People don’t leave companies. They leave people. The #1 reason good employees quit is due to dissatisfaction with their immediate supervisor.
It’s not a secret that turnover is expensive! Estimates of the financial cost vary widely. The most consistently cited number is 6 to 9 months of a person’s annual salary.
On top of that, there are the “hidden” costs of turnover. Those include, but are not limited to:
- Stress on current employees who need to fill the void
- Increased stress on current leadership to manage the void
- Loss of skills, talents, abilities, and experience
- Loss of institutional knowledge
- Loss of time spent training a new employee
- Loss of time spent recruiting a new employee
One thing that people often overlook when they are talking about turnover is loss of relationships. Each time an employee leaves, especially a good employee, all of the relationships they have cultivated leave with them. Those relationships include:
- The relationship with their leader. An experienced employee knows their leader. They know how their leader wants information. They understand how to best support their boss during decision making processes. An experienced team member knows what irritates their leader and how to work around that. When a new person is brought on board, they don’t have that working relationship.
- The working relationships formed with their team. Teams go through a process to becoming high-performing, and losing a member of the team means a team has to adjust and adapt accordingly. A new member won’t know all the personalities or have trusted working relationships. It takes time for these trusted relationships to form.
- The relationship with their network. Everyone has a professional and personal network. Everyone knows people who can help them get things done, solve problems, or provide resources. These network members are often outside of the organization or work group and when a good person leaves, they take their network with them.
As you can see, turnover is expensive in many forms. High caliber leaders do everything they can to be the kind of leader others want to work with and for. What are you doing to be the kind of leader others want to work with and for? High caliber leaders strive to not only boost their technical skills, they also work on their people skills. Remember, the #1 reason great employees quit is due to dissatisfaction with their leader. What are you doing to boost your leadership communication skills?
If you could benefit from learning more communication skills like these to be a better leader, team member, and top performer, join us for a webinar on Best Kept Communication Secrets August 18th.
Pamela Jett is a communication skills and leadership expert who knows that words matter! In her keynote presentations, workshops, books and online learning programs, she moves beyond communication theory into practical strategies that can be implemented immediately to create the kind of leadership, teamwork, and employee engagement results her clients want.