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{{a|hr|{{image|employee spread|png|The general spread of your staff, on a cost versus value graph}} | {{a|hr|{{image|employee spread|png|The general spread of your staff, on a cost versus value graph}} | ||
{{image|replacement cost of lateral quitter|png|The true replacement cost of a lateral quitter}}}}{{quote|“Our people are our most precious resource.” | {{image|replacement cost of lateral quitter|png|The true replacement cost of a lateral quitter}}}}{{C|newsletter draft}}{{quote|“Our people are our most precious resource.” | ||
: — oddly disingenuous slogans of HR: an occasional series}} | : — oddly disingenuous slogans of HR: an occasional series}} | ||
{{d|{{PAGENAME}}|ˈlætərəl ˈkwɪtə|n|}}One who voluntarily leaves your organisation to work somewhere else. A greatly ''unexamined'' constituency. | {{d|{{PAGENAME}}|ˈlætərəl ˈkwɪtə|n|}}One who voluntarily leaves your organisation to work somewhere else. A greatly ''unexamined'' constituency. | ||
=== | |||
=== Lateral quitters are ''good'' staff, [[Q.E.D.|QED]] === | |||
General ''[[a priori]]'' proposition: lateral quitters are ''good'' employees: ones you ''don’t'' want to leave, who add value. At least, they will be if HR is doing a passable job — [[Spartan if]] — because if so, ''poor staff won’t be leaving of their own free will''. | |||
Commercial firms are not charities for the intellectually vulnerable.<ref>Though, some forget this. A large financial services institution recently displayed in its internal branding: “We are proud of our [[diversity]] policy. We hire regardless of physical or mental ability.”</ref> They should actively exit employees who are not performing to expectation. They should care, a lot, about looking after employees who are. | |||
Maxim: {{maxim|Professional employment should not be a hostage situation. Either way.}} | |||
===The wilful blindness of management=== | |||
Management will steadfastly deny any lateral quitter is missed. The trend towards “[[exit interview]] by [[chatbot]]” — if they bother with one at all — suggests corporations systematically undervalue the people they are losing. | Management will steadfastly deny any lateral quitter is missed. The trend towards “[[exit interview]] by [[chatbot]]” — if they bother with one at all — suggests corporations systematically undervalue the people they are losing. | ||
[[HR]] departments everywhere seem gripped by the conviction that having employees ''at all'' is a matter for regret. Convinced that robots, | [[HR]] departments everywhere seem gripped by the conviction that having employees ''at all'' is a matter for regret. Convinced that robots, [[chatbot]]s, [[offshoring]], or [[outsourcing]], are better options, the [[HR]] military-industrial complex makes scant effort to discourage, impede or even ''identify'' those thinking of leaving, let alone asking those who do what their motivations were. | ||
Now: if staff are such a waste of time, why go to the trouble of hiring them at all? | |||
On the premise that all staff bring ''some'' value and, unless your approach to hiring is properly catastrophic, a good half bring [[Cost-value threshold|more than they cost]], lateral quitting is, broadly, a [[negative-sum game]]. That is, a game businesses should try not to play. | On the premise that all staff bring ''some'' value and, unless your approach to hiring is properly catastrophic, a good half bring [[Cost-value threshold|more than they cost]], lateral quitting is, broadly, a [[negative-sum game]]. That is, a game businesses should try not to play. | ||
If you must view your staff as capital, then look at it this way: sell ''under''performing assets, by all means. Don’t let ''performing'' assets walk out the door. | |||
So, ''some'' curiosity amongst the good people of [[human resources]] might be in order, for no other reason than to generate juicy [[metric]]s. | So, ''some'' curiosity amongst the good people of [[human resources]] might be in order, for no other reason than to generate juicy [[metric]]s. | ||
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===The [[data]]-richness of resignation=== | ===The [[data]]-richness of resignation=== | ||
The [[JC]] finds inflated expectations of aggregated data tiresome — necessarily dead and backward-looking as data are — but even they have some worth when the questions | The [[JC]] finds inflated expectations of [[data modernism|aggregated data]] [[tiresome]] — necessarily dead and backward-looking as data are — but even they have some worth when the questions asked are themselves historical. | ||
So: | |||
What percentage of staff ''chose'' to leave? In what departments? After how long? At what seniority? From which departments? ''Where'' to? ''Why''? | |||
This kind of data might suggest answers to the question: ''what does the firm do, or permit, that drives good people away''? | |||
Who are the poor managers? Where are the dreary departments? Which level is least proportionately rewarded? Answering questions like these can, in a small way, inform future behaviour: ''do more of this, and less of that''. | |||
