NEWS

The Slipstream of the Wilderness - Where do you hang Out
The Opportunity Cost of Turnover - Tony Roig
Managing people - Why Employees Leave Organisations ? - Azim Premji, Wipro

THE SLIPSTREAM OR THE WILDERNESS - WHERE DO YOU HANG OUT?

In most industries, there are two places where one can hang out: the slipstream or the wilderness.

The slipstream, as the name suggests, is where it's all happening.

People who are "in the slipstream" in their industry, are often seen at the industry conventions, learning and growing and even leading.

They regularly find themselves face to face with clients, both existing and prospective.

They read all the latest thinking about their industry.

They are involved, they are attuned, their sleeves are rolled up and they are hustling.

They are not intimidated by new developments, or by changes in technology. They are in there, up to their necks in it all and wading happily.

The slipstream is populated by movers and shakers, and it is a heady, exhilarating place to be.

Things are always happening, money is flowing and new and exciting projects are constantly underway.

The wilderness, on the other hand, is more of a hamster-zone.

This is where people who are almost involved in an industry hang out. It's a very quiet and peaceful place. It's not where most of their key players are based, but they don't think that really matters.

Their equipment, infrastructure and stationery are not particularly appealing, but they believe that people don't really judge your skill by your stationery.

They hate selling and so, avoid it. When you ask them when last they spent real time with one of their clients, they will stare blankly. They probably can't name their clients. They are the journalists who don't read newspapers.

They are the managers who don't think people-skills are important and wouldn't network because it's a waste of valuable time.

They are the dinosaurs, the relics, the forgotten, the ones who frown at any suggestion that might rock the boat, because they like the way things have always been done.

They are comfortable. They will, as US speaker Morgan McArthur puts it, "Taste comfort until they are miserable.”

"They are rules-based, they are passive and they are reactive.”

"New developments and technology within their industry sound scary, and they avoid it, hoping it will go away. They don't want to hustle; they feel that the business should come to them. Basically, they want to be left alone, like the sulking schoolchild in the back of the classroom who doesn't see the value in playing with others. They are hesitant to make calls, initiate campaigns, or go places. They just want to 'get on it'. What they don't realise is that 'it' is a constantly changing game, and you must play it, or get left behind.”

"The Wilderness and Slipstream concept extends beyond individuals as well. It even applies to businesses, towns, cities and sometimes, entire nations. Towns and suburbs are a great example.”

At a certain point in time, a suburb will have a buzz about it. It will have energy. Real-estate prices will be high. It's the place where things are happening.

It's the slipstream, and all the key-players are there.

But years pass, and the suburb gradually loses its vitality. Other suburbs rise up and take the lead. The slipstreamers realise this, and they go with the energy.

The wilderness-dwellers stay where they are, and slowly sink into obscurity. Go where the buzz is. Be where the energy is to be found.

Go and immerse yourself. Get into the Slipstream!

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THE OPPORTUNITTY COST OF TURNOVER

 Tony Roig

You may remember from your finance class the definition of “opportunity cost,” that is, the best alternative that is forgone because a particular course of action is pursued.

I’m not planning to provide you with a refresher on finance, but it seems to me business is incurring such a cost when we examine the efforts in resolving turnover in industry today.

You see, companies have been fixated on examining and reporting on why people leave organizations that they have been missing the opportunity to pursue a more promising alternative, employee retention. I’m not suggesting companies don’t care or are wilfully neglect in retaining employees. Most companies recognize the importance of their human assets and that employee retention is a key initiative across organizations today. But companies continue to put significant effort in reporting on turnover and attempting to capture the reasons why their employees depart vs. focusing on why people stay.

Yet turnover rates still remain high, sometimes at alarming rates, and companies still don’t fully know the complete story on why employees leave. And perhaps they never will. Human assets, unlike physical assets, frequently don’t provide symptoms or warning signs that they are on the way out. Getting to the “root cause” on why an individual has decided to leave is not easy, due to the many factors at play when an individual contemplates departure. And it doesn’t help that exit surveys, generally used to capture information from departing employees, only scratch the surface, typically failing to identify why the employee was prompted to consider leaving his or her job in the first place.

In addition, departing employees generally do not report negative information associated with their old job, but rather focus on what is attractive in their new job. Hence the “better compensation/job offer” as the key reason that is so frequently checked by exiting employees.

