Secrets of a Chief People Officer - Resignation is not a dirty word

Years ago, I remember sitting around a Board table being told that one of my bonus measures for the year related to staff turnover. Generally, you’d expect this in a role that is responsible for the design of a company’s people experience. The issue was I was the only member of the senior leadership team who had that measure applied. I remember debating at the time not just the appropriateness of this being applied to my role alone, but also what measure was appropriate with what we were trying to achieve.

Staff turnover is something that most organisations will monitor, setting targets of varying levels and seeking to try and understand reasons for people leaving. More and more, the focus is on voluntary staff turnover, being those who resign. Whilst measuring involuntary staff turnover is certainly a data point worth understanding, this blog focuses on the voluntary turnover piece. But what is it that organisations are trying to do with measuring voluntary turnover and, importantly, what impact is it having on the culture and how leaders deal with people leaving?

All too often the word ‘resignation’ is met with a deep sigh of woe, or a manager quickly trying to defend the resignation by saying that it was not regrettable (who hasn’t seen that happen?!). At one point in my career, I got to the point where I wondered if it was even worth measuring the regrettable and non-regrettable because it was so subjective. I recently read somewhere, and I can’t remember where otherwise I would cite it here, that in the UK the average tenure in the technology industry has reduce to somewhere around 18 months now. Notwithstanding the impact of this on how long businesses truly have people performing at their best, its inevitable that people will resign.

When I think about staff turnover, I now start with what we define to be regrettable and non-regrettable leavers. I don’t just take the standard definition that I learned all those years ago on my degree course. Gone are the days where we join a company and end up retiring from that company, so, for me, a key part of that regrettable definition is that it was not planned.

What do I mean by this?... ?

When I talk to managers about retaining their people, I encourage them to look through a realistic lens. We cannot retain every high performer, and we certainly cannot retain every core performer. There will come a time when some team members will want to move on, try new experiences, and gain growth in different ways. The challenge for that manager, therefore, is to turn a regrettable leaver into a non-regrettable leaver (and not by lying to themselves when someone suddenly resigns). Managers should foster career coaching relationships with their people so that, as soon as the person realises that to achieve the growth they want they need to leave the company, the manager is there to coach them. There are three key points to this;

• firstly, if there is any chance of retaining that person within the company leaders can then look at options proactively;
• Secondly the manager and employee can plan in the job search and exit process so that it causes the least disruption for the team and the business;
• Finally what I have found is that if a manager builds this relationship with a team member the person actually ends up being more engaged and staying in post a little longer because they feel a sense of loyalty to that manager who has invested time in understanding and supporting their career aim.

The last point is key for me; you can only get the best out of people if you combine their best interests with what the business needs. The key point here is that they remain ‘engaged’ a little longer, as well as potentially staying a little longer too, rather than checking out as soon as they realise they are going to move on.

So, therefore the definition becomes that a resignation is automatically regrettable unless the person is on some sort of planned exit (even if they are actually a core or high performer). And of course, as all good HR professionals know, this is therefore something that is tracked on a flight risk register, that feeds into the succession planning process.

Moving onto how leaders treat people who resign and the impact on those around them and therefore the culture. How many of you have worked in organisations where the word ‘resignation’ is not talked about. Indeed, some organisations don’t even mention when someone is leaving until either the person is out of the door, or the individual manages to send an all staff email saying goodbye on their very last day. Honestly, I have had managers in the past ask if there is anyway that these emails can be restricted. Let’s think of this differently for a moment, there are two points I want to raise here.

Like me, I’m sure many of you are members of a college or university alumni. Part of being a member of that alumni is keeping up with what’s going on with that network, but also supporting that institution where possible. Introduce the term ‘alumni’ into the workplace and you suddenly create both a softer way to talk about people ‘leaving’ the business, but also if you do this well you engage in a community that you are likely to still find supporters in. For example, people who will refer others to work for the company, create a social media presence that extends both the employee and client network etc. etc.

The second point I want to make on culture is about celebrating people when they resign. It’s a far nicer way to tell others that someone is moving to be an alumni member of the team, when the manager also takes the chance to celebrate that person. The celebration could be around the impact they have made on the team, the business etc.. or even to congratulate them on their new role, which they will, no doubt, be excited about.

To summarise the key take-aways: Leaders define culture and that is in everything we do. How we treat those who resign differently to how we treated them before will impact the company culture. Someone resigning is not a bad thing; it’s inevitable. A good leader turns a regrettable leaver into a non-regrettable leaver through engaging their people in career coaching conversations that lead to planned exits when someone realises their growth will be outside of that employer. Finally, the power of the alumni network shouldn’t be underestimated and leaders should be intentional about engaging with that network.?

Hope you enjoyed reading.. welcome all comments and ideas...