The True Facts from Exit Interviews

By Paul Bertrand

October 27, 2014

I was speaking to an executive recently who shared with me their biggest concern being   excessive turnover.  Not a good one.  As we know the costs out of the issue are so detrimental to profitability. When asked what might be causing it, compensation was given as the factor. 

Based on my presentation and further discussions of key important factors of the organization, we may have concluded something different at the end of our meeting.

What the research1 tell us is that 70% of the time someone leaves, or worse planning to leave (disengaged), is due to reasons directly controllable by their managers. 

Your exit interviews from your departing employees tell you compensation is the cause.  “Leaving for more money” they tell you.  Is this correct?  Be aware that the pay reason is an easy way out of getting into any specifics.  Nobody wants to burn the bridge behind them.

Data from a study found that 89 percent of managers believe that most turnover is caused by better pay. Yet, 88 percent of voluntary turnovers, something besides money is the root cause. This astounding disconnect between belief and reality allows managers to deny responsibility for correcting and preventing the root causes of employee disengagement.

The great news is that recent findings done by Effective Managers™ and the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa gets us closer to the root cause through grounded research.  Through benchmarks, highlighting strengths and weaknesses, leaders can now have a clearer picture of what is the root cause by surveying their management, not employees.  No guessing.  Facts that can help you determine causes. 

Contact Canadian People Management to learn more about this new solution and how you can be leading your industry, your organization, your team, to greater results. 

1.      Leigh Branham, The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave- The Saratoga Institute had a database of 19,700 exit and current employee surveys

 

Paul Bertrand is founder of Canadian People Management Inc. which is based out of Pickering, Ontario. His company specializes in organizational effectiveness development through solutions tailored to strengthen his client’s cultures, leadership and teams.

www.cpeoplemi.com

 

 

Diagnosing Organization Effectiveness

October 21, 2014
by Paul Bertrand

So you read the many articles on engagement, leadership, retention, or even strategic planning, which only leaves you guessing on what area you should start focusing on. You’ve probably, like many, seen the data through different surveys telling us of the odds of your organization failing if changes are not done.

What if I told you it’s no longer a guessing game.  Through recent research and findings, senior management and heads of HR can evaluate their organizations utilizing a new tool.  It begins with surveying the key to the puzzle, your management.  That's right, not the employees, who most often want to do well, surrounded by weak infrastructure, lack of understanding of accountability, feeble plans, and unfortunately to often the sacrificed lamb to the problem.

The above blueprint from Queens University, shared with me by Brenda Parker 10 years ago, is something that I have always kept in my briefcase.  It has helped me share the visual of the key elements.  It has recently become even more important recently in my consulting, due to the findings done by Effective Managers™ and the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa. 

We now have a solution that helps measure the components of your organization.  Through benchmarks, highlighting strengths and weaknesses, you can have a clearer picture of what is the root cause.  No guessing.  Facts that can help you determine if you should be alarmed by those articles highlighting areas such as disengagement, turnover or ineffectiveness.

Is that not your goal?  To improve the effectiveness of your organization above those of the  competition and improving the bottom-line? If so, contact Canadian People Management to learn more on how you can be leading your industry, your organization, your team, to greater results. 

 

Paul Bertrand is founder of Canadian People Management Inc. which is based out of Pickering, Ontario. His company specializes in organizational effectiveness development through solutions tailored to strengthen his client’s cultures, leadership and teams.

www.cpeoplemi.com

Competitive Advantage

I’m not certain if Senior Management or Board Members are paying much attention these days on the root cause of productivity.

With alarming data from Gallup telling us that a large number of workers worldwide are disengaged, would this not be enough to have organizations wanting to know more about their current state? 

In the State of the Global Workplace Report – October 2013, Gallup shared with us that fully engaged workers in Canada are at a shocking 16%. Sound the alarms!
Canadian workers are about half as likely as those in the United States to be fully engaged.

The need to boost productivity in an organization should be of top concern to senior management.  If not alone, the need to compete globally is ensuring that your workplace is effective, since those who figure it out will gain significantly. 
I truly believe that the organizations that invest in improving management and workforce effectiveness should have increased business growth and success. 

Here lies a big competitive advantage for those interested.
Research done by Effective Managers™ and the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa identified key findings that are Canadian specific and, most importantly, finds a link between the effectiveness of an organization and the workers, being the Manager.  Hold on, before coming to a quick conclusion of firing management, the research discovered in most cases it's not their fault. 

The research found dimensions of accountability being critical to success and also found that a series of other measures have significant correlation to organizational effectiveness.

If we define employee engagement, we get a meaning of emotional commitment and actually caring about the work and the company.  Based on my experience, without a good knowledge and understanding how I may impact things, my commitment and passion for something is weakened.   

What I find interesting is that the research and survey developed from Effective Managers™ helps an organization determine on how their workforce have clarity of their accountability, and the felt accountability, which I believe is getting closer to the root cause of engagement. 

Senior Management and Heads of HR now have a tool to determine their current state compared to benchmarks on key organizational effectiveness measures, hence giving them a competitive advantage.

For more information on how your organization can tap into this new solution visit:
Canadian People Management Inc.