In the first article of this series, we pulled back the curtains and looked at all the ways that turnover costs you money. In Part 2 we examined the revolving door of new hires with two key approaches, using more effective selection techniques and learning more about why people are leaving. If you followed my coaching (and ignored that pesky voice in your head that was telling you, "Who cares why s/he resigned, s/he wasn't a good fit anyway") and chose to get curious and ask questions, use that information to work on what creates long-lasting, sustainable elimination of turnover costs - Retaining your BEST employees!
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 So what am I suggesting that you learn from this?

1. Be clear and bold about your why with the intent of creating direct connections for all positions and people in your company.
   
2. Believe in the talent that you have and invest in helping them achieve skills, learning, and job advancement to allow them to shine and continuously contribute fully to your mission.
   
3. Eliminate systemic dissatisfaction which is caused by issues such as lack of job clarity, unrealistic workloads, communication barriers, insufficient pay/benefits, etc.
   
4. Foster ownership at every level.

There's lots of research and information available regarding why employees stay in jobs such as what is provided in the infographic below. 

These ideas are accurate but provide incomplete understanding and answers. Many business owners make the mistake of increasing employee benefits or paying for professional training in an effort to "be more competitive" in the battle for talent, only to find that they are spending more money and still struggling with the same problem. 

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Just like our bodies, a healthy organization is one that has harmony, balance, and functions optimally without creating stress on one or more systems. The goal of these questions is to generate thinking about what it looks like and feels like to be in a healthy state (vs. the turmoil of serial turnover). An honest assessment helps to identify changes that can be effected quickly to demonstrate commitment and build momentum. Remember to use the data from step two of the second part of this series, to help you focus your efforts. ​ 
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In the first article of this series, we pulled back the curtains and looked at all the ways that turnover costs you money. We used the analogy of suffering a severed femoral artery, and I promised you a comprehensive treatment plan to not just temporarily staunch the bleeding but to repair the damage with surgical accuracy and restore health to your staffing process.

​So let's begin with the most important step - the tourniquet. The purpose of a tourniquet is to slow the immediate and rapid loss of blood temporarily.
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Last June Fast Company magazine published a great quick read on why new employees leave within the first 90 days [link] in which they cited the following facts from  research by Jobvite:

Staggering when you add this 30% number to the cost calculation we covered in Part 1, right! Now add the additional multipliers of the currently low unemployment rate and the impact of employer review sites like Glassdoor where disappointed and grievous employees freely share their cautionary tales with other job seekers, and you can find yourself with a significant deficit in even attracting the caliber of talent you need.

The reality is that in the current employment environment, for many positions and employees, the demand for talent is so great that there is no reason to stay in a job that doesn't feel like a great fit from the very start. Let's focus on how to have the most immediate impact on shutting down the new hire revolving door no matter the type or level of position in your company: Avoiding mismatched expectations & cultural fit. Step one, make sure that your  hiring process follows these simple guidelines...

• Be honest
• Be clear about the position (contrast technique works great for this)
• Listen more than you speak - ask candidates about their expectations and experiences to gauge alignment
• Include position peer in selection process 
• Encourage candidates to "interview" you
• Look at work history (treat frequent job changes as a strong warning sign)
• Use customized and targeted behavioral interviewing questions to assess cultural fit (ask for a quote)

Step two, find out why new hires are leaving! If you are not already doing so, start asking questions when people leave. Here are two reasons that according to human psychology, your instincts to ignore this step are likely to be triggered:

1. We are wired to protect our self-esteem and rejection (even in the form of quitting your company) is definitely perceived as a direct attack. Thus our minds will generate an internal dialogue in which we dismiss and diminish the person who leaves making anything they may have to say as irrelevant before it is even heard.
   
2. We like to be right; in fact, neurologically we are programmed to select data that reinforces our "right" thinking and ignore conflicting data. Ipso facto, the reason for departure is not about us but is a problem with them.

Don't fall victim to your instincts to protect and preserve - they are wrong! It is time to get curious and learn what is happening. Don't limit your questions to the people who leave. Broaden your scope to include others who were close observers and can share their direct insights into what happened. It can also be helpful to contrast this data with data about the people who were recently hired and stayed. You can't accurately target solutions if you don't have an accurate understanding of the problem you need to solve.
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Thanks for reading! Please leave your comments and questions below and check back for Part 3 of this series  where we will explore how to improve the retention of seasoned employees.

Most employers intuitively know that employee turnover is costing them money, although few know how or have attempted to quantify the cost. I came across this infographic that does an excellent job of summarizing the costs that are easiest to quantify. And yet, there is one additional cost that is huge for most businesses - the cost of stress, overwork, and dissatisfaction experienced by the remaining employees when someone leaves. 
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The smaller your business, the more difficult it can be to navigate turnover without creating dissatisfaction. Even if you take on much of the work as the owner, it means that you are distracted from your core responsibilities which can make you less effective in important tasks like communicating clearly with customers, employees and vendors and providing clear direction to your remaining staff.

Fixing critical business issues such as staunching the loss caused by serial turnover, requires a commitment to multiple actions. A great analogy is to think of serial turnover as a severed femoral artery. Although the first step is to place a tourniquet above the wound to prevent immediate death from bleeding out, this treatment alone is insufficient to sustain life. A patient with a severed artery must receive surgical treatment to repair the artery, followed by treatment of the wound to avoid infection and aid repair of the surrounding tissue. 

In this multi-part series, I will share with you my insights about how to craft your comprehensive treatment plan. We will explore the causes of serial turnover, ways to eliminate it, and how to think differently about managing your business during staff vacancies. In my experience, the answers are not complex, but do require focused effort. Most importantly, you will learn why there are no short cuts or magic bullets and why actions such as improving selection tools and processes are only tourniquets and therefore insufficient to restore health to your business.

I ditched my bad relationship with new year's resolutions that I never keep many years ago, but after a tough 2018 for me and my family, I learned something important that gives you the intense, positive, unabashedly hopeful moment of midnight New Year's anytime and without the remorse of "falling off the wagon", the reset button (learn more).

As my children continue their march toward young adulthood, my focus is shifting to putting my time back into my first love, my career. In 2017 I celebrated the 10 year anniversary of my consulting practice and officially shifted from being a freelance OD consultant, to a business owner. I launched my website and started engaging in more business development activities. I've learned many things along the way and am ready for a mini reset moment that includes these changes that I am excited to share with you [imagine drum roll here]:

1. I am moving out of my home office and into the Mellwood Arts Center, suite 117
2. I have an official google business site 
3. I have added pricing to my website because I want small business owners to know my commitment to being an affordable investment
4. I have a slight name change, replacing "the" with "Your." (It's what I am always saying, so why not own it?)
5. I have a business logo! It winks to my continual emphasis on EXTRAORDINARY and also nods to the expression of acting exponentially (its always about taking it to a new level of WOW).

There is a lot not changing with my mini reset and those things should not go unsaid:

1. Quality, focus, and responsiveness
2. Affordable pricing
3. Goal centered contracts
4. Client capability building (still not looking to be a permanent expense on your business ledger)
5. Real change that really matters

So forget about New Year's resolutions. Are you ready to make 2019 an EXTRAORDINARY year? Let's connect! #Hello2019
#NewYearsResolution
#smallbusiness
#coaching
​#IgniteYourExtraordinary