Of course, a feeling of poor or inequitable pay can certainly prompt departure, but it has been well documented that employees leave organizations for other reasons than pay. To that end, looking at why people stay help organizations better understand the root cause of turnover. A study by DDI (Retaining Talent: A Benchmarking Study) has validated what has been the prevalent finding in research to date -- an employee’s relationship with his or her supervisor or manager is the most important determinant for staying with an organization. And with widening spans of control, increased workloads and less frequent opportunities to spend time with their staff, managers are more challenged than ever to nurture this vital relationship.

Research also tells us that there are other key reasons for staying with an organization. Ability to balance work and home life; amount of meaningful work -- the feeling of making a difference; level of cooperation with co-workers; and level of trust in the workplace come up as top reasons in most surveys. But whatever the key reasons are, failing to address them, will allow them to go unnoticed and turnover will continue to cost organizations.

The same study cited that the average employee is worth about a quarter of a million dollars and the cost of replacing one employee ranges from 29 to 46 percent of the person’s salary. The study also found an organization’s ability to retain employees has been linked to long-term customer satisfaction, employee productivity, and profitability. To that end, it seems prudent to pursue ways such as those cited below in which employee retention can help address turnover.

Integrate retention with turnover. Rather than solely reporting turnover numbers, organizations can begin to report on employee retention, particularly in critical positions. This will encourage and foster thinking of retention as an ongoing priority integral to business success, where intervention is required. This is different than just reporting on turnover, which is typically viewed as an after-the-fact pure reporting activity, too late for intervention. This will prompt management and other staff to develop and act on employee retention related activities.

Make retention everyone’s business. Based on the critical role they play in retaining employees, it behoves organizations to support and help managers make retention a priority rather than relegating it to the bottom of just be viewed as an HR issue. Some organizations hold managers personally accountable by making retention part of their business goals where it takes on a new perspective. Though managers play a very vital role in retention, they do not control all of the factors that can affect attrition. As such, management ought to engage other staff in the organization to be accountable for employee retention in whatever capacity their positions lend themselves to.

Develop a positive work environment. Many organizations have found that developing an environment that motivates and invigorates their staff and where going to work is a passion not a task has significantly decreased their turnover. Organizations often focus efforts on selecting individuals with passion for their work and fail to build a work environment that allows individuals to express their passionate about work. Failing to build such a work environment will ultimately increase turnover as high-performing employees will leave an organization where the environment isn’t conducive to them.

Improve career-development opportunities. It’s been well documented that an effective career-development process contributes to employee satisfaction and retention. Without opportunities to explore new areas, manage challenging assignments, lead committees, attend seminars, and read and discuss current trends, employees feel stagnated in organizations and leave, particularly the younger generation of employees. Career-oriented, valued people must experience frequent opportunities to learn and grow.

The good news is that we have an opportunity to pursue some promising alternatives in our effort to address turnover in our organizations. Let’s make sure we do our part.

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WHY EMPLOYEES LEAVE ORGANISATIONS ?

 Azim Premji, Wipro

Every company faces the problem of people leaving the company for better pay or profile.

Early this year, Arun, a senior software designer, got an offer from a prestigious international firm to work in its India operations developing specialized software. He was thrilled by the offer.
He had heard a lot about the CEO. The salary was great. The company had all the right systems in place employee-friendly human resources (HR) policies, a spanking new office,and the very best technology,even a canteen that served superb food.

Twice Arun was sent abroad for training. "My learning curve is the sharpest it's ever been," he said soon after he joined.

Last week, less than eight months after he joined, Arun walked out of the job.

Why did this talented employee leave?

Arun quit for the same reason that drives many good people away.
The answer lies in one of the largest studies undertaken by the Gallup Organization. The study surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book called "First Break All The Rules". It came up with this surprising finding:
If you're losing good people, look to their immediate boss. Immediate boss is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. And he's the reason why people leave. When people leave they take knowledge,experience and contacts with them, straight to the competition.
"People leave managers not companies," write the authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.
Mostly manager drives people away?
HR experts say that of all the abuses, employees find humiliation the most intolerable. The first time, an employee may not leave,but a thought has been planted. The second time, that thought gets strengthened. The third time, he looks for another job.
When people cannot retort openly in anger, they do so by passive aggression. By digging their heels in and slowing down. By doing only what they are told to do and no more. By omitting to give the boss crucial information. Dev says: "If you work for a jerk, you basically want to get him into trouble. You don't have your heart and soul in the job."
Different managers can stress out employees in different ways - by being too controlling, too suspicious,too pushy, too critical, but they forget that workers are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too long, an employee will quit, often over a trivial issue.
Talented men leave. Dead wood doesn't.

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