IT Employment
We have had 3 staff resignations in a month. Two have been looking for better suited positions, and one just resigned.
It had nothing to do with their management.
What recommendations can you give in handling the situation? We are now having to interview for the 3 vacancies.
by oz_media
Not what they TOLD you they were leaving for but all those LITTLE things that cause people to finally give up on you.
What does your competition do that you don't?
I contract for a company that has people leaving their jobs to go and work with them all the time. They pick up 4 new techs a year due to unhapy staf at competitors. The competitors think they leave for money, room to grow, stability and a host of other things.
They still haven't realized that everyone leaves due to their service manager who is also the office managers wife.
Another competitor of theirs has emplyes leaving all the time to "learn new tasks and move up", whereas the truth is the owner doesn't pay overtime (has an averaging agrement in place) doesn't pay people properly (instead of raises in salary, he gives them COMISSION even though they don't sell anything). You don't have to pay holiday pay on commission so the boss saves and the employees lose. As far as he knows though, they are leaving to move on to bigger ad beter opportunities.
Do some serious internal examinations, put yuorself in the employees place, hous worked compared to net pay, compare THAT to your competitors. Find out the ofice mentality toward staff members and management ( I know you say it isn't management but how can you be sure?) You can't bottom line, you would probably never be told if it was.
by karistetzer
It actually isn't salary or the management.
We offered salary increases to keep the staff.
One staff member, didn't want to report to her supervisor, but only to herself. She basically was a lost case. Before she reported to us, no one knew her job; and she held that over her old supervisors. When she came to us, we had 3 staff members learn her job. When she submitted her resignation, we accepted it knowing we had members of the team that knew her job.
The other staff member didn't want other staff interrupting her with questions about the systems (which was her job). She just wanted to have a certain tasks to do on a day and to complete before she went home. She actually took a huge paycut for her job she is leaving us for.
The next staff member, didn't want her work qualitied, which we have a corporate policy to do to ensure accuracy. And, the health benefit deductibles were too much financial strain. Again, we offered her more money; but she didn't want to have to have quality stats. (And of course we paid incentive comp for exceeding stats in additional to her base salary - which she received)
We also paid overtime and gave flex time generously to the non-exempt staff.
In fact, we were more flexible in our department with our staff; than all the depts in the company.
by admin
Most people leave or stay based on their immediate supervisor. This has been documented for many many years and has been bourne out in the majority of my experience.
Your post sounds like either they all had different supervisors and it really was coincidental or that you do not have the whole story yet.
If it's the former, well sometimes everyone has bad luck. Hope that helps. :)
by rgun2515
I would take a look at the person/people that hired the three people that left. And for your sake, I hope the person that will be conducting the interviews to replace them is not the same person. Do yourself a favor. Get more involved with the interview process. Know as much about the person as you can. Skills are important, but can be learned. Attitude is more important than any skill. Look outside the BOX for interviewing ideas. I always try to make the candidate feel as comfortable as I can. That's how you learn about a person.
For example.
1. Interview in the cafeteria instead of the board room. Or take a walk on the company property if the day is nice.
2. Make the first interview as light as you can. Don't puch for knowledge. Find out about the person. Hobbies etc.
3. Begin with a walk around the office. This will make them think they have the job. They will be much more open.
Then if you like everything about them as a person, bring them back for technical interviews. And again, keep it light. Say something like "I like you but this test is just company policy. Don't stress over it, no one aces the test."
by puzling
by crunchtime
You need to spend some serious, honest time with the remaining staff members and get a feel for the attitude and culture of your department.
You said salary increases were offered to the departing employees. Why were the increases not offered before they turned in their resignations? Were/are you paying market value?
You have indicated that turnover has not been a problem in the past. Is that because you have a good working environment or because the job market has been depressed?
This may well be a statistical anomaly. You may run a great shop where employees are generally happy. But remember the old clich?' "where there is smoke there is fire".
by hexff
A minimum your Human Resources and the hiring manager need to devise a better screening process. The reasons they gave seem to be personality driven.
