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October 2007
Getting Fired Up About Getting Fired

Have you ever been fired? Let me rephrase the question. Has anyone you supervised, or led on a team, or anyone who worked for or with you in any way, voluntarily gone elsewhere?

If so, you've been fired. When someone quits, that person has, in effect, fired you. Yes, you still own the company, manage the department, or lead the team, but if someone voluntarily leaves, that person is saying, "I don't want to work with you anymore. You're fired."

It doesn't matter that you're staying, and the other person is leaving. The inescapable conclusion is...You've been fired.

With this definition of "being fired," I'm sure a lot of you
would admit to being fired at some stage in your career.

When you get fired this way, you need to get fired up about finding out why, because the cost of turnover is astronomical.

Several years ago I read that the true cost of one person leaving a company is between 50% and 150% of that person's annual salary. Sound out of line?

Not really when you consider all the costs. Some costs are obvious, like recruiting costs, such as advertising, and interviewing candidates. Other obvious costs involve training the new employee, and the reduced productivity until that new recruit gets up to speed.

Turnover, however, involves a lot of hidden costs that add up pretty quickly. The loss in productivity in having the position vacant, the costs of having others pick up the slack--the overtime, the reduced morale from being overworked.

Then there's the institutional knowledge that's walking out the door with the employee. In today's world of the "knowledge worker," recovering that knowledge is a huge cost.

It doesn't take long to get to "50% to 150% of annual salary."

Now do the math to figure out how much turnover has cost your company just this year.

Those costs should get you fired up to find out why people leave, and more important, what you can do to prevent turnover.

One way to find out why a person left is the traditional exit interview. Exit interviews often provide little valuable information because the person leaving is more concerned with the next job, than with helping you fix the problem.

Another method is to ask others why they think the person left.  The person's coworkers and immediate supervisor will probably have good insight into the real reasons for that person leaving.

You can also do what I call a delayed exit interview. Wait three months to contact the person, and then ask for the reasons the person left. At this stage the person is more secure in the new job, and more likely to give you the truth.

The truth could be that the environment or culture wasn't a good fit with that person. Or maybe the person's boss (and that could be you) didn't meet the individual's needs. Or the work might not have been stimulating enough.

Often the person's expectations for the job just weren't being met. If so, you have to look at whether you did a good job in selecting that person for the job. Maybe in the interview process you didn't sufficiently explain what was involved in the job.

If that's not the case, then you have to look at how well you managed that person's expectations. Your job as a leader is to help that person identify, understand, and manage his or her work expectations. A great tool for this is the Work Expectations Profile.

It's an online assessment from Inscape Publishing, and it helps clarify what a person expects from the job in key areas, such as Autonomy, Career Growth, Environment, Recognition, and Teamwork.

Once you identify these expectations, it's up to you as a leader to determine whether you can meet them. Research shows that just discussing these expectations improves the person's performance, even if you aren't able to meet those expectations.

Having discussions like these is a way to keep yourself from getting fired by those you lead.

How will you prevent your employees from firing you and your company? What are you doing to help manage employee expectations?

If you'd like a copy of the questions that make up the Work Expectations Profile, just click on the link:

http://www.on2url.com/app/adtrack.asp?MerchantID=55031&AdID=343373

Until next edition, keep leading the way!

Copyright (C) 2007 by Terry Wall

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