Retention and Jim 1
by Miki Saxon
Last week Craig, a senior manager I know, referred one of his direct reports to me.
During the annual review Craig had warned “Jim” his department’s turnover was unacceptably high and that he was tying 15% of Jim’s annual bonus to his hitting the retention numbers they discussed and agreed upon during the meeting.
Jim asked Craig if the company would be willing to pay for a coach, because he was unsure exactly how to improve retention and hadn’t found books on the subject of much use.
Craig said the company wouldn’t, but he knew someone affordable and called me.
I agreed to have an exploratory conversation to be sure that we could work together and that I could help.
When I talked with Jim he said he believed that in order to do what Craig wants he needed to “get rid of more dead wood and bring on people who will jump on his ideas, aren’t afraid of hard work and understand loyalty.”
However, doing so would preclude any chance of his meeting the retention numbers, especially since, based on past experience, he would be forced to turn several of the new hires, too.
After hearing a good deal more about what he had tried that didn’t work, I explained how I work, costs, etc.,
I warned him that I’m pretty blunt and suggested he check out this blog for a window on how I think and my approaches and that we both think about it to decide whether we could create a productive relationship that would achieve what he wanted.
Jim called yesterday and the upshot is we will be working together to solve his retention problems and I have his permission to share parts of that with you over the next few months.
It should be interesting.
Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/saxonmoseley/224426426/
