We have been there, and it is extremely difficult to work inside of. Above all else in business, I have found the most difficult thing to work around is high turnover. We are not talking about turnover with 2-3 people leaving a year, we have worked at companies that have written 20-30 employee slips to people to have them laid off or terminated.
If you want to talk about companies that have a hard time succeeding, first look at the turnover rate and go from there. Turnover happens for a reason and it can be multiple things but most of all it is a bad work environment/culture. So, which is it where you work?
The owners and leadership of a company need to take accountability for the successes and failures of the business. If turnover is an issue, then what is the cause? It is well known that people leave owners and leadership, not the business. Staff choose to work at offices that are within their field of expertise in most cases. This person has chosen to make a career out of it, so what is the problem?
For argument sakes, we have never witnessed staff leaving companies because they had too much information shared with them, ever. It has always been because businesses do not share enough and leave people in the dark. So how is your company reversing the trend if turnover is an issue?
It should be doing it by involving more people in decision making and getting people involved in everything in the business is a part of. There will be seniority clauses in what you can share with people, but people just want to be involved. If staff decide to leave anyway, because of a job change, expertise level and nowhere to grow, these are all valid reasons. Control your turnover and you will increase your profits.
What is the business doing for you as a staff member? The compensation of wages and benefits will only go so far. You want to be part of something bigger and worthwhile, so how does the business achieve this to your satisfaction?
As an employee, you need to understand that all the people around you have different wants, needs and personalities and because of this business will have blanket programs that help assures everyone is treated fairly. Where you as an employee need to go above and beyond this is through engagement. You need to get involved with owners and leadership to the best of your ability and keep in touch consistently. You cannot offer engagement and advice every year; it needs to remain consistent and bring value. Once you do this, you will gain the acknowledgement from the peers around you and work life will become more enjoyable.
Turnover is killing your company, isn’t it! Understanding employees and the wants and needs of their life can be a challenge. You just have to be concerned with offering them a great place to work at a fair wage. You don’t necessarily need to worry about the rest.
You are trying to run a business, not look after employees. But you must be if you want to scale and offer opportunities to your staff. Otherwise, they will start to look for work elsewhere, and this is where the breakdown begins in most cases.
Keep in touch with your employees, ask how they are doing, become genuinely interested in how they like it at your company. Don’t always just offer the open-door policy and wait for them to come to you. After all, they are building your dream, and not typically the other way around.
If you can achieve some of these very small steps, your employees will feel secure and participate much more than you are used to. Small steps right now will lead you to growth in the future.
Stay invested in their potential and yours……
Turnover is a difficult concept in business to face, especially once that culture has been created. We invite you to reach out to us at Future to Now Consulting and allow our team to assist you.
A person needs to take inventory of what they have around them. People, businesses, schooling, books, articles, journals, and so on. If there is something missing in your bucket of resources, make a list of it and begin to research how you fill that bucket. This is being resourceful!
What did someone else hire you for? If you, an entrepreneur or employee does not make a difference in your capability to perform. Someone had trust in you at one point and now relies on your ability to do as they have asked you to do. So how do you increase your capabilities is through experience. This experience can be learned through books or experiences. We suggest a combination of both where possible. Your work experience and book learning should always be in a seesaw battle with each other. As your work experience grows beyond your book-learned experience, then you need to search for more schooling. As your schooling grows, then you need to search for more work experience that matches your schooling. Always in seesaw!
Use the resources and capabilities around you to succeed, and when you lack one or the other, level up your skill. We spend so much time on this discussion with the businesses that we work with, so if you are looking for more help in this avenue of business and personal life, feel free to reach out to us at Future to Now Consulting.
