Train Your Managers - Save Money
Please note: This post has been written by an external author for the People In Aid website. As such, all views expressed are those of the author and not of People In Aid.
As any smart people-focused manager knows, staff JOIN organisations, but they LEAVE bosses. Survey after survey shows that bright, self-motivated recruits, eager to change the world, sign on to our organisations with high expectations and masses of enthusiasm, only to find that their perception doesn't match reality.
Indeed, disillusionment amongst first-time recruits in the field in some aid organisations is so high that less than 50 percent sign-on for a second assignment. That’s a terrible statistic! No other sector in the workplace would – or could – tolerate those levels of staff turnover for very long – but many agencies report this as the norm.
And when you ask the question “why?”, exit interviews lay the blame squarely on one thing – poor supervision. Poor supervision equals expectations not being met, new recruits left to fend for themselves and work things out as best they can.
But surely there is something fundamentally wrong here? Every agency we talk with moans constantly about one of the toughest fixed costs to deal with – the sheer expense of recruitment. Getting people on board costs money – and it doesn’t get any cheaper. It costs money to advertise and recruit, time to interview all those candidates; more time to put them in place and train them. So aren’t we missing something perhaps? Couldn’t we consider making those managers and supervisors we have being a lot better at dealing with people; is it possible that we could train them to be not just engineers and medical experts, but leaders?
Think of it this way – because this is the way to sell this idea. It costs a great deal more to keep on recruiting new people into your organisation than it does to train your management teams in stuff that makes people “stick” to the organisation. Get that right, make your agency a place where people want to work and you’ll cut those turnover rates – fast!
Let’s put it this way. The aid sector has basically one asset – people. That makes up 99.5 percent of all your assets. So, shouldn’t you be the very best at people management ? After all that’s the only thing you’ve got to work with. Cut those recruitment costs – change or train your supervisors and managers – please!
Date published: Sunday 9 September 2012
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