8/7/2024

Planning for employee turnover

Guidance on safeguarding your organization and maintaining productivity.

When a business loses an employee, no matter the cause, leadership faces a significant challenge.

Who can be trusted to take the reins? Who will fit in well with the culture of the organization? In my experience, these questions have an obvious answer: Hire from within, and you can move forward with confidence. But one solution does not constitute a talent strategy. The brightest leaders are always planning for the future – potential personnel turnover included.

Future-minded leaders identify the key positions within their organization and spend time formulating a plan for the pipeline that will fill those roles in the future. Because internal candidates are the most likely to step seamlessly into a vacancy, any leader would be wise to form connections and strengthen the skills of those who may be in line for potential openings. The practice of coaching will further your own insight into the skills of your team members and help you build a plan for their professional development. The bottom line is that your efforts now will help to build your team in the future.

The man's hand of a businessman in a business suit holds a wooden figure of a man in his hand and moves another figure from his post. The concept of firing an employee, the replacement of staff Banner; Shutterstock ID 1101685712

“You never know where you might run into the right person,” Scarlett says.

Don’t keep talent planning to yourself; share your thoughts and plans about potential staff turnover with your leadership team and/or the Human Resource function in your organization. These conversations should take place several times a year and, in my experience, will lead to plans for skill development of those most likely to fill open positions. At Tractor Supply Company, district managers have the on-the-ground responsibility to fill open leadership positions and to oversee the development of future managers and assistant managers. The company is particularly enthusiastic when district managers are able to not only develop their own team, but also to export talent to other operations within the company.

It may be tempting for some business leaders who are faced with personnel turnover to launch right into an outside recruitment process. Even the wisest among us can fall into the temptation of believing that the best possible candidate could be waiting somewhere out there, so why not look? However, the HR experts will join me in pointing out that recruitment carries a heavy financial cost, not to mention the lost productivity of the department and the general disruption of the work unit while the rest of the team waits for the open role to be filled. If it is possible to elevate a current team member to the role, you will likely save yourself and your organization some undue stress.

Admittedly, hiring from within is not always possible. For that reason, I recommend you keep your eyes and ears open for possible talent for your operation – you never know where you might run into the right person. Years ago, in a conversation about her bowling league, my wife happened to describe a teammate’s husband. I listened to the description of the man’s skills and thought he sounded like just the right fit for a vacant role at our company. My gut proved correct, and that man spent eight successful years at Tractor Supply Company before retiring happily. When internal hiring is not possible, it is crucial that a leader know how to identify talent for their organization. You won’t get every hire right, but a business leader who understands their company’s culture and talent needs is more likely to make prudent hiring decisions than one who does not.

We all know that some amount of voluntary turnover is unavoidable in any organization; but a leader can minimize its likelihood simply by being a good manager. When employees receive regular communication about the business, are engaged in the day-to-day work, are regularly recognized for performance, and paid fairly, they are less likely to look elsewhere.

Want to get ahead in a leadership role? Put personnel turnover on your regular agenda, get your talent pipelines ready before you need them, and and have your plans at top-of-mind so that the unexpected does not upset your apple cart.

A version of this post first appeared on Joe Scarlett's blog.