Employee Turnover June 18, 2007

Several of the nonprofits in which I'm involved have been going through some tough times, and one of the natural outcomes is employee turnover. At one, a longtime employee, who represents the heart and soul of one of the programs, decided it was time to leave after a series of management miscues that made her job not very fun. So she left and started her own business doing the same thing but under her own domain. So perhaps we can say this  nonprofit inspires entrepreneurism, but we know better.

At another, smaller nonprofit, one of the employees is leaving because of disagreements and negative interactions with management (I'm deliberately keeping it vague). This is after less than a year of part-time work, and she was a valued contributor.

Employee turnover is costly. Sometimes it's appropriate; an employee or Director is the wrong person for the job, and it only makes sense to recognize that and help them find a more suitable career. In fact, I believe in those cases all pretense should be dropped and the move made as soon as it's clear it's not working--make it surgical, as my Dad used to say (a doc, of course). The drag on an organization by a poor performer or inappropriate hire is likely greater than the hole left by their absence.

But when good people leave the organization, it is substantially more painful all around, and can often be an indictment of management, policies, behaviors, etc.  This is when everyone questions leadership, and rightfully so. What's not working? How can we do better? What does the former employee think? What does she think we could do better and correct? What advice can she give us?

Replacing good employees is expensive and tough. The process can take many months, and in the meantime, you have holes to fill. So my advice? Hold on to great employees. Listen. If they must leave, ask them to recruit their replacement. But the question remains: what are the underlying problems that led to the departure, and can you address them?

Comments

Your statements about caring for great employees and knowing when to cut your losses are very well taken.
When good people leave, the hardest issue to crack, beyond optimally filling that hole, might be to uncover your "underlying causes". I believe not only should the departing be "debriefed" by the Personnel Director (standard operating procedure) but by the CEO as well (not so standard). In nonprofits, any member of the leadership team should also be interviewed by a board member. A board member can ask the meta-questions that will never rise to the top on the "inside". And, if there are internal issues coloring this departure, they might find a voice or an ear here.
With all the cost and disruption good people leaving represents, we shouldn't leave valuable information on the table.

The top reasons we see good people leave non-profit positions are tied to either value or behavioral differences. All would have been understood and circumvented if a personality profile were used. Following are some particular examples...
- The employee who quit wasn't really prepared for the lower pay. Right out of college, some may be enchanted with the thought of "making their difference" and they join the non-profit workforce. Little do they realize - the money they are making - it's not nearly enough. How to identify this? If the personality profile "Values" show a hired desire to make money - that's going to be a problem.

- They have a different "agenda" than the boss. The employee wants to climb a latter while the boss wants to make a difference - or vice versa. Again... A values Personality Profile would have caught this.

- The employee has a different behavioral style than the boss. This leads to what we call "communication mismatching". What is it? It's "nails on a chalkboard". It's the result of a communication style difference resulting from two distinctly different behavioral tendencies. Little do we all know... Twenty-five percent of the time our desired behavioral communication is the exact opposite of what is needed. Without the grace of emotional awareness, we don't realize we are doing this. Therefore - we treat others how we would like to be treated instead of how they would like to be treated.

- The last potential issue may be insecurities on the part of the employee. Something the boss says that would be completely be acceptable under normal circumstances to a psychologicall well-adjusted person may really upset someone who is having self-esteem issues.

The bottom line - if you don't invest in a personality profile instrument, you are playing the odds... The odds are if you don't invest on the front end to make the best hire possible, then understand how to work with the new hire, you will be making that investment afterwards when you are cleaning up the wreckage of the bad hire.

Chris Young
The Rainmaker Group, Inc.
www.therainmakergroupinc.com