Retention and Attrition

[MasterMaxter]

Just a quick question. What is a healthy retention and attrition for an Arch. Engineering Firm? I ask because a friend of mine mentioned that her company has lost something like 17 people (but replaced them) over a period of 2 years. And that’s just who she remembers because she didn’t really know anyone when she got there. She thinks there might have been 1 or 2 more for a total of 19.

The entire company is something like 50ish people, but that’s a 33% attrition rate over the 2 years and just seems really high. Is that normal for the industry, because my company is not anywhere near that number.

 

[cedarbluffranch]

No, that's too high.

I once worked at a 4 person office and in the 2.5 years I was there we had 12 or 13 people go through the office. Clear sign of bad management or poor pay. We had both.

One guy left telling the manager "you can take this job and shove it up your ass." Not a pretty sight.

My guess is the A&E firm needs some improvement in people skills.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Not so very long ago, I left a small manufacturing company that had replaced 100pct (-1) of its ~10..15 employees in 9 years.

While there, I overheard The Boss chewing out someone for improperly operating a piece of machinery. He was exasperated because He, The Boss, had Personally explained the machine's operation to the operator... overlooking the fact that the operator to whom he was (loudly and publicly) speaking was not the operator whom he had trained, nor was that operator's trainer the person whom The Boss had taught.

None of The Boss's teachings were written down, of course. Yet he expected each incumbent to pass on his knowledge and skills to his successor or replacement, even if the two never happened to meet.

Oddly enough, morale was not as bad as you might expect, given such tyrannical leadership, possibly because The Boss was not such a bad guy when he wasn't chewing on your leg, his technical skills were strong, and he wasn't selective about who got chewed out. Everyone suffered his wrath, publicly, in equal measure, and while that was going on, everyone else politely found something to do somewhere else, and later they helped each other understand what he really wanted.

I know nothing about your industry in particular. In general, I'd have to say that a high turnover doesn't necessarily make it a bad place to work, but it can make it difficult to figure out what you're supposed to be doing.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[ctopher]

I worked for an old engineering company.
One weekend the Pres down to second level managers were fired, then replaced by defunct ex-.com company managers.
This caused an uproar initiating an exodus of our top people to competitors.
The new management attitude? "Leave, there is always someone banging on the door to take your place".
There wasn't.

There was a retention offered to at least 8 ($10k each) of us to stay another year. We signed, stayed a year, then left.

Employee's were not replaced. They lost business, and today is almost gone.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion

 

[moltenmetal]

33% turn-over in two years is a sign of major problems in any business. Don't work in A&E so have no idea what the norm is there, but guaranteed it's better than 33% in two years!

 

[proetools]

Turn over has become quite popular over the past 10 years. I think people move up in pay as they move to another job.

Bart Brejcha Chicago
DESIGN-ENGINE|EDUCATION

http://www.proetools.com

surfacing and Pro/CABLE training

 

[PSE]

I would say that your attrition rate is about double as to what might be considered "normal" regardless of industry. The reasons could run from economic factors to management. For me what is important in deciding to remain (no particular order) is the type of work, the group I work with, the overall environment in allowing (or preventing) success, and compensation.

Regards,

 

[KENAT]

Well you're doing better than our HR department.

They have nominally 3 staff (I think now it's maybe only 2).

Since I've been here they've had I think 5 people leave, none of the original people are still here. They've had one or two more leave but I think they were only temporary staff anyway. We're now on our 3rd HR Director, this in about 2.5 years.

KENAT,

Have you reminded yourself of faq731-376 recently, or taken a look at posting policies:

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[plasgears]

The worst case of attrition I experienced was when two brothers who jointly owned the company came into conflict. The older idiot brother formed another competing company, hired away talent, and planted the seeds of strife. Before leaving, he hired a 'spoiler' who acted as dir/eng and caused many to leave incl me.

In the old west there would have been a gun fight and bloodshed. Today a lot of strange things are going on that pass muster for normal business practice.

 

[PEDARRIN2]

While it sounds high, there could be many factors.

1. There could be a lot of retirees who were offered severance.
2. There could be people who just were not performing and got let go.
3. There could be people who decided AE just wasn't for them.
4. There could be people who got better jobs, their spouses had better opportunities, they needed to go elsewhere due to family issues.
5. There could be people who went back to school for a graduate degree.
6. There could be economic issues.
7. There could be people who were let go due to unprofessional activities - i.e. internet usage, improper time sheets, etc.

None of these are necessarily indicative of a bad company.

I have seen these in my current company of over 100 people.

I can't say we have lost a proportional amount as you describe, but it could happen if many of these factors came into play all at once.

But then, I have also worked for companies where a large turnover was entirely the problem of the company.