Episode 37

full
Published on:

5th Jul 2023

Small to Mid-Sized Organizations Can't Afford to Ignore Employee Turnover

**Summary:**

Dr. Jim emphasizes the importance of employee retention for small to midsize organizations. He highlights the financial impact of turnover, the loss of institutional knowledge, and the negative effects on employee morale and brand reputation. Dr. Jim urges organizations to focus on building a culture of open communication and empowerment to retain their best people and become elite organizations.

Timestamp

[0:00:00] Introduction to the importance of employee retention for small to midsize organizations

[0:00:50] The high cost of turnover and its impact on initiatives

[0:01:43] The ripple effect of losing critical employees and institutional knowledge

[0:02:50] Negative impact on employee morale and team stability

[0:03:30] Cascading effect of losing highly valued employees

Transcript

Why is Employee Retention More Important for Small HR Teams?

Dr. Jim: [:

That's especially important for small to mid-size organizations. To consider because you can't absorb attrition the same way a 10,000 person organization can. You lose five of your best people tomorrow? You're gonna be in a world of hurt. And whatever systems or processes that you had in place are likely to be thrown into chaos because those people have left.

If you're not focusing on the things that you need to focus on to make sure that your people stay. You're setting yourself up for a lot of problems, and that's why employee retention should be a critical focus for small to midsize organizations.

eaves your organization, you [:

So multiply that by each instance. Of attrition and you have a financial impact that is going to put any of your initiatives into chaos, and that's gonna be something that is especially critical to conserve if you're in a small to midsize organization. When you're thinking about why there should be a focus on employee retention, the cost alone should be something that keeps you focused.

Think about the day-to-day, small to mid-size organization has to deal with. You're building the organization that you want to be as you go. So every single person on your team is critically important, and the reality of it is that everybody is so busy that not everything is gonna get written down and documented.

ems, customers, all of those [:

You're building as you go. Everything is a sprint. You need your people dialed in and locked in into the strategic vision mission, values. And you need everybody firing on all cylinders. You lose three of your best people or two of your best people, or even one really good person from one of the teams.

What happens to your employee morale? Your team is gonna feel it. There's gonna be a sense of instability and anxiety that they're gonna encounter. They're gonna wonder what's up. There's gonna be a period where everybody is less productive and it can create a cascading effect.

If one of the people is highly valued in the organization and they leave, they're gonna. To take some people with that, and this is before you start thinking about the brand reputation that you have in the marketplace. When you look at consistent pattern of attrition, that's gonna have some negative impact on your brand, and that's gonna impact how your customers perceive you.

Your future [:

If you're a small to midsize organization and you're not extremely focused, On retaining your employees, you're going to be setting yourself up for a lot of problems down the road. Don't take your eye off the ball and think turnover is something that you can ignore. It's not, and if you do, it's gonna cost you.

You cannot become an elite organization if your best people are just walking out the door every single day, and that is why it's critical for you to build a culture that has open communication, but more importantly, is a culture where your managers are empowered, your employees are engaged because those two factors combined are gonna help you build an elite organization.

Show artwork for Principal Office Hours

About the Podcast

Principal Office Hours
Real principals. Real talk. No hall passes required.
Finally—a podcast that proves school principals have personalities (and killer insights, too). Every week, join us for candid conversations with K-12 principals who are navigating the beautiful chaos of educational leadership without losing their minds or sense of humor.

Each 40-minute episode features real principals sharing what actually works in school leadership—from handling helicopter parents and budget nightmares to building school culture that doesn't make everyone roll their eyes. Consider this your professional development that doesn't feel like professional development.

Our guests aren't afraid to share their epic fails alongside their victories. They'll tell you about the initiative that spectacularly bombed during assembly, right before revealing how they turned their school's reading scores around. It's educational leadership with the BS filter turned off.

Whether you're currently wearing the principal badge, aspiring to the big chair, or teaching while secretly taking notes on what you'd do differently, Principal Office Hours delivers actionable strategies you can implement faster than a student being sent to detention.

Subscribe now and join the faculty lounge conversation that's too real for the school board meeting. New episodes drop every week. Warning: May cause spontaneous leadership growth and occasional inappropriate laughter during staff meetings.

About your host