Bored executive wasting time playing with reminders at office
It may seem counterintuitive to start an article about employee retention by talking about firing. But that’s exactly what you must do if you want to keep your best people.
Clients frequently ask me when’s the right time to let go of a poor performer. I tell them yesterday. But if they haven’t fired this person already, I tell them they should do so today.
Here’s what happens when you allow non-performers to remain in the organization.
Mediocracy becomes the norm. You send a signal to your employees telling them that mediocre work is acceptable. After a while, mediocracy becomes the new standard. Top performers want to work with other top performers, which means you are now at risk of losing your best people.
You no longer have money in your budget to reward high performers. It can get expensive to keep poor performers, as you’re always seeking to hire top people who can propel the organization forward and pick up the slack from those who are underperforming. The money you might have spent rewarding your high performers now goes to the higher salaries you must pay for these new people.
Star performers quickly become exhausted. It doesn’t matter who you are; no one can keep firing on all cylinders day in and day out. Eventually, these people begin to make mistakes, which can cost your company dearly. Many will seek a more manageable work situation, which doesn’t seem all that hard to find these days, and you’ll be the one experiencing what it’s like to work 24/7.
You quickly go from Best Place to Work to the Worst Place to Work category. Think about the last time you purchased a product or service. What’s the first thing you did? If you’re like most people, you search the Internet looking for reviews or ask friends and family for their recommendations. If the first few reviews you read were negative or a trusted friend shared a terrible experience, you quickly moved on.
If current or former employees are writing reviews about your company that say management is weak and employees are not held accountable, then you’re at risk of repelling talent.
Eighty-six percent of Glassdoor users read company reviews and ratings before deciding to apply for a job. What’s even scarier is that job seekers or employees who share negative information about a company online are 66% more likely to share their views on social media outlets that your clients may be using.
Bottom line: Negative reviews will impact your ability to hire great people and obtain new business.
You’re preventing highly productive people from entering your organization. You have a limited number of positions. Therefore, if someone is occupying a seat and they’re not effective, you cannot hire someone else. Multiple studies show that top performers outperform average performers by 4 to 1.
Think twice if you’re giving your slow performers a pass because you don’t want to add more jobs to your long list of job openings. Your worst employee is still representing your organization and is doing so in a way that is more harmful than you may think.
Now’s the time to act and give your non-performers their due notice. Do it today.
