Fact - we all hire poorly from time to time. No one has perfected the art of recruitment.
Fact - having “poor” hires leave quickly is usually good for everyone.
Fact - having your best hires leave for avoidable reasons is bad, and demands your full, honest attention.
Yes, measure your team member turnover. Gather insights into the effectiveness of your recruitment process, the competence of your managers and more broadly, your organisational culture. But really measure your regrettable turnover! Of the people that leave, what proportion would you hire back tomorrow? If your best or highest potential team members are leaving - if you’re watching performance and culture fit walk out the door - drill down on why and take action immediately.
- What was the relationship like with their manager and the rest of their team-mates?
- Was their manager empowered to help coach and grow them?
- Was it simple for them to measure their success at work every day?
- Were they presented with clear opportunities to grow their career?
These questions often hold the key to individual outcomes, but working through them consistently and honestly will also reveal truths about the business as a whole.
That honesty can be difficult. It’s easy in these situations to jump to reasons why the individual wasn’t the best fit anyway, why it was inevitable, why it’s no real loss… but meanwhile, again, you’re watching performance and culture walk out the door.
We all have egos. We all like to take pride in our business, and feel challenged when good people leave. But if you find a way to set that aside, if you front up to your team with true vulnerability and ask them to help you assess and fix regrettable turnover, every aspect of your business and culture will grow stronger.
Just imagine reinvesting the direct and indirect $$ spent on recruiting for regrettable turnover back into your best people.........how much faster could you be running?
