Boston got hit with its third snowstorm in two weeks recently, and more than a few work initiatives overseen by nearby colleagues got lost in the blizzard — including a high-level meeting on workforce planning. Today was supposed to be a big roundtable where senior HR people set their crystal ball on the table to discuss new hiring initiatives and succession strategies.
The organization (I’ll call them Company X) is scaling up rapidly, and has meanwhile been hit with a nasty wave of voluntary departures. It’s a common one-two punch that can knock the wind out of the sturdiest HR teams. So how can HR leaders react?
Use Tech Tools to Get the Big Picture
No, people aren’t leaving because of the snow — necessarily. Actually, no one knows why they’re leaving: there are no exit surveys to help find out why. Work is different from love: when a relationship ends, no matter how you unpack it, the love is gone. But debriefing matters at work. It’s worth getting the data on why someone leaves. To get that data, you have to ask for it.
That means that every organization needs a powerful, easy to use feedback tool and well-constructed analytics to shape the answers.