Making Perfect. Teri Ann Lindeberg
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when a few of our experienced team left us, and then having to explain to others what was happening and why and our future, but this is normal for companies”…”Departure of our GM [General Manager] and other people, really liked our GM as a manager – losing him was the most difficult”…”Turnover of experienced people – but good is that it was my idea to return Polina to Staffwell as I spoke to the GM about it”…”I cried when our GM left, he was the heart of the company, maybe I am too emotional”…
It is always hard when good people, sometimes unexpectedly, leave the company. Some of our staff did not have the years of experience to understand why it happens, and it can be difficult for management to explain it and, at the same time, boost morale.
In one instance, we were very fortunate that the key people who left us in the Summer of 2007, to either start their own companies or join others, had all failed in their new endeavors within a 12-month period after leaving us. As they say, the grass is not always greener on the other side.
Personally, I have always managed unexpected turnover very well. This is due to many years of experience and my firm belief that there are always better people to hire in their place. I have always seen employee turnover as an opportunity for a better start.
Losing our GM was hard for me as well because we were quite close, achieved a lot together and had and still have a lot of respect for one another. However, it was also the right time to part ways, and he did a good hand over, and we kept the door open.
Bringing back Polina, who was one of our Senior Consultants on our recruitment team in Moscow, was definitely a good move for us, as she is very strong and talented. She left to join a competitor and realized, within 6 months of leaving us, that we really were the best company on the market to work for. It is always risky to bring someone back into the company. However, in this case, it was a risk well worth taking and one that paid off.
Employees want:
• To minimize unexpected turnover of good people.
“Staff reductions because I trained and hired them, but everyone understood it was due to the economy”…”Staff down-sizing”…”Redundancy period as it was visible as many seats were empty – but now all is OK”…”Beginning of crisis was very busy with changes of staff”…”Reduction of staff and second wave of reductions”…”People writing this is my last day letters”…”Crisis/redundancies as nobody knew what tomorrow would bring for themselves and colleagues”…”Reduction of colleagues because we were great friends with them – but have no doubt we will grow again”… “Need to improve high stress due to fears of being fired; need to create more stability”
Redundancies impact everyone: both the people leaving and the people staying. We were fortunate to have a sensitive and supportive management group and team in place. We did what we could to motivate and boost morale and knew we would get through it over time.
There is always a risk in allowing departing staff to write “goodbye letters” to the team they are leaving. These letters may depress the people who receive them. However, not allowing a departing employee to say their goodbyes could have an alternative reaction, and team members could wind up feeling that the management of the company is insensitive to those leaving. This is especially true in our company, where the people are, in general, close to one another and are, overall, quite often endearing and heartfelt toward one another.
Employees want:
• A stable economy that does not negatively impact the status quo;
• An office with filled seats and not one strewn with half empty workstations;
• To avoid receiving and reading goodbye letters from colleagues who have been made redundant and are leaving the company due to purely economic reasons (as this is a real downer to remaining staff who are likely friends with these people and may worry about their fate and chances in successfully finding new employment), and
• To feel stability.
“Frustrating is hard work and little results right now, even candidates declining offers”…”The crisis – hard to cold call and lots of ‘No’ responses and slow sales”…”Started with the company at the beginning of the crisis and it was hard to get it going”…”Did not make bonus, thought I could but had 2 cancelled invoices so I lost earning an extra $5,000”
Recruitment is typically hit very hard during times of major economic contraction. We were not different – our revenue decreased 80% and we had to fight and claw to get every little bit of work we did get.
I had to personally cover the financial costs of most of the team we retained during this last downturn, as well as all of the operational expenses. I was happy to do it as long as an effort was put forward by the team and they worked their hardest. Unfortunately, we did have to let go of a few people who, for whatever reason, after a while just refused to even try, and further decided to stop making the obligatory calls to clients. Even if cold calling was not their talent, it needed to be done and those that soldiered through survived and are now thriving again.
Employees want:
• Robust economic conditions and not downturns nor, especially, economic crises.
“Our former pharmaceutical/medical Consultant/Director stealing from the company –morals are very important to me”…
On occasion, every company discovers a bad apple in the bunch. In our case, it was our former Pharmaceutical Consultant whom, we discovered, had convinced a few small, local pharmaceutical and medical companies to pay our fees directly into her own personal bank account. We learned about this through the candidates she had placed with them while she was working for us, and unfortunately, we only found out about it as she was leaving us for another recruitment/search firm.
What really annoyed me about this was that, during one of my “Tea with Teri” interviews, a Senior Consultant who had worked in the same room with her, told me that for a period of one year before she left, she (the Pharmaceutical Consultant) had continually complained about the company. I asked him, “Well, why didn’t you tell someone about it (me or anyone in management) as we could have gotten rid of her a year ago and saved whatever time and financial loss we had now incurred”? He had no answer; maybe it had never crossed his mind, or it had but he just felt he could never act upon it.
This prompted me to make a note about revising our operations manual, induction and on-going trainings to request that everyone be observant about any employee who appears disgruntled with the company, or with anyone within it, and to report such to me or someone else in management. This would obviously help us to identify much sooner anyone whom we should be closely monitoring.
This particular pharmaceutical sector recruiter, who stole from us, was let go two years later from the competing recruitment firm she joined. We were unable to recover any of the money she stole from us, but she will always carry the worst reference from us, should any company ever call me about her performance. Again, most companies discover, on occasion, a bad apple in the cart – and she was ours.
Employees want:
• To work with people that have high morals and values; and
• Companies to more closely check staff for possible corruption, and to immediately fire those they find engaged in it (TL: I confess that I may be mind-reading here but feel confident that this is wanted).
“To make direct communication channels with certain people – Consultants are tough: tough to motivate them and to get them to communicate”…”Some Consultants are challenging”…”Communication between offices is not as good as it could be, and some of the Directors in the other office keep some positions from us”…
This was a current issue at the time, which we could fix on an individual basis and company-wide. In our business it is important that there is strong communication