What if your client's employees leave?

As a coach you are likely to have frequent conversations about why employees leave.  These are usually prompted by a long-serving employee leaving or increased difficulty recruiting good people.

It used to be popular to hold focus groups with employees to establish what they looked for in an employer.  In  a tough market for finding and retaining staff this may come back into fashion - and why not?.  You should encourage your clients to engage with their staff this way and understand that employing people is a market and you need a unique selling proposition.

Where you might start to differ from your clients is in the sort of things they feel will make a difference, like an extra day of holiday or better overtime rates.  Bonus schemes are another favourite.

Introducing these fringe benefits seems completely rational but you might want to challenge your clients about a lack of understanding of why people move between organisations.

It is rarely for money.  Only if the rewards are seen to be unfair (by reference to peers inside or outside the organisation) do people leave for more.  Sometimes it may be because they don’t see a career path – again, this may be about money on the face of it but actually it’s about progression and recognition.

People join organisations because they want to be part of something that looks exciting and worthwhile.  They leave because it turns out to be frustrating, boring and stressful.  This may be caused by erratic, intrusive, bullying or disengaged supervision, inadequate tools, systems and resources, a dysfunctional team environment – or anything else that prevents an employee from succeeding and results in a repeated, pervasive sense of failure.

What keeps people engaged is repeated success and a feeling (reinforced by customer feedback) that the team and individual are great at what they do.

It’s much easier to concoct a bonus scheme than it is to build a winning team – but the latter is what attracts and keeps great employees, and what you should be encouraging your clients to create.

For more tips to help you become a better business coach visit https://www.businesscoachkit.com