Sooner or later, no matter how sweet your new startup company is, someone is going to hand in their resignation. It could be the gal you’ve been working with since the day you founded the company, or the person you hired last week. Regardless, the thought of losing people may sound like a bad thing – but in fact it’s not.
Not all employee attrition is a bad thing. I’m not talking about sitting around your conference room like Dr. Evil and eliminating anyone that doesn’t please you today. I’m talking about embracing the benefits of attrition, whether initiated by you or someone else, to breathe some new life into the organization.
Not Intended for Everyone
Let’s face it – most people aren’t cut out to be in a startup environment to begin with. While the idea of creating some wonderful company out of nothing may sound great, the reality is not so romantic. Even the fastest growing startups take many grueling years to build, and the long hours can go from nominal to normal in no time at all.
A lot of people can handle the breakneck pace and constant change for a few months, maybe a year. In comparison to their big corporate jobs it may sound like a nice change of pace. But eventually they realize that chaos isn’t a momentary period of a startup’s life, it is the startup’s life.
When this happens, people become increasingly uncomfortable with their environment. Soon they long for the predictable life they had in their corporate jobs, which, if they want to do you a big favor, is exactly what they’ll go back to.
A startup needs all hands on deck at all times, and it needs them all focused on the same goal. If one of your people is thinking about taking it easy back in the warm embrace of “big corporate,” let them go. In fact, encourage them to go. All they are going to do is slow you down by sticking around.
Purging the Bad Blood
Some of your team members may have been around during a particularly dark period of your evolution, like the time when you didn’t make payroll for nearly a month. Once you’ve shattered the confidence of your team it’s very hard to ever bring that confidence back. The lingering emotions are a debt that’s often too high to repay, which means you’re better off parting company.
The beauty of bringing on new staff at a positive time in your growth is that they don’t have the baggage of your youth. It’s like moving to a new city where people only know you for what they like about you, not the mistakes you’ve made in the past.
If you’ve suffered through a particularly long and terrible spell of misery, your best bet may be to create a new, healthy situation by recruiting some fresh faces. Let your disgruntled team members find a new environment where they can thrive, without having to dwell on the problems of the past that should be history anyhow.
Shedding your Skin
As the organization grows, you may also find that the people that made a lot of sense for one point in your growth no longer make as much sense. The guy that was the CFO three years ago (because he was the only person who took an account class in college) may now be sitting three layers deep in the organization in the billing department. The company grew, but he didn’t.
Not everyone is going to keep evolving their skills and capabilities as quickly as the company can grow, and for that, you need some attrition. These team members need to find a place where they can use what they can leverage what they’ve learned in a new company versus losing ground in yours.
Keep Reloading
Change is a tough thing to go through, whether it’s forced by your employees or by you. Finding people is always tough, and the holes people leave by walking out of the company create problems for everyone. But they are problems that need to exist in order for your company to truly evolve.
You can view attrition in two ways – as either a horror that you’ll try to avoid, or an opportunity to evolve the organization once again. If you’re constantly looking for new ways to re-energize the company, finding new talent could be a great way to keep things fresh.
Think of your company like a championship football team. Over time some of your recruits will become all-star players while others will never live up to their potential. Unless you’re constantly reloading the bench with fresh talent that’s excited to be in the game, your team is going to get old and tired. And those are two things a startup can never afford to become.