Sunstone HR (HR Consulting)

By Rod Lacey, Sunstone HR / MySilentWhistle With most companies I visit, the number one reason I see in exit interview reports is generally "better opportunity" (or something very similar). If this sounds like the most common statistic in your exit interview reports, read on! Let's think about this for just a minute. Doesn't it seem to make sense that most employees leave their current opportunity for a 'better opportunity?' I would argue that most people leave their employer for a better opportunity. If that's the case, why not just pre-populate your exit interview forms and get the exiting employee to sign on their way out? The 'better opportunity' reason leaves far too many questions unanswered, and the work you might do to remedy problems becomes a guessing game, rather than a strategic exercise. For example, if this is your major category of turnover in your current reporting, you're likely having managers insisting that your pay ...

Every manager or human resource professional will be faced with letting an employee go. These meetings, which best occur in person, are life impacting meetings. When you consider the impact on the employee, it’s no wonder that some lose sleep as they prepare for these meetings. The employee is about to lose income, benefits and will have a hefty blow to his/her esteem. Images of that employee heading home to share the update with a spouse can be upsetting, too. Imagine having to carry that message home to your spouse and children? (Truth be told, in my experience the terminated employee rarely shares the full truth with a spouse. Blame is generally placed, to some degree, on the manager, organization or even unclear standards of performance. I’ve received many an email or call from a spouse of a recently terminated employee, asking me how a good company could terminate its ‘best performing’ employee.) This short article will focus on that final meeting, and exactly how much i...

By Rod Lacey, Sunstone HR Yes, you heard me right, too much compassion in an organization can create a zombie outbreak. Curious?! Please let me explain. Let’s assume that Roger has been identified for termination, due to work performance. You could also swap-out 'work performance' for a simple layoff and the story remains basically the same. As you sit with the CEO and COO to review how to orchestrate Roger’s departure, the COO identifies that he lives near Roger, and that he knows Roger and his family are going through some hard times. He doesn’t ask to reverse the decision (because it’s a good business decision), but does ask if there is some sort of compassion that could be showed to Roger. What is decided is that Roger should receive what I refer to as a ‘ work-out’ period . Roger will be told that he’s being let go, but given 45 days to remain employed and look for work. The compassionate manager felt that it would be easier for Roger to gain employment i...