Losing Key Staff - A Costly Business
Do you run a business, a department or a team? If you do you will probably
know how painful, frustrating and costly it can be when your key staff,
those who are your best team-players, most highly skilled, self-motivated
and driven, decide to move on!
Yes, I can almost hear you groan at the familiarity of this situation. Most
of us in management / owner positions, have been here before and dread it
when it happens again.
By the way, this is just as relevant if you have a regular cleaner,
housekeeper or nanny at home… I’ve heard enough stories to know the
process is reasonably similar!
In reality, what are you really doing in the interim, between the time your
new recruit joins your organisation and the day they tell you they’re
leaving, to make sure this doesn’t happen again, with your next ’star’
recruit?
Most people in management who I coach, look back with regret on losing their
key staff, and can list all the things they intended to do to avoid this
happening, and all the reasons why they didn’t do what they had intended.
Typically, I hear the same excuses: time, energy, inclination, not having a
strategy, believing (or hoping?) that everything is alright, not reading the
’signs’ when clearly problems are beginning to arise… the list is endless.
My client Gareth had such a situation only 8 months ago. Gareth is a partner
in a well-known legal firm in the UK, he heads the property team and he was
suddenly faced with 3 of his staff leaving at the same time. Now, although
the team comprises of 8 in total and they could manage, the situation was
not only one that required a lot of his time and attention, to find new
recruits, the interviews, the integration of new employees into the firm’s
culture and so on…
but it was also an embarrassment to Gareth that this would have happened all
at once. And there was the additional matter of explaining the situation to
a lot of clients, who had built relationships with these team members over a
long period of time, as well as the risk of losing clients, which we all
know too well.
Gareth used his coaching sessions to look at how he could create a strategy
to make sure he kept his staff, where possible, or at least would know with
plenty of notice when someone intended on leaving, so that he could
intervene or manage the required recruitment in a more efficient way.
Within a few focussed sessions, Gareth had the strategy he needed and knew
would work for him. He factored in time to meet with his team more often,
with regular group meetings as well as individually. Even though this was
something he’d always intended to do, over time this had gone downhill in
the list of priorities. He also decided to work on his communication and
listening skills, by talking less and listening more, with few and focused
questions, he raised his own interest and curiosity, and discovered a lot
more about his team members than he’d ever thought possible!
Gareth has since rebuilt his team and he keeps himself focused on his goal
and intention with regards to staff retention. As a result, he has become an
example to the other partners in his firm.
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