the purpose. Exit interviews won’t serve the purpose. You must have objective, sales and customer service oriented individuals looking at operations and asking quality questions in order to figure out what kind of management employees are being subjected to in the organization. Top performers, or producers, usually know what they do and do not like; what inspires and motivates them to perform. Getting them to tell you what those things are is the difficult part.
The main cause of excessive turnover is inadequate management practices. Given the sophisticated society we live in excessive turnover should have been eradicated long ago. ET is bad for your business and bad for employees, as anyone interested in, or struggling with, this subject surely has figured out already.
But why are so few companies dealing with it in a productive manner? The reasons are many. 1) They haven’t actually seen the effect on the bottom line; which is not to say it isn’t there – it certainly is – but it may not have gotten enough attention to extract the actual dollar figure and attack it as a priority action item.
Necessity once was thought to be the mother of invention. Why? Because it makes us want to innovate – or actually, need to innovate. However, most of us are already motivated. As workers in the Age of Ideas, we love to innovate, right? What we need is an environment where innovation comes naturally, where there are no unnatural blocks to our urge to create.Organizationally speaking, our environment is the organization’s culture - an all-pervasive force that shapes our individual expectations, actions, interpretations and responses to events. There are certain mandates in the culture that make it more natural for members of the organization to innovate. Typically, whe
Why not set up a new department to delve into this area? With all due respect to Human Resources professionals everywhere - and I mean that sincerely - the HR department is not the place to start with this new endeavor. An ‘attitude survey’ alone won’t serve the purpose. An ‘open-door policy’ won’t serve the purpose. Exit interviews won’t serve the purpose. You must have objective, sales and customer service oriented individuals looking at operations and asking quality questions in order to figure out what kind of management employees are being subjected to in the organization. Top performers, or producers, usually know what they do and do not like; what inspires and motivates them to perform. Getting them to tell you what those things are is the difficult part.
The main cause of excessive turnover is inadequate management practices. Given the sophisticated society we live in excessive turnover should have been eradicated long ago. ET is bad for your business and bad for employees, as anyone interested in, or struggling with, this subject surely has figured out already.
But why are so few companies dealing with it in a productive manner? The reasons are many. 1) They haven’t actually seen the effect on the bottom line; which is not to say it isn’t there – it certainly is – but it may not have gotten enough attention to extract the actual dollar figure and attack it as a priority action item.
Almost every person in the world takes a certain pride in being a reasonable person. They will make prudent choices based on their background and attitudes. The safe decision minimizes the chances of being wrong. No one likes to be wrong.The safe decision, however, carries little upside reward benefits. You are expected to pay your bills. Pay your taxes. Drive responsibly. Not yell fire in a theatre. Doing these things nets you no special extras.All of the great ideas or advances in history have evolved from unsafe, unconventional ideas. The non-conventional idea always offers the higher reward, as well as higher risk. It is not the norm to be unsafe. It takes
The main cause of excessive turnover is inadequate management practices. Given the sophisticated society we live in excessive turnover should have been eradicated long ago. ET is bad for your business and bad for employees, as anyone interested in, or struggling with, this subject surely has figured out already.
But why are so few companies dealing with it in a productive manner? The reasons are many. 1) They haven’t actually seen the effect on the bottom line; which is not to say it isn’t there – it certainly is – but it may not have gotten enough attention to extract the actual dollar figure and attack it as a priority action item. 2) They believe it is an industry related malady and, therefore, believe there is not much they can do. 3) Top management is not asking the right questions. And the list of reasons goes on.
Managers and recruiters spend an inordinate amount of time and energy scurrying around in a never-ending flurry of activity to get new people on board. If we would only spend half as much time and effort focusing on keeping the ‘good’ people we already have we would be able to climb off of the hamster wheel and become far more productive.
It takes great managers to manage and develop people for maximum effectiveness.
Among other things, great managers are consistent; are credible; promote stability; communicate well and often:
Consistency – It is difficult to follow a leader who is inconsistent. They may be seen unpredictable and/or wishy-washy.
Credibility - It is impossible to respect a leader who has no credibility. They can be seen as untrustworthy and insincere.
Stability - It is uncomfortable to work for a leader who does not create stability in the workplace and may even appear to promote instability and insecurity.
Communication - It is difficult to follow a leader who cannot, or does not, communicate well. They are often misunderstood and believed to be lacking clarity of vision and/or direction.
ET can be abolished by following some innovative as well as some solid, tried and true management/people development practices. You need to know what those practices are and how to implement them successfully within your organization. Understanding what your good people need from you is the first, and crucial, step. Your great managers have to do the rest.
DMS Retail offers an insightful guide to people management as it relates to the eradication of ET. For further information go www.dmsretail.com.
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