You don't want these people on your team to start with ?
One other thought is to sell a team approach to your I.T. group. It helps the organization, it helps your I.T. groups reputation, and will expose any others that don't belong on your team !
On one takeover I endured, everyone but the manager quit. Some ran as a result of the ambiguity in the technology and application changes. Some liked what they were doing and the platform they were on. Some were concerned about where they would land in the new organization.
In my job market, every I.T. position posted gets hundreds of credible responses. Recruiters are living on monster, yahoo.hotjobs,careerbuilder seeking the most unlikely sets of skills.
If your Geographically challenged for I.T. workers, I would use a little outsouring, an internship or training program and build my own team...
If it's not money, not management, not challenging, then the problem is with the people you inherited.
Fix the hiring process to get good people ...
Good luck !
I was the manager, I encouraged those who did not want to travel forward to leave. The CIO of the larger organization gave the same challenge to a group of 250 staff, take the challenge or move on.
To boil down your description of the 3 alumni/ae:
One wanted to avoid Accountability;
One wanted to avoid Flexibility;
One wanted to avoid Quality Control;
Sounds like you benefitted from their self-sorting without having to pay severance to be rid of 3 bad eggs. It sounds as though you have budgetary resources to attract much better replacements, and goodness knows there are a lot of people in the IT job market these days. So while self-examination may be a useful exercise, I would spend the lion's share of my time looking for fresh faces, and not self-recriminating. You know the old saying, when God closes a door...
by jimhm
There has to be a reason - even those you said had been looking for a better position.. That tells me you have no career path for them to move up...
Do you do Exit Interviews -
If you have 3 from the same department in the same month - that tells me there is something very wrong with that department. No Career path - they see no way out of what they are doing - pay raises suck - job is routine - no education offered - no conferences - Some thing is broke and by saying it isn't the management - How do you know with out an Exit Interview...
by karistetzer
Actually our HR does the exit interviews, but we have talked with the employees.
It's not better positions they were looking for. In fact we have a lot of career paths within the company they can move to. One employee is very task oriented, wants a certain task list to do each day, get it done and start with a new one the next day. The ee current position, tasks to finish may take more than one day. Instead of the higher position, the ee just wanted a processing type position. (The ee actually took a job with less pay and benefits.) The 2nd ee, didn't like the "quality" part of the position. Of course, we paid bonuses for excellent quality, and the ee's was above standards. 99% of the jobs in the company require quality stats, so this ee decided to look outside the company for a postion that didn't require the "quality" portion. Perhaps stressful to attain the 99%.
So it's not an option of career path, there are plenty of career opportunities and we encourage all staff and praise them for work well done on a daily basis. We also offer incentive compensation, as well as flex time. We also take them to brunch or breakfast every 3 months to show our appreciation of a job well done.
by skipperusn
You may of stepped in it without knowing - Maybe its the stress level of the position. Keeping up with the QA - or other things.
Don't know how old these folks are - but a majority of youth today want patted ont he back for doing their job - but doesn't want any stress or time requirements to do the job.
So to them it was a very stressful environment and they don't like being challenged - you may of just hit on the problem -
How was your turnover before these 3 ...
by ghandijee
If all that you say is indeed true then I think that those that resigned were actually looking for a more cushy job more than anything else.
Probably with the idea of greener grass on the other side.
Just to put things in perspective, I work in IT in South Africa. My current working conditions are as follows...Work an average of 25 hours overtime a week (No overtime pay). I work the long hours not by choice but because of the work load. The development team works on an incentive scheme that is target driven, but that target has never been reached in the last four years, so no one has received an incentive in the last four years. There are no bonuses or 13th cheques, just your 12 salary cheques a year. There are no benefits like medical aid or pension fund contributions (And no, I am not a contractor, I am permanent). We worked on a project recently where we were promised a weekend away if the development was brought in by the deadline. The development was on time but the technical team lagged behind, the result was no weekend away for the development team. The stress levels are way too high and the expectation level as well. I am now currently looking for something else because I have been doing this for four and a half years to gain experience & now just feel that I deserve better than to be be exploited this way.
