Tenure Isn’t Always A Good Thing

And Other Things I Learned This Week

Tenure Has A Breaking Point

There is a fine line between employee retention being a success measure and it being the thing that begins to hold a company back. What do I mean?

Over the years, I have worked with companies who have high turnover- upwards of 50% annually. And I have worked with companies who have remarkably low turnover- as low as 3% annually. We spend a lot of time focusing on how to reduce unnecessary turnover. What are we doing to ensure necessary turnover?

This might sound harsh, and I’m going to say it anyway. We all have a shelf life. We can extend our shelf life if we stay hungry, if we continue to learn new things, to stay on top and ahead of what’s next. When we don’t, when we get comfortable doing a good job and enjoying the lifestyle our job affords us, our shelf life creeps up on us.

If we have a company filled with people who are comfortable, we are missing out. That isn’t to say we aren’t successful. We might be very successful - in spite of ourselves, not because of ourselves. Imagine what might be possible if we had even 5% more hunger. What if 5% more of our people were more creative and innovative thinkers and problem solvers? What if 5% more people were utilizing AI to work more efficiently, allowing for higher-level work and more productivity? And what if, to achieve that, we needed to purposely make it possible to turn over some of our talent? (Paid subscribers - keep reading!)