Supporting teams with a revolving door

Posted by Sarah Hobbs

A high level of staff turnover within a team or department is a sure sign that it is in need of some kind of support. There’s a strong possibility that amongst the teams you are partnering with, there are some whose staff turnover concerns you. If that’s something you can identify with, the good news is it may not be all bad news.

So, where to begin?

The key thing to find out is whether the turnover that’s taking place is planned or unplanned turnover. If it is planned turnover, it is good news. The manager will have created a ‘nursery’ environment to prepare people to move into bigger roles or areas of responsibility. Unplanned turnover is more challenging and may point to a problem with the team or the way the team is being managed.

If the turnover you’re seeing is planned turnover, here’s some ideas which may help you support and augment the positive work that’s being done –

Embrace the nursery. The manager driving the turnover is a very valuable asset in the business and both they and the “talent nursery” they’ve created should be protected and supported. Spend time encouraging the manager to grow this important work.
Help them attract the right people. Whether it’s identifying the right candidates to pass through the team on their way to bigger things, or building a “core spine” of people to support the development of others without affecting the team’s overall performance – the right people are crucial.
Work to get the manager and the team recognised. Whether it’s recognition of the things they’re achieving or opening the doors to coaching support or management development and training. By recognising, rewarding and fueling their efforts you’ll see in even greater returns in the business. Giving access to your cross business network will be a valuable resource for them to harness.

In the case of unplanned turnover, which is typically when people are going in and coming out of a team in a very uncontrolled way, you will need to take a different approach. Here are three ideas which may help shed some light on the problem –

Understand what is happening. It’s very easy to presume that the problem lies with the manager, but there are many factors which can cause unplanned turnover in a team. For example, it could be that the job design of the roles within the team is wrong and that the jobs are too complex or have too many responsibilities. The key is really getting to the root of the problem and understanding what’s driving the turnover.
Make sure development needs are being met. High turnover can often be caused by having unsuitable people in the team who are poorly trained staff. Bad recruitment decisions are made all the time and very often are too difficult to overcome. Poorly trained staff quickly feel overwhelmed and out of their depth and so lose confidence. These issues get compounded when a manager is busy so doesn’t give appropriate support in the early stages of new starter’s induction. Looking at all three areas can cause a massive improvement.
Build a business case with the manager. The best thing you can do for the team is work with the manager to understand what the problem is and what the business case is for investing the right amount of time and money in getting the situation back on track. The reality is that high turnover teams are costing the organisation money – for example, in recruitment and retraining costs alone. The investment in solving the problem often achieves a cost-saving.

Take Away
Before taking action to fix a high turnover team, make sure you know whether the turnover is planned or unplanned. Each requires very different approaches to support or fix.