Are you familiar with the domino effect in the professional world? One resignation leads to a series of departures that can impact your company. How can you avoid this?
Imagine: a manager leaves their position, and it’s the beginning of a series of departures. Why does this happen? It’s called the domino effect, and it’s more common than you might think.
Managers who are appointed hastily, without preparation, can cause this phenomenon. At first, the team remains united in the face of challenges. But over time, the departure of key talent triggers a chain reaction. How can this be remedied?
Understanding this human dynamic
This kind of mass departure is unfortunately all too common. It can involve several employees reacting independently to the same change in personnel or policy. But there is also a powerful psychological effect of seeing your peers leave, which can lead you to wonder if the grass is greener elsewhere.
The strength of the contagion effect depends on the employees who leave and the circumstances of their departure. Like so much human behaviour, turnover is socially influenced. People are herd animals – we take our cues from others. It’s just like animals in the jungle: they always wait for the bravest to take action, then they follow.
These social signals are particularly strong when the person leaving is a leader, co-worker or peer. People in ‘structurally equivalent’ positions are often influenced by each other. If you notice someone in the same position as you leaving the company, it can be contagious.
The social signal is amplified if the employee who leaves openly criticises the workplace or brags about a new opportunity. A demotivated, unstable and fragmented workforce is likely to seek new opportunities.
And if a good manager leaves, it can trigger instant resignations or a cascade of departures over several months. The higher up the hierarchy, the more likely it is that cascading departures will occur between levels.
There is also a contagion effect when star employees leave the company.
Some research shows that when the best people in a team leave the company, others suddenly start to re-evaluate their relationship with the workplace and consider leaving. This is less contagious when it is a mediocre employee who leaves, as we believe that the departure of a poor performer is actually quite functional for the organisation and desirable.
So, if a few people choose to leave an organisation, this is likely to prompt a number of others to start seriously looking for another job. This can cause a cascade, leading to a wave of departures over a short period of time, which is something to be avoided in this period of talent crisis.
How can you prevent the departure cycle?
Equip managers: training and proximity
70% of employee engagement depends on managers, and 50% of employees leave their jobs to escape their manager. It is essential to empower managers and train them in listening, empathy and non-violent communication.
Open communication and mediation
An employer keen to stem a mass exodus might try to prevent employees from talking to each other about their plans to leave, but this would be counterproductive. The same would apply to using surveillance to monitor workers’ intentions to leave. These types of authoritarian tactics are likely to breed more mistrust and animosity, making openness to other opportunities all the more attractive to employees.
Instead of shutting down the conversation, being more open about why staff are leaving will help stifle rumours. For example, if someone resigns for family reasons, this is less likely to cause contagious turnover than resigning due to job dissatisfaction. But if there is a mysterious silence surrounding a departure, people will speculate and potentially assume the worst.
The most obvious ways to strengthen barriers to departure are to express your appreciation financially and symbolically for the outstanding efforts made by employees during this difficult period. And while pay rises may reduce profit margins in the short term, it is better to take that risk than to risk the implosions that can occur when turnover contagion becomes uncontrollable.
Formalise and celebrate departures with offboarding
A good offboarding process can ease tensions when an employee leaves the company. It is essential to understand their motivations from the outset to prevent further departures. It is also important to co-create the handover to reassure teams and avoid potential conflicts. Let’s not forget the emotional aspect and celebrate departures.
Anticipate!
From an HR perspective, it’s essential to analyse data to detect weak signals within the company. Track relevant indicators such as prolonged absences, burnout, voluntary departures, requests for mobility, etc. Don’t forget qualitative indicators such as engagement surveys and manager evaluations.