So, what your employees had sounds good. You can't please all of the people all of the time & no one is indispensible.
The grass always seems greener on the other side, so chin up and persevere. You will find employees that will appreciate what you do for them.
I agree that any organization should do some serious soul-searching about why their people might leave--and on a continuing basis, not just after they start losing lots of talent.
OTOH, this could just be a statistical "blip". Sometimes things just happen in "clusters" without having a common cause.
by the chad
You are correct in that someone needs to find out what is wrong. Exit interviews are the wrong time, wrong person and wrong place to do this.
A smart employee knows better than to say ANYTHING in an exit interview. This is, unfortunately, something that can only truely be learned via personal experience.
A smart employer knows better than to find out what is wrong with the company after the employee has given up on it (and also see the previous paragraph).
A smart employer will regularly (i.e., continuously, forever, and often) talk to the employees and ask one simple question (your choice of how to phrase it):
"How can I help you do your job to the best of your ability?"
Money has nothing to do with this, and you figured this out when you offered your ex-emps money. It may be a loud office, constant interruptions, micromanaging boss; whatever.
A smart employer will not only ask the question, but DO SOMETHING PROACTIVE ABOUT IT.
by bfilmfan
I think Nick from Ask the Headhunter put it best when he said that if you want to keep your staff ask them the questions on the exit interview every 6 months or so.
Most management can't ask the question on how to assist in performing a better job, since they don't understand what it is you do in the first place.
The system of apprenticeship to master craftsman as the "boss" understood each and every job. When management doesn't understand the processes to develop something, be it a process, product, etc. and spend most of their time pushing paper around; issues are bound to show up. To think otherwise, is to prove yourself a true Dilbert-quality of management.
by ray
Read the original request. Karistetzer doesn?t really want to discuss WHY they left. He was asking how to deal with the immediate situation - change over and shortage.
You may have to spend money to fix this problem.
1. Do the best you can to have those leaving thoroughly document their processes.
2. Hire 90 day temps just to get over the hump.
3. Do what many others have suggested and hire the right people to prevent future problems. In short, be creative, think outside the box.
Consider developing a critical skills matrix. This is not a fool proof tool but might help mitigate future problems. List each employee on the side and critical skills/tasks across the top. Then, look at the matrix and see where you only have one person trained on tasks. It may help to rank each person on a 0-5 scale for each task. You?ll want to cross train others to support the primary and prevent an ?all eggs in one basket? situation.
by karistetzer
SkipperUSN: I believe you hit it head on. "...but doesn't want any stress or time requirements to do the job..."
The turnover isn't high at all. One staff moved to another dept in the last year and 1/2. It was just unfortunate that we have had 3 in the last month feel they needed to move on.
I believe this will give us an opportunity to build a stronger team, who's goals are aligned with the requirements of the positions.
We've learned from the experience, and gain by that knowledge. We will continue to offer bonuses and flex time for a job well done.
We have also learned, that we need more than one back up person to learn their jobs - to expand the other team members skills and develop them, so they will have the gained skills and experience to possibly someday move into the higher positions.
by best_john_j
by rdulay
If they're determined to leave, not much you can do. In our part of the world,we do the following to keep our people:
1.) Pay them well.
2.) Keep them busy with challenging assignments/projects.
Ronnie A. Dulay
Philippines
by gyrfalcon888
by msizak
by j.g.camp
I wouldn't rule out the boss. There are pay, benefits, hours worked, the team wasn't a team. Maybe they got a job closer to home (less commute). Without the candor of an honest exit interview and when you leave your better off not giving anyone any more ammo than they need to feel bitter about being jilted.
