Every organization deals with employee turnover. It struggles to fill vacancy even when no new positions are created. People get offers from prestigious companies with better infrastructure, great salary, fair policies, good perks and excellent training opportunity; But instead of building career and settling for a longer period, some of them walk out within a year or two. But there is a pattern of people leaving. Gallup conducted a survey amongst a large population and came back with similar findings. Any organization, losing good people, should look at the Managers handling them. People join an organization but leave their bosses. 

 

Good superior is the reason why people stay and flourish in a company and a bad one can cause catastrophe with high turnover. When people cannot retort openly in anger, they do so by passive aggression, by digging their heels in and slowing down, by doing only what they are told to do without any added initiative, by omitting to give crucial information. If somebody is working for a person without any respect, then the soul is absent in the job. Finally, some instances of lack of empathy or downright rudeness and humiliation will compel them to go. Research suggests that employees find humiliation most intolerable. First time, a thought would have been planted. Second time, resolve gets strengthened. Third time, searches begin actively. 

 

Different managers can stress out employees in different ways - by being too controlling, too suspicious, too pushy, too critical or even too hands off. But they forget that people are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on for too long, an employee will quit, often over a trivial issue. 

 

In any decently sized organization, normally a pattern of bell curve exists with top 10% people performs outstandingly well and bottom 10% poorly. Organization may not suffer if bottom 10% goes. But the deadwoods mostly stay back and talents move. With that, years of knowledge and experience departs as well, sometimes straight to competition. Some Company handles this by weeding out bottom 10% and rewarding others handsomely. But, while doing so, they cast a pall of fear over their employees and destroy morale and innovative thinking. Some does not believe in firing and to manage, they reduce gap between top and bottom. This demotivates the top performer but does not improve the bottom either. 

 

So what should an organization do to prevent high attrition? To start with, a study can be initiated to understand the turnover pattern. Is it pointing out towards any department, grade, age group or manager? Then an employee satisfaction survey can be conducted to understand whether the employees are motivated or not and if not then what are the reasons? Slicing through profile is needed when the survey results are analyzed. A lot can be learned through simple questions like whether the employee has any friend in office or not, whether his boss shares organization goal and vision or not. Based on that, certain action agenda can be decided. 

 

It is important to make certain that every Job Profile is thoroughly laid out. I must know what I am supposed to do, what is the organization expects from me? I have seen cases where people react badly when they feel that what is expected from them were never clearly informed beforehand. They felt they were treated unfairly.

 

Whether people are taking ownership of their team members or not is a critical factor. When the Boss very dispassionately disowns the blunder caused by his team and put the blame squarely on somebody’s shoulder, if one is not sure that his boss will stand by him in his hour of crisis then he will never stick his neck out. 

 

Organizations must balance their reward and punishment system. Even though the punishment should not mean that bottom 10% will lose their job but the reward for the top 10% should be sufficiently higher than others. People at all levels have to be suitably empowered to ensure ownership. To empower, one must analyze set of jobs each person is doing and what can be delegated down. The person to whom the job would be delegated can be identified by carrying out a SWOT analysis for each of the probable candidates. While doing so, we need to remember that each person has certain strength and if those strengths are played upon instead of harping on the improvement on weaknesses, the result can be positive and manifold. Post this, the person, identified for empowerment can be coached and trained to handle the extra work. He has to take responsibility and he would be held accountable. But, if he gets credit for successful execution and also possesses authority to tweak the system to achieve more, he will put in real good effort to excel.  

 

In a nutshell, there are certain steps any organization should take to handle attrition. 

1. Study turnover pattern – look for some weak areas which needs immediate attention  

2. Conduct internal survey to gauge employee satisfaction – create and implement action areas based on that  

3. Ensure appropriate job descriptions across all levels are created and informed to both employee and his superior without any ambiguity.

4. Implement appropriate evaluation system and evaluation are to be done fairly and transparently. Employee ratings have to be properly informed to him

5. Analyze training requirements and ensure people receive training as per their need 

6. Make sure people at all levels are suitably empowered and all required resources are provided to them to carry out their job

7. Last – but most important – create a culture of Care and Nurture and ensure managers handling teams are tuned to this culture. They are the key to build teams. Every team leader must be taught the following; “No matter what, I will always treat all my team members the way I would like myself to be treated by my superior”

 

But this culture takes years to build up. Management has to consciously practice this to achieve the intended goal. Employee is an important aspect of any organization that can either turn into an asset by delivering value or into a liability by becoming a burden. It is the responsibility of the organization to ensure that employees are groomed and properly utilized. For that, appropriate training must be given to managers who handle teams. They are to be trained to seek opportunity to show that they care for their team. A culture of care and empathy can be real game changer. As John wooden said – we must seek opportunity to show we care, the smallest gesture can make the biggest differences.