How to get rid of your staff

Have you hired staff repellents?

No matter how hard you work on hiring and retention, all that can be a waste of time and effort if their colleagues work as hard on making them want to leave. We all have our limits, and if we are being pushed to the edge regularly, it is only natural to want to go somewhere else.

I bet most of us have experience for example of; working with unprofessional or unskilled colleagues, having to chase colleagues/boss/pay/bonuses, being promised things that never happen, repeatedly having to clean up someone else’s mess, you name it.

The basic idea of working is that we give our time in exchange for money as per agreed terms. When that doesn’t happen, we need other reason(s) to stay. How many companies offer good enough options for that? Not making sure that things run as they should can get costly. It takes way more money to constantly hire and train than it does to keep people happy, so can you afford to piss off your staff?

Let’s use a salary payment issue as an example, as it is a surprisingly and regrettably common issue. In the end, money is the main reason for anyone working and yet in many cases the issue is not addressed with the severity it deserves.

So, something went wrong, and one or more of your employees didn’t get paid. What happens next? Does someone see it, or does the employee need to contact you and ask where their money is? What kind of reply do they get, and how quickly? Is there a procedure for such situations? Will someone offer an apology and some kind of explanation together with an action plan? The employee should never be left to chase the money or updates. (Unless you are trying to get rid of them). Whoever is in charge needs to make sure that the employee(s) in question know something is being done and can trust it being taken care of as fast as possible. Someone should also make sure they can afford to get to work, eat and pay their bills meanwhile. It is not fair to expect someone to get in debt because your people messed up, intentionally or not.

When speaking of more minor issues, they can still cause major inconvenience for your staff. A flight ticket price can multiply while someone is waiting for holiday approval. Maybe they won’t be able to go when they get the green light. How about a promised bonus? It doesn’t work as an incentive if they are not paid as agreed, and someone who had planned to buy a house/clear debts/go on holiday with that money will not be happy for the major issues it will cause for them when it doesn’t arrive in time. How do you think that will work for the company in the future?

If you want to find the best staff to begin with, and spend time and money to find them, it makes sense to make sure those people will be happy and want to stay as well. That means making sure things work as agreed and that other staff you have hired won’t jeopardise that. Not everyone can nor need to like each other, but you can still have respect, and for the company’s sake, the more, the better.

"Colleagues should take care of each other, have fun, celebrate success, learn by failure, look for reasons to praise not to criticize, communicate freely and respect each other."

- Richard Branson