People are leaving companies for many reasons: Better pay, a position where they get more perks, better benefits, better prestige. They could also be looking to escape any number of issues with their role, coworkers or even the culture of the company with which they do not align. We are going to look at three scenarios around when a company loses a key employee.
- What should a company do when they lose a key member of the team?
- What should a project manager do when they lose a key member of their project team?
- What should a company do when they lose a key project manager?
When a key employee leaves your company
Obviously replacing the key person is very important. Sometimes the person can’t be replaced, but the functions the person performed can be handled by multiple others – new hires or current – and the total work reshuffled to make it work.
Find out why the person is leaving. Great companies are always trying to attract and retain great talent, so when a key employee leaves, they should be concerned as these employees are often treated best. Is the pay scale not appropriate? Is the culture not as good as ownership thinks it is? It is important to have an established exit interview process that can help determine why this key person is leaving. Depending on the findings, interviewing others in the organization could help uncover retention strategies.
Another method for determining the current climate and pay parity is to hire a Human Resources consultant who can provide an external perspective on where your company stands. As Waddell Group has stated elsewhere, employees can be motivated by money, respect and fear. You need to know if you’re motivating your team in ways that engage them.
Another thing to consider, your best employees want to work with other employees who work as smart and as hard as they do, and if they are not treated as elite players on an elite team when it comes to compensation and respect, they may seek that elsewhere. There are attributes that top performers share: highly motivated, abundant talent, experience, and reliability. They want to be a part of a team that shared those attributes. Are your teams performing?
When a key employee leaves a project
Your project manager will have the immediate responsibility of handling the departure of this key person on the project team. Ideally, the departing person will provide sufficient notice and will be thorough in documenting and transferring the knowledge that they have about their specific area of expertise. As soon as you can, be sure to get as much of their knowledge written down as possible. The project manager should treat it like a project: Do a gap analysis, create a plan, and execute the plan for mitigating the loss of that person.
What is the gap the departure of this person creates? If this person is client facing, the project manager will need to get in front of the client immediately to ensure client confidence in the team. If the departing person was vendor facing, the project manager should get with the vendor(s) to make sure the flow of parts and services continues. Is this a member of the design, development or delivery team? Then the project manager needs to identify what resources they can engage from within the company and what resources they may need to outsource or hire. If they turn to internal resources, the new person may need specific training and onboarding to get up to speed to fill the gap. Finally, if a resource cannot be found, the project manager may need to take on the responsibility themselves.
If there are not internal resources the project manager can turn to, they must work with HR to aggressively hire the right person or firm to outsource that role. With many people leaving companies to start their own consulting practices, there might even be a possibility to hire the departing employee as a contractor to continue their role on the project.
Mitigating the potential loss of key talent is essential. A good project manager should pay close attention to the team members it would be hardest to replace to make sure they are happy, engaged, challenged, and valued.
When you lose the Project Manager
Perhaps worse than losing key technical talent is losing the project manager themselves. In the current market great project managers are in high demand. Waddell Group has seen several companies attempt to elevate smart team members to be project managers – with limited success. Technical talent does not indicate people have the leadership qualities to manage a team.
It is essential that Human Resources or a Project Management Office work to develop a list of potential project managers that they could call upon if they needed to. If they are large enough as a company, they should also work to develop project managers internally.
When project managers cannot be found, there are firms like Waddell Group that provide contract project managers to Medical Device companies. We bring World Class Medical Device Project Managers that can step in, and then execute the plan so the project can be completed on time and on budget.
Conclusion
People leave companies for a reason. Knowing why is important to make sure there are not more people leaving soon. Company management, Human Resources and Project Managers need to be aware of what motivates their employees and make sure they are happy with the jobs they have. Many companies are looking to attract top talent. Work hard to make sure you keep yours.
If you need a medical device project manager, Waddell Group can help. Please reach out to Tom Waddell at tom@waddellgrp.com or Rich Gall at rich.gall@waddellgrp.com. For more information visit our website at www.Waddellgrp.com.
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