Employee Turnover

In every organization there is a difference between the reality of the organizations’ culture and the culture the leaders’ desire. The leaders then try to drive the culture in the direction they want to go. This is normal and expected. However, this creates an issue which needs to be addressed. How will the organization present the culture to the outside world? I have seen organizations who try to present where they are moving toward as their current culture. But, this culture does not yet exist.

Whatever you do, good or bad, people will always have something negative to say
-  W H Auden

Everyone in the organization knew a press release was being prepared. They also knew it was being released on Thursday. The rumors were rampant. Routinely, people were coming into my office asking me what was going on. We were a publicly held company – my hands were tied. The executives were trying to slow the rumors down. It seemed like all it did was get worse. Within one work day the rumor mill was totally out of control. Now it is amusing to look back and think of some of the rumors that were being peddled.

We are finally at the point where more businesses are being reopened. More people are going back to work and resuming their previous activities. Some organizations are reopening from full or partial shutdowns. Others are simply bringing people back to the office from being at home. Whichever is your case, a question is begged.

Previously in this blog, we have discussed the backbone of your company. This is the group of employees who are driving sales and customer satisfaction. Generally they are the ones who are in direct contact with your customers or shape your product or service. The better they perform, the higher the sales and the better the quality of your product or service. Executives, administrative support and new employees are never part of the backbone.

Organizations have a core group of people at the top who seldom leave. If they do it is a planned retirement. The turnover rate for the top 10 to 30% of an organization is generally quite low if not non-existent. The turnover rate goes up as you go down in the hierarchy of the organization. The turnover rate is always the highest at the bottom; specifically the first 60 days of employment.

Organizations are constantly making promises. They make promises to the employees, other organizations, customers, vendors and so on. What happens when your promises are not kept or are kept differently than expectations? The worst case I have ever come across was an organization which constantly made promises to their employees regarding pay raises. The problem was they very rarely kept their promises.