I worked for a company and I was the third to resign and leave. But that was definitely a case of the man we had to work for. The only guy that stayed, he transferred down from Ohio. The boss lost the VP of Operations sweepstakes and they folded this bitter jerk in as our boss. He wound up even driving the only guy that would put up with him to the hospital for 3 1/2 days with stress related chest pains.
At any rate, 3 job openings, deal with it ! Any chance these people decided to change industries with all the outsourcing of tech industry. There are easier ways of making the same money without having to pace all the software and hardware changes technology puts you thru.
by pmaina2000
A mass exit has EVERYTHING to do with management. Such a statement gives me an idea of the kind of management style adopted in your company:
"See no evil, Hear no evil, Speal more evil"
WAKE UP!
by fgi57
by ksista
You may be right about the fact that it has nothing to do with management. If you are doing everything that you say you are doing, then it sounds like a great place to work for. You just had employees with entitlements, who were not suited for the job that they were in. One of the things that I learned as a manager is that every one has their strengths. We need to utilize them properly.
To me it sounds like you had employees that were in the wrong jobs. Be happy that they have decided to leave and make sure that you recruit people that will enjoy the work. Most companies now-a-days have all prospective employees take certain tests such that they can match the employee with the Job. Also make sure that job description is very clear and the employee knows what is expected of him/her. As you know without interesting work, any incentives become entitlements.
Good luck.
by john.james
Look again. I think the you are not admitting to the truth. Folks leave a job for three reasions:
The job, money, or bad management. All three can be tied back to "Management". If you are having an influx of resignations, take a strong look at "management" or lack thereof.
by dutch
I have left jobs for only a handful of reasons: Money, Career Opportunites, and to get away from BAD Managers. If what you say is true, then neither of the first two are a problem. That leaves BAD MANAGEMENT.
None of us want to face the fact that either we have a bad manager on the team or we are one. You need to seriously think about what went on with these three people. The decision to leave is NEVER made at the time that they leave. They have been looking for another job for MONTHS. They have been pissed off and have shut up because speaking got them nothing, except more pain.
Also, they probably lied on their exit interview. It was easier to pick that than what was really giving them problems, such as a protected employee (ex. boss's wife).
Even if they told the truth and those were the reasons, how was the directives handed down? The majority of people break bad management into 1 catagory...lack of respect shown to the employee from management for the job/work performed by the employee. Everyon is different, some people need more praise to get the same appreciation level.
What else was going on in their lives? For example, a new parent will want to spent time at home caring for the new baby.
Before you hire three new people, you must look at your department. It needs a change.
by rgun2515
I would take a look at the person/people that hired the three people that left. And for your sake, I hope the person that will be conducting the interviews to replace them is not the same person. Do yourself a favor. Get more involved with the interview process. Know as much about the person as you can. Skills are important, but can be learned. Attitude is more important than any skill. Look outside the BOX for interviewing ideas. I always try to make the candidate feel as comfortable as I can. That's how you learn about a person.
For example.
1. Interview in the cafeteria instead of the board room. Or take a walk on the company property if the day is nice.
2. Make the first interview as light as you can. Don't puch for knowledge. Find out about the person. Hobbies etc.
3. Begin with a walk around the office. This will make them think they have the job. They will be much more open.
Then if you like everything about them as a person, bring them back for technical interviews. And again, keep it light. Say something like "I like you but this test is just company policy. Don't stress over it, no one aces the test."
by prefbid ii
I guess I don't see it -- what's the problem?
I have 46 people working for me. So far this year I have had 4 people leave (2 fired for incompetence, 1 went back to his old job for comendable personal reasons, 1 left on permanent medical). Because of corporate policy, it is very hard to replace anyone. I don't see a problem yet. I'm still shy of 10% turnover and am likely to exceed that before the year is done.
Three people leaving is only a problem if it is in the context of a staff of 6. If that is so, then I would say that you have a serious management problem. That management problem may have been the former management (hired the wrong people or kept incompetents around too long) or current management (not looking at the needs of the group). There is a small chance that it is a coincidence, but I would not count on it.
