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Determining the root cause of employee
turnover
Some manager's first response to turnover
is… our compensation plan and bonus structure needs to be changed. Before
you overhaul your compensation plan, consider your overall management strategy.
Ways to help determine the root cause:
Observe departments
Just spending time in the departments
or on the job will tell you a lot. Roll your sleeves up and work with the
people in every department, even if it’s only for 15 minutes. Walk around
A LOT, be visible, and GET OUT OF YOUR OFFICE. Be aware of your surroundings.
Develop the skill of listening to all conversations in passing from all
departments. Notice and watch the body language of others especially when
they talk to each other. You’ll be able to get a good idea of how people
really feel about their jobs.
Launch a “Fix-it” committee
Sometimes as leaders we don’t always have
the answers. Pick 1, 2 or 3 people or more in your company ask them to
figure out what’s wrong and come back to you with a solution. Oh there’s
one catch; they have to fix it. They have to implement the new strategy,
not you! This is a win win. You get to let go and empower your team to
make decisions and fix them. You also find out what needs fixing which
will give you an idea of why you’ve had some turnover and what you must
do to eliminate more. Here’s where the “fix-it” committee came from. Several
years ago I was a Sales Manager for a large group of newspapers. This particular
sales department consisted of 30 inbound and outbound salepeople, a very
fast paced call center with deadlines for 21 newspapers. For those of you
that are familiar with call centers, you know that when all 30 reps are
on the phone you hear a kind of HUM, from all the voices talking at one
time to customers. The same kind of hum you’d hear in any busy active department
or even on a construction site. It’s a buzz that’s exciting and music to
the ears of all leaders. One morning I arrived in the department, I walked
through the call center and I realized I didn’t hear the HUM. Sure, some
folks were on the phone, but many were not. No enthusiasm, no hum. Scary
and alarming, especially for a call center with a budget of $8 million.
I immediately called on 6 sales reps… seasoned, new, part-time/full time,
and even people that didn’t get along. I wanted the opinion of a
mixed group. I said… I need your help, something is wrong out there; there’s
no hum. I’d like you to be the “fix-it” committee. Take two weeks and find
out what’s wrong in the department. Do whatever you have to do. Conduct
interviews; take team members out to dinner on me. Do what you can do get
honest feedback. Come back with your findings and tell me the solution
for each problem. One catch, you also have to implement the findings. The
more you let go as a leader the more your people grow! You’d be surprised
at the things that people come back with. Ask your people individually…
“What’s one thing you could do to make a difference here?”
Ask them to think about it and you’ll get
back together again at the end of the week. You may just find a diamond
in the bunch!
Exit interviews
Is an excellent tool and should be done
by ALL companies of every size and profession. Exit interviews are conducted
as a person leaves your company. The idea is to find out why they’re leaving.
Most businesses don’t use this to their advantage. Before you decide to
add, “exit interviews” to your company, be sure you have an action plan
in place. How will you use the information you get? Make sure all managers
are trained in conducting exit interviews. In order to own the idea and
guarantee success you must have a plan in place and a buy in from all managers.
Exit interviews should not be scheduled
on the employee’s last day. Waiting until the last minute risks that it
won’t be conducted at all or conducted in the right manner. It also says
to the interviewee that it’s not really that important, just one of those
company things that has to get done.
Have your questions prepared in advance.
Ask questions that require an explanation other than a yes or no answer.
Why are you leaving? What did you like about your job? What did you like
about the group you worked with? What did you like about the company? What
did you like about your Manager? Then, ask the opposite. Always ask the
question, what could we as a company do to improve, attract and retain
employees? What could your manager have done differently? If you were asked…
What’s one thing you could do to make a difference at this company, what
would you say? You must find out all the good and bad with every detail.
Conduct the interview over lunch. Make it a comfortable meeting, you want
to invite conversation. Done correctly, exit interviews combined with an
action plan is one of the best ways to determine the root causes of employee
turnover.
The question is, what are YOU going to
do about it?
