How many employees have you lost to a competitor? Did you ever ask for a detailed explanation of why an employee was leaving? What if you could have prevented good employees from jumping ship?
Retention can be difficult in a small company because you have fewer options and resources than large companies. There will always be some very good reasons why employees leave, such as going back to school, a promotion you were unable to offer, their spouse is being relocated, etc. However, there are many times when the reason an employee is leaving was something you could have prevented.
A bad manager or supervisor is one of the top reasons people leave their jobs. This can be avoided by making sure you are properly training people who manage employees. Many people are promoted into supervisory positions based on technical skills and no training is provided in people skills. If you aren’t making sure you have on-going supervisory training then you are just one more non-responsive person in the mangement line that makes an employee shrug and look for work elsewhere.
While your company may be too small to have much to offer in promotions or moves to other departments, you do have options. When a good employee starts to become bored or sees nowhere else to go in the company, they will look outside. That’s where you need to look … outside the box. Think of ways to challenge that employee. Could they become a mentor to new employees? Could they be put in charge of training for their area? Could they be cross-trained to expand their skills? Could they write a procedures manual for their department? These are often assignments that are worked on around the employee’s normal work.
Most of all, ask for details when someone resigns. Studies show it’s rarely just about money (assuming you are paying a fair wage). Sometimes you’ll get a more honest answer by having a third party (like a consultant) do the exit interview or mail a questionnaire (with a stamped return envelope) to the employee a day after they’ve left.
Once you have those answers, take them to heart and explore what your company can or should do differently so you don’t spend all your time and money replacing and training people. On the other hand, don’t waste your time if you aren’t ready to hear some hard truths and willing to make changes.