As for what to do:
1. Determine what the impact to corporate productivity is. Focus on the key functions that need shoring up.
2. Appoint "interim" people for any key positions that you have. Consider promoting people from within to those key positions and backfilling the less crucial ones.
2. Hire replacements as quickly as you can.
3. Hire contractors to fill in for those positions that will impact the company if they are not immediately filled. Notice the key here is "impact the company". Don't hire contractors just to fill positions. There is always a knowledge transfer issue and you will be signing up for double work if you have to train a contractor and then a permanent person right on their tail.
You answered most of the "why did they leave" questions in one of your replies. All of the employees did not want to continue with their job due to one aspect or another. There doesn't seem to be anything to figure out here, since you already know.
However, your original question was "What recommendations can you give in handling the situation? We are now having to interview for the 3 vacancies." Having to hire 3 new employees opens up a lot of opportunity for improvement in many areas. Don't make the mistake of hiring quickly just to fill the workload gap. Instead, take the advice from many of the posts and try to see where you can apply this info to the new people you bring in. For example, we hired 5 new people for filling out a whole new section in our department. In our situation we were lucky, we hired a high level manager who brought in some of his own people. This brought great talent in with the ability to work together.
In your situation, you have the burden of filling 3 positions but at the same time are in a position to use this opportunity to your advantage.
by melekali
You do not provide much info to go on. Two of the three were looking and found positions, so it sounds as if you knew of them beforehand. The other might have been dissatisfied, maybe felt the same as the other two without giving indications of such, or just wanted something else. Since management was not a problem, I assume the reasons for all three were personal, i.e., wanted more money, wanted to perform different functions, wanted a different work environment, didn't like coworkers, personality conflicts or differences, etc.
Considering this and not knowing exactly what the jobs of these positions are, I would recommend making the job description actually match the duties of the jobs and ensuring that the new hirees want to do the work you are hiring them for at the pay rate you are willing to pay them. This goes to the hiring process. The interviewer should probably be the person who will be the new hires boss since personality matters. I would recommend hiring not based solely on technical prowess, but on the right mix. Personally, I'd much rather have someone less technically competent who was obviously smart enough to learn with a pleasant demeanor than a technical expert with a terrible attitude, including thinking he or she was God's gift to the universe.
Unless you are hiring a programmer to lock away and create magic, personality matters, and taking care of the people you hire matters. Company values and attitudes need to foster a desire to work at your company.
by gsg
by taggat
Most of the current responses deal with my first comment. There are common motivators and "de-motivators" in IT jobs - covered very well in two books (don't have the full titles with me but they start with):
Leading Geeks (see www.leadinggeeks.com)
Managing Einsteins
In these books, it is pointed out that Knowledge worker (IT type) talent tends to be more mobile than other professionals. Someone in your organization may have ticked them off by unknowingly disrepecting their interests as well as their skills. It is not enough to take your Einsteins out for a meal periodically, you sincerely have to value their contribution and make certain that working conditions do not harshly conflict with their sometimes unique personalities and working styles - as much as possible within your organizational framework.
You said one employee did not like a position that demanded high quality all the time - that is what I am talking about. You might have tried shuffling positions so that this person would not have this "high expectation of perfection" on a daily basis. You need a perfectionist for this position. Obviously this person was not a perfectionist. You needed to adjust the work assignments accordingly, to avoid the inevitable.
Despite everything, sometimes people leave. They want a change, more money, more security, less of something that bugs them. Not much you can do for some of these things. For others you need to keep the lines of communication open so you can spot the trends in conversation that signal a growing need for change, money, position, etc.
I just recently changed jobs, and the timing had nothing to do with the desire to leave (that had been decided several years back), but rather a recovery of the number of available jobs for decent money in the tech sector. During the past several years, finding a new It job in my geographic area has been next to impossible. Your people may have been primed to leave for some time, but the lack-luster economy may have kept them around longer than planned.
by dkerta
Crunchtime made shoot the right targets to see some main possibilities of the reason, I could not agree more. In summary it's covered in 4 list below.
