Part of my job in HR is to fill in vacancies by hiring people and see them through the onboarding process. A sharp contrast to this function which my HR job also avail me is to manage an exit process. Regularly, employees change jobs and move on in their careers. I honestly do not like to see people leave the organisation even though I know it is inevitable.
When I receive resignation letter from an employee, I see it like I have failed in my role as a HR person. For businesses to achieve sustainable growth and performance, a high employee retention level is required. Consequently, one of my performance indicators is labour turnover rate which demands I need to come up with robust retention strategies.
However attributing reasons to why people leave an organisation only to a failure of say your wellness programme or compensation package might be too simplistic. The fact is people will have to change jobs or move on to other things in their lives or even set up their own companies. So many possible reasons are abound and fixating it only to HR policies may sound rather too weak an argument.
If it worries me to see our employees leave, what then would be my reaction when I am the the one leaving. I mentioned above that I do not like to see people exit the company but the same me has just handed in my resignation letter. I would agree it is a fact of life for people to move on which best explains the reason for my leaving. Agreed, I have been a key player towards charting a new course for the company at a strategic level yet I wont be around to guide the change direction.
All I would say is that the inevitability of ‘moving-on’ has caught up with me. The high point for me is being part of the team who laid a new foundation for the company. I have no doubt in my mind if the laid out plans are followed,a rejuvenated company shall herald.Most importantly also is my colleagues and the camaraderie that exists amongst us. I’ll try to stay in touch.
Bashir Mudi Baba is joining eHealth Africa and can be reached on Twitter @El_De_Bash_HR
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