Better out than in

I was chatting with a friend this morning who said that he had three of his team resign in the last week. “That’s not good is it?” he asked.

On the surface we look at the cost of replacing them and all the history and experience that they depart with, and of course we say: “‘You’re right, this is not good”.

The first question I asked was whether they were avoidable or unavoidable leavers?

“What do you mean by that?” he queried.

This might be common terminology for HR professional, but most business owners (including myself until I was enlightened by the RedBalloon employee experience manager about a year ago) will be unfamiliar with the concept.

Unavoidable Leavers

These are those people who are leaving because the circumstances of their departure are determined for reasons external to the organisation. For example, we had a designer who wanted to go to South America and build an orphanage and travel the world. There is nothing the business could do to support him in following his passion. He was a great contributor, highly engaged, produced great work…. but RedBalloon was not where his next life experience was going to come from.

Avoidable Leavers

These occur primarily when the organisation has let that person down, either recruiting the wrong person for the role, or not having the next career step for them. They might be engaged while employed, they may not. If they are not engaged, then the organisation has let them down in some way. Right person, right role, right values and management.

I questioned my friend further about why he had three employee leaving at once. I asked him to describe the circumstances of their resignation. Numbers can be deceptive without understanding.

I hear people talk about ‘churn’ rates, or retention rates – judging the effectiveness of a management team based on this. As far as I’m concerned the much more interesting conversation is about engagement.

Resignations provide an opportunity to review roles, adjust them, recruit new people with fresh enthusiasm and other life experiences into the organisation.

I’m very clear that as an employer I am part of our people’s journey, it is not the destination. There are a lot of things that people want to do in life, our challenge is to make sure that they love what they do while they’re with u. When they do leave, we want them to go with great stories to share about this chapter of their story.

Naomi Simson is the 2008 National Telstra Women’s Business Award winner for Innovation. Naomi was also a finalist for the Australian HR Awards and a finalist for the BRW Most Admired Business Owner Award in 2008. Also in 2008 RedBalloon achieved a 97% Hewitt employee engagement score. One of Australia’s outstanding female entrepreneurs, Naomi regularly entertains as a professional speaker inspiring middle to high-level leaders on employer branding, engagement and reward and recognition. Naomi writes a blog and has written a book sharing the lessons from her first five years.