1. Company financial condition
2. Working environment
3. Company culture
4. Renumeration
But if you can't find the "fire" in those areas, I think you need to start to find another job as well, no more challenges will be the last reason why the "young gun"left the organization
Regards
by eelder1
by gordonuk
While I think in your case you may be just unlucky, high turnover is generally caused by benefit/reward loop. If an employee feels that the amount of work or the conditions thay have to work under is not worth the reward they will walk.
This is precisely my case at present - my (non-technical) Project Manager runs the remote office with an iron hand, generally making all Tech staff's lives a nightmare - but we put up with it because we are all getting 30% over the market rate for the job.
It won't last - eventually our sanity will become more important than the money and we will walk.
Most of the replies already given address a lot of things to consider. My few cents for consideration:
(1) Avoid Speculation
Bad things can and do happen. Interview both the exiting group and the current staff. Get a better understanding of anything that might be broke, then start a plan to fix it. Keep your existing staff "in the loop".
(2) Look Again for Hidden Talent
Some of your existing staff may have promotion potential, if not management potnential. Delegate new tasks and watch how they respond. Give them an opportunity to manage a new process, lead a group, become responsible for something greater.
(3) Define the Gap
What gaps exist with the exiting people? Do you really need 3 replacements to do the job? Were they effective/efficient to begin with? What exactly did they support, and do you need more or less people to do it?
(4) Identify Solutions to Fill the Gap
First, fill the gap. Do you work your existing staff overtime until the other positions are filled? Do you bring in temp/contractors in the meantime? etc., etc... It'll be easy to cause your existing staff to burnout if you don't offer some relief. Filling 3 spots can take awhile. This may also be an opportunity for one of your staff to supervise a contractor, giving you more feedback on their capabilities. Identify your "ideal/preferred" and "next best" approach to managing the gap.
(5) Secure Resources
Go back to your management, if necessary, to get the resources you need for an approach identified in #4, above. You may be surprised to get waht you ask for. You may also get shut down and forced to work with what you've got. In either event, you need to show that you've got the situation in hand and are not afraid to say you've got difficult times facing you.
(6) Take the Time to Find the "Right" People
As some other responses have indicated, don't fill to get a body in, fill it with someone that'll be a good "fit". Perhaps a headhunter placement agency could be of assistance (if so, identify it too in #4), maybe you'll have to search a little longer, whatever. Give yourself the time (again, resources in #4) and pad it a little to find the right people.
by itconverter
Exactly what I wanted to say and said so well.
Only 2 months after an annual review and small salary increase - I was offered $6,000 (big boss called me at home) the day I handed in my resignation. Offering the money on the way out the door is too late. In fact - it is quite insulting.
On the flip side - as a manager inheriting a low-morale team - we lost a few employees (one a month for about 6 months). Most turned out to be a blessing in disguise as they were replaced with even better people (which I got to pick).
by dc_guy
by lioninoil
"It had nothing to do with their management."
... where have I heard that before?? Oh, yeah, now I remember: it was from A BAD MANAGER.
What you describe is every manager's nightmare. A month after I joined my company four people, who worked for another manager, resigned in the same week. However, in the end it did affect me since, I had to share my staff with the other manager. Bottom line in this case was the treatment of staff by the manager, he used to micro manage their time.
I personally try to rotate my staff i.e. if one of them has worked in the Finance area on atleast two projects, he/she will be assigned a marketing project next. It reduces my risk if one of them should walk out the door, increases knowledge, keeps the staff interested and from a support point of view they are all capable. It is hard if one area does not have that many projects. If this is the case, I start assigning support tickets from that area to a staff that has not been in that area for quite sometime.
by pjnyusa
by pjnyusa
by pjnyusa
by comgrit
Besides the exit interview that need to be performed to findout exactly why they left, you also have to take care of the rest of your staff.
When several people left the company, there will be moral crisis for the rest. Rumors, corridors chat, etc, etc.
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