by Joao Araujo

According to Wikipedia, “an organization is a social group which distributes tasks for collective goal”. With time companies build teams, establish processes, develop routines and, if all works well, create differentiated knowledge / products / services that are attractive to its target. It becomes a well-oiled machine, producing value to all stakeholders.

But anyone who has worked in one of these well-oiled machines knows how painful it is when you realize that someone is about to or has just resigned. In a split second, knowledge, routines and personal relations are gone or get damaged. The “well-oiled machine”, running with a missing or underperforming element, quickly loses part of its effectiveness and its charm. It will be a temporary situation, but to recruit new people, rebuild relations and improve the knowledge is costly and time-consuming.

When do people decide to leave their current positions? In practice, people leave their jobs all-year round, but there is a moment when companies are more willing to recruit (and people to leave): when the new budget starts, either during the beginning of the year, or during the beginning of the fiscal year.  January 2012 is only 3 months away. Recruitment for new-year positions will start now. Will your company be the hunter or the hunted?

Every year Universum runs a research project on the career expectations of professionals. We look at career ambitions, but also at current satisfaction levels. While this year research is being conducted now, it’s always interesting to see from last year’s research the percentage of employees that was willing to leave their company. Here are the results from the some of the world leading economies (USA, China and Germany) and two economies that have been performing extremely well (Switzerland and Sweden):

During Fall 2010, at least one third of the employees were considering a move within one year. This represents a huge potential loss to companies in terms of productivity (disengaged employees / open positions), knowledge (sometimes even lost to a competitor) and morale. Results from 2011 will soon be available (stay tuned), but while you wait, think to yourself: what activities are you doing to increase retention and/or ensure that business will not suffer from lack of human capital?

Here are some ideas to consider:

1)     Find out the current status of your organization: conduct research

2)     Understand why employees are leaving: take the time to do exit interviews

3)     Map all critical positions and top talent: involve middle management

4)     Be prepared: create a plan that allows you to replace a third of all your employees, including some top talent