High staff turnover

[Allllllthetime]

Be brutal - I want to know my personal risk here…

Before I started my new job, the person in post before me left on a level transfer, and one of the people she managed literally walked out. I came in to manage 19 people.

Then in my first months in role, 5 people left. These were people that applied for jobs before I joined the team and found out the outcome of their applications/served notice whilst I was on team. There’s obviously a lot of tension and a bad culture on team which I sense. But this started before I joined…

Now, 2 people on my team might be leaving on promotion - awaiting outcomes of job interviews. So that’s 7 out of 19 people potentially leaving since I joined. Am I being unreasonable here as it’s high staff turnover, but I don’t think it’s indicative of a problem with me. It’s issues before I joined plus people wanting more money/more benefits on promotion that my boss can’t offer.

That is indeed high turnover, but as you say majority, if not all, commenced before you started.

Clearly there is some historic culture issue, the question is whether it is resolved given the leavers - and if not, do you have a plan and the backing to address it?

Thanks! I don’t have the backing tbh, I feel like it will be twisted as all these people left because of me!

Did you have to hire replacements? Otherwise there might be too much work for them now that the team is a lot smaller, and this is why they are leaving?

Why don't you tackle that head on then - have you spoken to the leavers and asked them why they are going?

Rather than just make it your problem, have you spoken with your manager / leadership team / hr to get their views?

No one will want to have staff walking out the door, it isn't your problem alone to solve - why not share your observations and bounce around ideas how you can help improve it over time?

yes, sorry forgot to add we have 4 new staff members and are recruiting for another 2 to account for those who have left. But I think if I ask my boss to recruit for the new people who may be promoted, answers will be demanded

I would flip this around, I'd be asking your boss why you have inherited a team with such attrition challenges - what do they think is the issue, and agree an action plan on how to address it together

I do go back to question above - have you spent much time talking to the team 1:1? You should be able to get a handle on what is the issue quite quickly - as manager your job does include helping steward the culture, if you leave it too long then you do risk culpability of the problem by association.

If you think two more people are about to leave due to better offer elsewhere you should escalate that immediately, you might be able to get a counter offer ready to go for instance

@TinySaltLick your advice is extremely useful, thanks very much