Employee Retention

Recently I have been reliving a problem that some managers never really understand, Employee Retention. I worked for a group manager once who was losing his employees at a rate of 30% a year at one point. When I approached HR about it with specific examples of why the situation was created (hostile and discriminatory manager) they ignored the problem. He was eventually asked to resign some years later.

Now I find myself back in the same boat. This got me thinking about some common reasons behind all of this:

• Hostile work environment- discrimination against certain classes of employees creates such resentment that it is bound to have an effect on morale.
• Poor company conditions- slow to no growth, poor cash flow status, and salary and bonus treatment tend to make people want to leave.
• Economic Recovery- an improving job market after enduring poor economic conditions makes people ready to jump at the first real opportunity that comes along that is not staying where they are.
• Lack of advancement- people like to think they are moving forward in their careers. They are of limited length so at least some forward motion is a good thing. When this is not the case they look for mobility elsewhere.

This is not an exhaustive list but it is a start. The "what to do about it " list will follow shortly.

Aviation Security and the Times Square Bomber

There has been a lot of speculation on the motivations of the most recent Times Square bomber. Along with all that there have been additional calls for more aviation security measures. Some of these measures make sense, like constantly checking passenger name records against the no fly list. It has also been pointed out that the no fly list is not exactly perfect. This is true.

What is of concern right now are those who wish to turn this event into a aviation security issue. It is clearly not.

What we have experienced is a shortsighted person who suddenly wished to do harm to others in a big way, this time not involving an aircraft. As a result we need not panic over aviation security but instead should concentrate on identification of those who wish to do harm and get that word out to all who would benefit from knowing about it.

We have done enough to kill off airlines. They are not to blame this time.