Staff retention at your Non-Profit - Whose responsibility?

At most companies and many small non-profit plan, there is no retention of staff, no one has been appointed as the Managing Director of Conservation. As a matter of fact, many organizations see turnover almost like a badge of honor, "our place is so difficult to work, most new people will not survive." It 's an approach that gives a left-handed compliments to the staff that remain. But what some organizational leaders are beginning to realize is that (a) the turnover is expensive (b) the turnover in the products makes bad results and (c) the turnover can be reduced.

Let's be clear about one thing, the goal is not to keep all staff. Sometimes turnover is not a bad thing. Turnover can bring new ideas in the organization and turnover of under performers gives the organization the opportunity to improve its human resource capacity.

However, when the revenue starts to exceed 20%, and we know of non-profit organization that sales figures triple, three things are starting to have a negative impact on organizational performance. (1) organizational resources begin to be disproportionately devoted to recruitment, selection and initial training. If you think turnover costs by 5% of basic salary or 50%, make no mistake about it, the inability to retain qualified and dedicated organization costs money, money that could be replaced by other critical needs. (2) The program or the product begins to suffer. In the short range errors by inexperienced personnel begin to occur, and in the long run, customers or consumers of services are kept in their progress because they are always confronted with new people moving in and out of their lives. (3) result Unfilled jobs in an extraordinary burden on the existing staff, supervisors do not control, are filling coverage holes, everybody is wearing the most "Hats" and the burden of mandatory overtime causes a level of disruption in their personal lives to get staff that exceeds the value of the payment they receive.

But who in the organization is responsible for getting this situation under control? As someone with over 40 years of experience in human services leadership, I believe that the inability to retain employees shows a lack of leadership responsibilities. To me it means that no one has bothered to tell the security staff who are responsible for maintaining the highly skilled work for them. Supervisors must understand that they must be committed to the success of their direct reports.

Here's what usually happens. For organizations with high turnover of rental-decision is often a hurry, someone is needed to cover a shift tomorrow, as it turns out, almost all to do with a normal temperature. The next phase is the initial training package that is normally given to new employees during their first five days on the job. The net result of this training is that staff were introduced about 5 times more than they could absorb and the employee leaves the experience confusing, at best. From it the new employee is thrown into the thick of things and is much more of a sink or swim proposition.

Within a month or two the new employee begins to have performance problems. Surprised? It should not be. Good chance that the new employee was not a good match for the organization, in the first place. It 's very likely that the new employee has not been given a good overview ... or no control. No one has ever explained to the supervisor that staff performance is his / her responsibilities. And then comes the really sad. Once the performance begins to fall, it usually continues to fall until the employee is located outside the organization voluntarily or involuntarily. There seems to know very little to reverse poor performance ... once it starts to descend on as normal.

Depressing as this sounds, the fix is ​​relatively easy for leaders who are determined to see things change. Do three things:

1. Rewrite the job description of Supervisors and include language that clearly states that their performance will be evaluated partly on their ability to develop loyalty among skilled people working for them. Be prepared to enforce it. This should apply to all supervisors of the organization, supervisors of senior officials able to model the desired behavior for their peers at the junior level.
2. Treating supervisors as supervisors. Involve them in the hiring process. After all, if you want to be responsible for the performance and loyalty of their staff, which should be given a voice to those who will be assigned to their work units.
3. Finally, recognize that supervisors have a tough job, give them training and support they need to learn new skills and supervisory behaviors that can be used consistently, day after day.

You can reduce staff turnover, if you are determined to do it. It 's much more on the involvement, support and recognition of quality work than it is about money. Do not give in to sales, develop your plan to keep employees that add value to your organization, customer satisfaction surveys that reflect a much more positive views of their organization, not to mention the money you save .......