You can’t avoid turnover. It’s one of the facts of life about running a business. Employees will leave. Sometimes, crucial employees with substantial experience will leave. Some do it for the money, and others do it for more complex reasons. While you can’t prevent turnover, you can make the process less miserable by managing it better. Keep reading for some ideas of how you can keep turnover from turning into a full-blown crisis.
Turnover rarely happens in a vacuum. Employees talk to each other. They talk about each other. If someone is thinking about leaving, there’s a good chance that it’s in the air. The problem is that HR and management generally hear about right around the time the employee gives notice. HR, managers, and direct supervisors should be talking with employees regularly about how those employees see their position and future in the company. This can often prevent an abrupt departure or at least forewarn you that an employee is on their way out the door. That knowledge lets you prepare and gives you time to secure a good replacement.
Some positions require extensive training or certifications you can’t provide in-house, such as lawyers or accountants. Most positions, however, are candidates for cross-training and shadowing. When you’ve got key positions that you can afford to leave unfilled for any length of time, you should be cross-training talented employees on those positions. That means that even if someone leaves abruptly, you can slide another employee into that position with minimal disruption to operations.
When you advertise a position, you typically get a lot of applications. While you shouldn’t necessarily hang on to all of those applications, you should hang on to the information for the top few candidates. Someone who was a prime choice candidate might still be interested in working for you over whoever they work for now. Keeping those candidates on file gives you the option to reach out to them if a position opens up. If all of them say no, you’ve only wasted a few phone calls. If any of them says yes, you’ve avoided the time and expense of a full hiring process.
Turnover among key employees is the kind of churn that can quickly create chaos in your business. Avoiding that chaos begins with preparation. Team leaders and HR staff members need to be communicating with employees. This gives you a chance to correct issues or at least see a departure coming with enough time to find a replacement. Make a point to do cross-training on critical positions. Moving another employee into that position minimizes friction and disruption. Keep contact information on file for good candidates. You might get lucky and find a replacement with a phone call or two.
Is turnover leaving you at wit’s end? Let Timpl help find you candidates who are in it for the long-term.