The revolving door.

Philippa Cross examines the truths and untruths of ad agency staff turnover for South Africa's Marketingweb, and guess what - Some crap is universal.

So why the high staff turnover?

Everyone is replaceable

It is my hunch that, whether consciously or not, in the back of the mind of most managers is the belief that everyone is replaceable.

Furthermore, there's an attitude (perhaps subconsciously) among management that employees should be grateful for work at all, and should count themselves lucky to work for "this great advertising agency". If an employee doesn't want to accept the status quo of the agency, they can leave. "There are plenty more where you came from honey".

Financial remuneration

Let's face it; Advertising is not an industry with massive financial benefits. Increases are not guaranteed - a standard clause in most employment contracts. And boy are they not guaranteed! Never has an industry been so savvy in the reasons it gives its staff for the absence of annual increases... year after year. And so the only way to get your salary increased is to move. And the cycle begins. There's a pool of skilled people, and all they do is move to a new desk when the music stops.

The challenge this poses for management is that the pool is getting smaller, and more demanding. Skilled people leave the country or the industry daily. The ones who stay are getting more demanding. If their needs aren't met, they resign.

Management in the advertising industry needs to make a few fundamental changes to the way they view their staff if they are to plug the bleeding artery.

There is no doubt that it is to the benefit of the agency to keep staff. Stable staff means stable clients, means stable income. That's the starting point. How do we keep our staff?

The climate has changed

The employees of today don't buy into the old status quo. They challenge traditional management techniques. They demand to be paid for their worth, and they demand flexibility on a level never seen before. In this technological age, there is simply no excuse for holding onto the old office-bound mentality.

A mobile office is a must

An employee that is mobile is one more likely to stay. No one will argue the fact that traffic today is immeasurably worse than it was even two years ago. The roads are becoming impassable, and people sit in traffic for up to two hours just to get to work on time. This is a completely inefficient use of time, and the intelligent employee of today recognises this, and is becoming resentful.

Flexi-time needs to be seriously considered. Imagine if you could log in at home; spend two hours before leaving for work reading emails, catching up on work. You could drive to work at 10am, missing peak hour traffic. It would take you half an hour to get there instead of an hour-and-a-half. You would arrive at work happy, un-stressed, with your energy levels undepleted. And you would have achieved two hours of work. The use of time is so much more efficient. Everyone benefits. The employee is happy, the agency wins, and the clients win. We all have cellphones. We are by no means out of contact. There is no reason why we should be office based in this day and age.

The blanket mentality

Management treats their staff with a blanket mentality. What works for one works for all? If we keep everyone dancing to the same tune, no one will step out of line.

In life, as in the work place, this is simply not true. People are different, they respond to different things, and they work differently under different circumstances. Treating everyone the same is a sure-fire way to lose staff. Sure - some staff member would prefer to be at work, work under strict clockwatching circumstances. Others react to this with rebellion likened to a 16 year old that has been banned from attending a party. They go. They dress up, they sneak out, they drink, they smoke, they steal a car if they have to - but they attend that party.

The trick to good management, and to keeping staff, is to recognise the personalities of your staff members. If you can manage your staff on an individual level, giving those that require it freedom and flexibility, while giving those that prefer rules and boundaries what they need to function, you are half way to keeping your staff happy.

Boredom

Everyone gets bored in his or her day-to-day job sometimes. It's part of life. One way to keep the interest levels up is to offer staff continuous training and self-improvement. This doesn't have to take the form of full-blown courses. This can be business breakfasts, attending Expos, attending day seminars or training courses. Every now and then, send your staff on something interesting. We are all part of a bigger picture. We are part of a family, part of a community, part of a country, part of a world. Sometimes companies become too insular, too focused on the work at hand for too long. Open the minds of your staff, feed the parts of them that are totally unrelated to work, and you will have happy and whole people.

If you want loyalty, buy a dog

These days there is no such thing as loyalty. People work for money. They work for personal satisfaction. They look at the whole picture, and they pick and choose the circumstances that do and don't suit them, at that particular stage in life. If they need an increase, and can't get it where they are, they move. If the traffic is just too unbearable on the route to work, and the bosses won't budge on the working hours, they move. If they feel they need more flexibility, or more exposure, and their needs aren't met by the company they work for, they move.

And managers are left having to book into a day spa - completely confused as to why the staff turnover is so high, completely confident they'll replace the person easily, and wondering why clients don't seem to be briefing in as many jobs as they were last year.

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Dabitch's picture

These days there is no such thing as loyalty. People work for money.

Just FYI Ms boss-of-mine.

garbahnzo's picture

Perhaps CYA is universal too.