This Fixable Problem Is Costing Your Business Millions Every Year

After reading this article

• You’ll understand the impact of turnover on your P&L
• You’ll have 4 new ways to up-level employee performance in a manner that’s easy and low-cost

“I’ve got no clue what to do with John.

“He’s definitely doing things?—?things no one else is doing?—?but he does them his way. No process, little collaboration, little accountability… probably how he likes it.

Have we kept him? Yes. Should we? I don’t know.”

When the executives I work with express frustration about employees (usually in our first meeting), I flag it for investigation:

• Is it the wrong person in the seat?
• Is it the right person in the wrong seat? or
• Is it the right person in the right seat who needs stronger training and/or management?

In my 17 years in business, I find it typically comes out to:

• 25% wrong person (A)
• 25% right person, wrong seat (B)
• 50% right person, right seat but needs stronger training/management (C)

Now stick with me, because what we’re about to talk about is one of the BIGGEST killers of your business growth.

A + B + C = a significant portion of your attrition pool.

Consider this: If you could turn (B) and (C) from problem performers to solid performers, your bottom line would improve dramatically.

Here’s how:

• The annual overall turnover rate for white collar jobs ranges from 12.8–29.0%?—?let’s use the average of 20.9%
• The cost of replacing a employee ranges from 50% to 200% of their annual salary
• In a 100-person organization with an average salary of $75,000, you’ll face turnover costs ranging from $1.5-$3.1M per year

Ew.

Now, if instead of replacing that pool, if you focused on improving the performance of B (right person, wrong seat) and C (right person, right seat who needs more training), you’d be looking at reducing your turnover costs by 50–75%!

We’re talking $375K-700K per year versus $1.5M going straight to your bottom line.

In the world of marketing, we’re always looking to fix the “leaky bucket” of customer churn.

In the world of growth operations, it’s often about fixing the leaky bucket of employee performance?—?and its resulting attrition.

Protecting the P&L is why I’m so into low-hanging fruit ways to train a team.

For all you 7- and 8-figure executives busy growing and thriving and doing your thing, but don’t have time think about training: I’ve got you.

Here’s 4 low-effort ways to up-level your team for maximum impact.

1. Task your team with research projects (Cost =?$0)

One of my favorite training projects this year was tasking a junior team member to investigate Meta’s Advantage Plus Shopping Campaign.

She was fast, unbiased, dove into allllll the Reddit threads, and did a bang up job identifying pros, cons, and ideal winning strategies.

Pro Tip: Give a team member a topic that’s impactful to the org, provide a list of starting points for their research, and ask them to draft a document. Workshop it as a team, and?—?voila.

I love this training method:

Your employee becomes an expert on the topic, your organization’s skill set improves, and you’re cultivating a team that solves problems independently (rather than constantly coming to you).

2. Get yourself a loom subscription (Cost =?$0)

Loom is my FAV-OR-ITE training software for teams (and quite frankly clients too).

After you’ve created, for instance, an Excel model, take five minutes to record a video explaining what you did and why. Then, send it to your direct report and ask for their questions and feedback.

I find Loom to be significantly more efficient and digestible than an in-person training session (and most certainly the document alone).?

You can use Loom for anything from analytics to creative work to strategies and templates. Plus it reduces meeting time. Glory.

3. Task your team with building training material (Cost =?$0)

When doing any routine, repeatable task, document it.

Or have your team document it.

Or document together.

Take a look at what we’re building as a team at 1r Agency:

Neat huh?

The best way to get someone to follow an SOP is to have them build one.

Immediately you’ll see your team get more effective, **efficient, and educated.

Plus you build a bang up onboarding process for new hires

Pro Tip: Combine SOP documentation with Loom videos and you’re really going places.

4. Send your team members to specialty courses (Cost = $0-$2,000/person)

Ok we all know we could be doing this, but how many of you have actually done it?

I worked for a guy who used courses to grow his team, and the results were outstanding:

• The CEO got out of the weeds on project delivery
• The company’s product/service quality improved substantively
• Employee loyalty shot through the roof (investing in people, go figure ??)

Pro Tip: Make sure the person taking the course documents it for the rest of the org.

Winning ???? all ???? around ????

You’ve got two options:

Option 1?—?Keep doing what you are doing where you’re frustrated, they’re frustrated, and its one big hot mess.

Option 2?—?Grab one (or more) of these super simple strategies and start seeing results.

See you next week, friends.

Hi, I’m Rachel?—?a trained consultant, 17+ year operator, and former founder and CEO.

For my entire career I’ve helped cult favorites and groundbreaking brands get profitable and scale.

Today, I’m sharing what I’ve learned so that amazing 7- and 8-figure consumer companies can make that happen. Because there’s nothing more I love than when great businesses get unstuck and WIN.

If you are a CEO interested in working with me, please say hi at [email protected]; if you want to learn more or just follow along for more bite sized content, connect with me on LinkedIn, check out my site, or find more of my writing on Medium.