Employee Turnover

I have been helping a friend with some issues pertaining to "an employee exodus" (4 out 15 people are leaving in a month). Surprisingly, there is a bunch of writing on this topic.

Fred Wilson has written about it twice recently. In the first post, he writes about getting employees back to shipping and coding. He also mentions that most of these companies are mission driven.

He even writes, "And if you don’t work in a company that is mission driven, or if you don’t connect with your company’s mission, then I would encourage you to quit and join a company that you are inspired to work for and then throw yourself at that work." Well, in sales without belief in product or company, it is a challenge to sell. In many positions, it is probably somewhat similar: if you think the company sucks, it is hard to do your best work. You want employees who believe in the company.

“Take Care Of Your Employees And They’ll Take Care Of Your Business,” Says Richard Branson.

In the second post, "The number one cause of employee unhappiness and unwanted departures is “I don’t understand where we are going.” That is a failure of leadership on the CEO’s part.

The CEO's main job is to set culture, vision, mission. Next it is to sell. But as Hugh MacLeod points out,
All campaigns are ultimately internal. In other words, selling to your employees comes first. Selling them on vision, mission, culture. (I won't quote Simon Sinek here because I have done it too often.)

People leave for a number of reasons:

• # 1 People leave Managers, not jobs. 
• Bored or unchallenged.
• Co-workers
• No Recognition.
• Not Meaningfully Contributing (not meaningful work).
• Lack of or a Change in Culture or Vision.

This was a great article about why people leave and how to change that culture. Worth the read!