Her point is well-taken, since most firings take place about 12 months after they should have. If problems could be identified beforehand, it would save a great deal of emotional investment on the part of both the company and the individual.
I've been convinced for many years that corporations would do well to offer their employees (certainly their management-level employees) a career reassessment program. It has been my privilege to work with a few companies that did - and with scores of individuals who did so privately and were better employees for it.
Such a reassessment would identify communications problems, help people reassess their careers, and help the company be more objective about the people who work for it.
Perhaps the two most crucial causes of employee unhappiness are the failure to openly communicate and the failure of the company to recognize that people change. After all, the position a person holds often doesn't change, while the person changes dramatically. The hole grows rounder while the peg grows squarer until an otherwise productive employee quits or is fired.
Of course, firings and resignations are a fact of business life, but one to be avoided. There is a measurable economic cost to a company when an employee of long standing must be replaced. One study placed it at $50,000 to $150,000 in lost efficiency and productivity.
If companies would help their people - make them feel like they're being listened to - they would see much greater loyalty, efficiency and productivity. As I've said many times before, people who feel that we've listened to them will give us anything we want. There is the risk, perhaps, that in helping employees reassess their careers, a company would lose some good people, but they would be rare exceptions. Moreover, losing an employee by a reasoned, mutual decision is far less traumatic to a company than having to fire someone who has become unhappy and unproductive.
Unfortunately, because our government pays unemployment benefits, it behooves the unhappy individual to get him or herself fired rather than to quit. I have worked with a number of people who either consciously or unconsciously activated all of the elements necessary to get themselves fired, often over a period of years, and at a great cost to their employers in terms of lost efficiency and productivity. Had someone been available to work with them before their problems got out of hand, a great deal of pain and trouble could have been saved on both sides.
Now, this being the real world, we must recognize that there are certain people who simply will never be good employees and some people who will never be good bosses. There are also some people who will simply never get along with each other, no matter what happens or who intervenes. But that does not absolve a corporation from its responsibility to encourage these people to be more than what they are.
Companies can - even without the help of a consultant -look for the signs of problems. They can see for themselves whether people still enjoy an easy camaraderie with their co-employees, whether they smile easily, whether they're decisive, or whether they're still capable of taking calculated risks. There may be issues not related to career that cause people to change, but without clear and open lines of communication, a company will never find out.
The ultimate fringe benefit a company can offer its employees is a graceful and beneficial way to leave. If the employee perceives that his or her continued employment with the company will be detrimental to personal career, then it will ultimately be good for both to pave the way.
I once asked the executive vice president of a major corporation how he would feel about offering some of his key executives the freedom to examine, and perhaps change, their careers. He said, "I'd be scared to death!" I told him he would certainly find that their loyalty would be even greater. I used an analogy which I believe is very apt; In the late 1980s, when the East Germans were told by their government that they could not leave, they left by the tens of thousands. When their government gave permission to leave, they turned around and went home.
The companies that help employees truly grow in their careers, rather than just providing them with jobs, will be so much the better for their efforts. The care and concern any business shows its employees is the fullest measure of its integrity and honesty. It has been my experience that such a firm will prosper.
