Closing the Revolving Attrition Door

I work for a start-up company and one of our greatest challenges is attrition. We build software products, which means that we have to invest a lot into people as knowledge bases. However, employees are usually young and many leave after a few months of intensive training and professional growth, and go to big companies which offer a brand name and more money. We’ve almost become “training ground” for these giants — unfortunately at considerable cost to us. How can we improve working conditions and environment to motivate and keep the people we’ve trained?

The Team Doc Says…

You do have a tough job ahead of you. Your answer is in your question. It’s right here — “How can we improve working conditions and environment to motivate and keep the people we’ve trained?”

Improve working conditions and motivate staff. You can easily find out why they are leaving. Conduct exit interviews and analyze that data. Create an action plan to implement those actions that will give you the most bang for the buck in reducing your attrition rate.

One thing you can do right now is to understand how each employee perceives their fit in your organization and how their role plays out in terms of company goals. You can find out how your employees feel by asking each employee:

• What do you find most challenging about your work?
• What aspect of your work provides the most satisfaction?
• What are the biggest obstacles to completing your work?
• What resources would make your work easier?

Finding the answers to these questions and coming up with a solution that works for both the employee and your company will help you demonstrate how important they are to your company. When employees know they’re more than “just a number,” it can go a long way in motivating them to stay.

Best regards,

Denise O’Berry
aka ‘Team Doc”

Need More Help?

• Build a Better Staff: Developing and Keeping Top Notch Staff

Attitude Is Everything: Change Your Attitude… and You Change Your Life from amazon.com.