Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Why Your Employees Leave-And What To Do

Q. As the business owner in a stable industry, I’m puzzled at our continuing employee turnover. Why don’t we have more stability?

A. Your clarification about being in a “stable industry” is helpful. It alerts you that your turnover rate is not common. Some industries such as hospitality may experience more turnover because they have a higher percentage of students.

A high turnover rate in a “stable industry” signals to look internally for the causes. Really assess your leadership style, your managers, and the rest of your team. There are a couple of ways to do this, to truly understand the causes of problems.

One method is to hire an outside resource/consultant who can objectively interview and observe how the company operates; how managers lead; and how people communicate, problem solve, and make decisions. The assessment can help you see and understand what’s happening and propose solutions.

Second, if you and your team can be objective and honest, you can delve into some tough conversations about the quality of your leadership, communication, culture, trust, interactions, and effective problem solving. This is challenging because a team is too close to these topics to be objective enough. Even if they can identify the issues, how to solve them is elusive. If the team had the answers, they would have already solved the problems.

Choosing the second option generally puts off the inevitable: you need an outside perspective. A knowledgeable facilitator can help you address the root causes and navigate your issues for better solutions.