It also turns the competency spotlight on an area where, internally, it is rarely pointed: ''management''. | |||
The [[exit interview]] is a unique chance to gather information staff are otherwise ''strongly'' disinclined to give you. Strictures of [[chain of command]] and conventions of corporate obsequy mean continuing staff — those with half a brain, at any rate — won’t usually tell you what they really think. | |||
''What pissed you off about working here? Who were the shittiest managers? What was the biggest drag?'' | |||
But free, for the first and last time, of those chilling effects of free speech, ''they might just tell you in an [[exit interview]]''. | |||
Why not at least ''ask''? | |||
===The [[competence phase transition]]=== | ===The [[competence phase transition]]=== | ||
One cannot be binary about good and bad staff. There ''is'' a “[[bid/ask spread]]” between staff you genuinely value and those you would not mind never seeing again. | |||
This we call the “[[competence phase transition]]”. It is a sort of purgatorial state, occupied by earnest plodders who don’t ''quite'' earn their keep but do no real harm, such that no-one can summon the bureaucratic energy to whack them, but nor would anyone wrong hands if they did decide to push off. | This we call the “[[competence phase transition]]”. It is a sort of purgatorial state, occupied by earnest plodders who don’t ''quite'' earn their keep but do no real harm, such that no-one can summon the bureaucratic energy to whack them, but nor would anyone wrong hands if they did decide to push off. | ||
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===[[Mediocrity drift]]=== | ===[[Mediocrity drift]]=== | ||
''Anyway''. Being smart, lateral leavers tend to ''know'' they are | ''Anyway''. Being smart, lateral leavers tend to ''know'' they are better employees and be the proactive and energetic type who will do something about it. | ||
Those plodders who provide an undervalue, by contrast, are ''unlikely'' to do anything about it — if they are smart — and even the dumb ones who try won’t be ''able'' to. | Those plodders who provide an undervalue, by contrast, are ''unlikely'' to do anything about it — if they are smart — and even the dumb ones who try won’t be ''able'' to. | ||
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The problem, of course, is that beyond revenue generating roles, and especially for risk management and control staff ''it is really hard to know''. How ''do'' you measure [[legal value]]?<ref>Divers essays on [[legal value]], [[bullshit jobs]] and so on, refer.</ref> How do you count the dogs that don’t bark in the night-time? | The problem, of course, is that beyond revenue generating roles, and especially for risk management and control staff ''it is really hard to know''. How ''do'' you measure [[legal value]]?<ref>Divers essays on [[legal value]], [[bullshit jobs]] and so on, refer.</ref> How do you count the dogs that don’t bark in the night-time? | ||
[[HR]]’s stock answer is not to try. Instead, focus on what you do know — the spread of salaries across grades — and to focus on regularising that. Insist on fitting staff, to a model of relative performance against each other — the dreaded “[[curve]]”.<ref>how do you use data measure the relative worth of a football team? Does the striker who runs 10km, scores a goal a game better than the goalie who covers 400m and scores none. Jaap Stamp example.</ref> | |||
This has all kinds of unwanted upshots, not least of which is instilling fear and loathing within a team which is meant to be collaborating. If ''you'' get to be the A-grade performer, then I ''can’t'' be. By HR diktat, a team of outperformers cannot exist. | This has all kinds of unwanted upshots, not least of which is instilling fear and loathing within a team which is meant to be collaborating. If ''you'' get to be the A-grade performer, then I ''can’t'' be. By HR diktat, a team of outperformers cannot exist. | ||
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Once they have successfully “benchmarked” their salary bands against this phantom market, HR’s main concern will be ''not [[setting a precedent]]''. Your manager will shake his head mournfully and say, “my hands are tied.” There will be overlaid volatility limits: no individual can move more than ~ percentage of last year’s pay. Note the necessary compressing effect these limits will have through time. | Once they have successfully “benchmarked” their salary bands against this phantom market, HR’s main concern will be ''not [[setting a precedent]]''. Your manager will shake his head mournfully and say, “my hands are tied.” There will be overlaid volatility limits: no individual can move more than ~ percentage of last year’s pay. Note the necessary compressing effect these limits will have through time. | ||
{{Sa}} | {{Sa}} | ||
*[[Extreme prejudice]] | |||
*[[Legibility]] | *[[Legibility]] | ||
*[[mediocrity drift]] | *[[mediocrity drift]] | ||
*[[Loyalty discount]] | *[[Loyalty discount]] | ||
{{Ref}} | {{Ref}} |