How to stop staff jumping ship

You and your HR people have spent a small fortune on staff recruitment advertising and selection procedures. Although you hired in aptitudes you added training and developed favourable attitudes. Your people perform well and you know this from your annual appraisals. They are an important cog in the wheel of your business. And then they hand in their notice!

Unless you have a policy of ‘go now, they have an opportunity to spread dissent among their colleagues, to squirrel away vital company information, and even to steal your stationery and equipment. That individual who was once ‘the perfect candidate’ can metamorphose into ‘the employee from hell’.

The period immediately after the summer vacation is a favourite time for your staff to explore new opportunities, to see if the grass is really greener on the other side and to jump ship. As a result you have much to lose and little to gain beyond repeating the costly recruitment and selection process.

This situation is damaging enough when people at a low level decamp with their skills and experience. It can be catastrophic when your best senior people decide to move on. The solution is to avoid the situation arising in the first place. It is a situation that is readily available to you with business coaching.

Unlike consultancy, which frequently deals with a single issue and makes recommendations for implementation, coaching is a far less expensive option that equips you and your management team with skills that can last a lifetime. Think of consultancy as providing a fish to a hungry individual, and coaching as the alternative that shows that person how to catch their own fish forever.

Staff retention is serious issue which business coaches deal with on a regular basis. Your staff will be less inclined to look elsewhere if they feel that they are truly valued, when they are motivated with an understanding of your organisation’s ethos, values and objectives, when they have the optimum possible responsibility for their own workload and actions and when they discover the benefits of self motivation and the arts of delegation.

Coaching delivers practical and effective solutions that create quantified and qualified results. Indeed, a coach is totally focused on results. When you use a coach you are assured of absolute confidentiality. Your coach will not spend time raking over old coals and past issues. You can only begin a new approach from where you are now and with close attention to where you aim to be by a given future date.

As with all great innovations, there is a possible downside. The only risk in coaching is that you might select the wrong coach! HRM Coaching can assist you with this by hand-picking your coach from our team.

The choice is clear. You can do nothing and hope for the best, which is not a sound management policy, or, you can explore the undeniable benefits of business coaching, at absolutely no risk, and ensure that the best is yet to come and is achievable within your timescale.

For more information about retaining your best people, call HRM Coaching on 020 7939 9910