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I sprained my toes on my right foot last year and somehow I managed to sprain my toes on my left foot last week. As I was limping around, I realized how I’ve taken my toes for granted. Toes do a lot more than you think. They are part of a subsystem (our foot) and a whole system (our bodies) and they keep us stable and balanced when we walk. We don’t think of our toes until something happens to them. Then we realize how important they are to us.

Kind of like employees. We take them for granted until something happens. People help meet company goals and fulfill the business plan, mission and vision. Without them, nothing would get done. So many times organizations think of their people as an after thought. They invest in marketing and sales; they invest in fancy furniture and locations; and they invest in technology. But do they freely invest in their people?  Not always. Like our toes, they are taken for granted. 

But best practice organizations invest in people to invest in success. They know that people are the only asset that grows in value with use. The more you invest in them, the more you get back.

So make sure you don’t treat your employees like your toes. Don’t take them for granted. Call us to discuss how you can build a best practices HR foundation that ensures you and your people succeed!

When employees leave, it can cost you more than you think.  Do you know the cost of turnover in your company?  Do you think calculating the cost of turnover is confusing?  It doesn’t have to be.

You can calculate the actual costs of turnover at your organization using the following suggestions:    

• Annual job salary or wage
• Number of departing employees over a 12 month period
• Direct costs related to a departing employee (paperwork and administration support, exit interview, accrued vacation not taken, temporary personnel, management time dealing with departing employee)
• Direct costs related to a new hire (advertising cost, agency fees, referral bonuses, relocation expenses, signing bonus, recruiting expenses, recruiter salary, cost of administration such as writing job ad, applicant screening, interviewing, administering assessment, reference checks, preparing offer letter)
• Indirect costs (supervisor or management time per new hire, orientation, in-house and external training per new hire, cost of lost productivity of new hire, coworkers, and supervisor, increased defects or operating errors, dissatisfied or lost customers during the transition or learning curve, cost of IT personnel to change computers and phone)

Or you might use a simple estimate of 1.5x the average company salary. For example, a company with an average salary of $40,000 might find the actual cost of turnover is $60,000 (or 1.5x the average salary).   A company that loses only 4 employees a year would have a  cost of turnover of $240,000 per year.   Looking at it this way, what organization wouldn’t be willing to put some effort into reducing turnover? Do you know why employees leave your organization? 

We can help assess why employees leave through exit interviews. We can review your HR initiatives to see if they encourage retention.

If you would like a copy of our free turnover calculation worksheet or need help discovering why good employees are leaving, click here.  

Best regards,  Joanne

Like everyone, I’ve been touched by the images of Chilean miners being lifted to freedom in the “Phoenix.” Imagine 33 people being couped up in a small space for 69 days! How did the Chilean miners keep their spirits up and how did they manage to get along with each other? I’m sure we will see a couple of books and a movie come out of this life altering event.

What does it take to create a well-functioning and successful team?  Dr. Meredith Belbin discovered nine team roles necessary for team success.  Each person has a preferred team role which is their natural (or preferred) tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others. As you review the following roles and brief description, you can see that these nines roles might be evident in one way or another with the Chilean miners!

It will be interesting to find out more about the experiences of the miners and how they learned to live together as a team, in what appears to be in relative harmony, for 69 very long days!

Is your organization having difficulty forming effective and efficient teams? It could be that you have too many people taking on the same role, leaving you with a gap that results in less then stellar team results.  Give us a call to ensure your team’s success. 

Best regards,  Joanne Royce
Accredited Belbin Team Roles Assessor, Facilitator, & Coach