This time of the year you will notice many people in your organisations either contemplating moving on or actually resigning. A recent survey I came across estimated that it costs an employer in excess of one and a half times an employee’s annual salary to replace that employee.

Survey after survey tells us that people do not always leave their jobs for more money even though some do. It seems the majority of people leave their jobs for the following reasons. Under-staffing, poor communication, lack of challenge, lack of empowerment, no recognition, limited work-life options, poor company culture, the employee's life situation has changed, questionable promotional practices and no enjoyment.

A certain amount of staff turnover in any business is inevitable and in fact healthy however when recruiting and training new staff is taking up more and more of a Manager’s time, something needs to change.

From an employers point of view the majority of the reasons people leave can be avoided and a great way of accomplishing this is by improving how people are managed by adopting a coaching style when appropriate.

To reduce staff turnover, hire wisely, find out the reasons people are leaving and make changes to ensure no more staff leave for these reasons. As a Manager you can do all this by applying some simple coaching skills such as assisting your staff to set realistic, exciting and meaningful goals that benefit both the organisation and the individual, create a space where employees can express their challenges and concerns in a safe, non-judgemental way, engage with employees using open, exploratory questions so that you encourage your staff to want to take on more responsibility, become more engaged and to use their initiative more.

In my experience I have found that the key people in any organisation seek out a challenge, like to work with minimal supervision and aren’t afraid to take risks. As a Manager, it is your responsibility to create an environment that nurtures not stifles the development of your key people. Coaching is a great way to do this.

I have found that some Managers are so caught up with retaining control that their staff never get any real opportunity to take on responsibility. Quiet often a Manager will want to hold his or her staff accountable but is not willing to give them a corresponding level of responsibility. Inevitably what happens is; employees get disillusioned and frustrated. Let me illustrate by example. A sales manager holds her team of sales people accountable for achieving monthly sales targets but retains full responsibility for the departments advertising, entertainment and general marketing budget. Without giving the sales people some say or responsibility in how these budgets are spent, it is unlikely that many of the sales people will achieve their full potential. One of the main reasons for this, is simply there can always be a reason (some may call it an excuse) why targets are not met such as our competitor wines and dines one of our biggest customers so he is getting all the business.

By adopting some basic coaching strategies during your day to day interaction with your staff, you as a Manager can (a) create an environment that encourages and supports individual development of all your team and (b) receive very valuable learning about what changes you can make to become a more effective Manager yourself by both developing your strengths and improving on your weaknesses.

We are now taking bookings for one-day “Coaching skills for Managers” workshop programs which will be run over the next 6 months or so. If you think you may be interested in learning some specific coaching tools and principle to help you develop as a Manager please check out our website for more information.

Fergal O’Connor is a Business and Personal Life Coach working in partnership with his Business and Private clients providing a supportive, confidential, challenging and non-judgemental environment to make their ambitions and dreams a reality. Fergal also facilitates a range of Coaching and Management training programs, Team facilitation workshops and is available for public speaking engagements. Fergal can be contacted at Synergy Coaching Services, Tel: (061) 467287, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it web: www.synergycoachingservices.net

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