I remember visiting a company a few years ago. The management team proudly proclaimed their turnover rate in the call center was close to zero. Now, when I hear something like that my ears perk up. Coming from an industry that has notoriously high turnover I start wondering, “How’d they do that?”
The next day I entered this company’s parking lot. As usual there were special parking spaces reserved for tenured employees. But there weren’t just a few spaces; the reserved spaces went on for three parking structure levels. Whew! Not only did this company essentially eliminate call center turnover, it also had an alarming number of seasoned employees. The average tenure with the company was 15 years. I had to get to the bottom of this miracle.
After digging, I found a logical reason—one that should not be duplicated elsewhere. The call center was the “dumping” ground for all the other departments in the company. If someone didn’t work out in sales, he or she was sent to the call center. Not good at your warehouse job? Well, there is a place for you in the call center. The company was holding fast to an “old employment deal.” It stated, “If you are loyal to us, we will be loyal to you and provide life-long employment.” Rarely was anyone terminated due to lack of performance. Employees were simply retired to the call center. This led to a new employee classification that one of my associates aptly named, “Retired without leaving.”
This may seem like an extreme case, but don’t dismiss it all together. Do you receive requests from other departments to “take” a human resource that just isn’t cutting it somewhere else? When was the last time you terminated someone for poor job performance (and not just attendance issues but poor quality and / or productivity performance)? While you may have high turnover, you can be glad it isn’t zero.
