Why Are We Losing All Our Good People? Case Study Example

Sambian can discover what is driving the company’s turnover rate by listening to the employees’ opinions. Employees and the management do not have an open communication channel, making it challenging for them to talk about their problems. For example, when Tom was leaving the company, Mary asked him why and he said that he was satisfied. As soon as Tom finished talking to Mary, he called his wife and told him that he had kept his mouth shut. This indicates that Sambian does not give employees room to air their opinions. If the organization became more involved in the employees’ activities and had open communication, the turnover rate would be lower because employees could talk about their problems, and Sambian would address them.

Secondly, Sambian’s management does not keep track of its employees’ talents, making them feel undervalued. For example, when employees were gossiping, they said that Tom had good ideas that the company did not allow to see the light of day. Thus, if the company wants to learn more about its employees’ abilities and talents, it will discover why the turnover rate is high.

I think the management and employees are a divided team at Sambian, making it difficult for the management to get through to them. Employees know every challenge in the organization but cannot communicate with their superiors, increasing the turnover rates without the management knowing why. Employees are united because they know why some of them are quitting, and the managers are not united, leaving the company in a lack of unity. For example, when employees were gossiping in the kitchen, they knew why Tom left, and they knew that Adrienne was leaving too and why, but they could not tell Mary so that she could make changes. One of the significant illustrations that employees are not open with the management is how they expressed themselves in the surveys. Employees spoke their minds in a way that they could not speak with the managers.

There is also poor management at Sambian. Helen is the CEO because her father started the company, which is not a guarantee that she is an effective leader. When Mary informs Helen that employees are quitting, she does not enquire why. Instead, she summons Adrienne and promotes her to prevent her from quitting. Helen is also poor at listening to other people’s opinions and continuously blames others when there are problems in the company. She blamed Bob and Mary when she heard that Adrienne was quitting instead of getting to the bottom of the reason she was quitting.

The best way that Mary handled the situation involving Adrienne was by speaking her mind and telling Helen that it was wrong for her to promote Adrienne because she was not qualified for the position. Although Helen was her superior, Mary stood up to her when she thought that she had made a wrong decision. Mary was objective about the situation compared to Helen because she knew that it was an act of desperation, and it was also unfair for employees superior to Adrienne that were more deserving of the job. Mary tried her best to convince Helen to rethink her decision, arguing that the fair way would have been to advertise the job if there was a vacancy and let employees apply. Based on her level in the company and Helen being her superior, Mary couldn’t have handled the case any better.