I’m thinking in particular about older industries (metals, utilities, heavy manufacturing) who often have trouble attracting young workers. Part of the problem is the median age of the employee population. The other part of the problem is that as the years have passed and they cut out the ‘losers’, they are left with an aging team of winners.

People with short tenure make the sort of mistakes that can only be made by someone who ‘doesn’t know what they are doing’. It’s terribly important not to confuse inexperience with poor performance. The heavier the cuts, the harder that is to keep in mind.

Peter Drucker said: “Executives owe it to the organization and to their fellow workers not to tolerate nonperforming individuals in important jobs.” That duty should extend to all people managers (not just executives) and to all sub par performers, regardless of “unimportance” of their positions.

Businesses face four distinct “turnover-related” challenges:

Identifying, losing and certainly not hiring Losers.

Identifying, attracting and retaining Winners.

Assessing, upgrading and redeploying, Survivors (usually
more than 50% of total).

And, driving employee engagement to unprecedented levels.

The goals should include: (i) No Losers; (ii) More and Better Winners; (iii) Better and Continuously Improving Survivors; and (iv) Ever-higher Levels of Employee Engagement (driving Retention, Productivity, Talent Access).

Bestselling author of “The Goal”, Eliyahu Goldratt, said “Tell me how you will measure me and I will tell you how I will behave.” Measure those four things, instead of one-dmensional turnover, and the organization will behave well and thrive, accordingly.

Fortunately, we have high-performance, online assessments (surveys, tools, etc.) that make it possible to do all these things systematically, capably and confidently, at every level of the organization, starting now. And better than affordable, these solutions are downright profitable, exhibiting three- and four-digit short-term ROIs.

In “Good to Great”, bestselling author Jim Collins referenced “the sheer rigor needed in people decisions in order to take a company from good to great.” Best-in-class assessment solutions can do all the heavy lifting; the right tools help make “sheer rigor” look easy. Interested? Learn More. Email:r.melrose@vision21.us.

Very insightful, and very timely with the current economic conditions most firms face. I can see low turnover being exasperated as “natural selection” by people in poor fitting roles stay because they are nervous about the possibilities elsewhere. Jack Welch was on the right track by culling the bottom 10% of the workforce every year. The philosophy is somewhat harsh, but ultimately the right decision for both the firm and employee.

Kevin Cook
Target Teams, Inc.

I guess for some it’s just easier to to make turnover the devil. But as you point out there is “good” turnover and “bad” turnover. And let’s not forget about “Churnover” in which we keep filling the same position. But as you say, that’s for a separate article.
Ron Katz
Penguin HR Consulting