I think we have all had plenty of damn it moments in our businesses. The key is to understand how they happen, and how to prevent them. What is the root of a damn it moment?
When you are relying on someone and they quit, don’t follow instructions, or keep you waiting — then you have one of these unpleasant moments. The key here is to avoid giving large responsibilities to people you are not sure about in the first place.
Do you hire people who quit?
Do you see the warning signs? I do. They stop getting back to you. They stop being available to talk to you. They don’t do all of their work tasks anymore and only give you their 70%, or in one guys case 20%. People who start off being dedicated and disciplined slack off too in the several months before they quit. As an employer you need to be watching for this like a vulture. If you have a way for your employees to invest in their work and their performance rather than just getting a fixed wage, you might have less quitting going on. How do you get this investing to happen? You could offer a deferred bonus if your hiree doesn’t quit, and doesn’t slack off on their work. They get the bonus a year later (perhaps.) Or you can pay employees for achieving certain goals. If they fall short of the goal at the time they quit, they lose out on a huge bonus. If the contract with your client is reflected in the contract you have with your worker, they might be more helpful to you achieving your goals.
Do you not have proper backup?
People quit all the time, particularly young people. If you don’t have backup or good back up you are sure to have a head banging session after your star employee leaves. A backup is not a backup if they are not tried and tested. You need to really use lots of people to determine who is the best, who is the most yelpful, loyal, or easy to reach. If you are not sure about the reliability of someone in a particular task, it might be better to have three part time people rather than one full time person. You can fire them if they slack off, and if they quit, you already have redundant back up.
Not following instructions?
You really need to test people for following instructions before you hire them, and watch for this early in their employment. Many people just don’t follow instructions and you really cannot put such people on critical tasks unless you are watching them at every minute.
Ability to learn?
As an additional note — if your company needs people who are good at multitasking, their ability to learn is much more important than their current level of skill. If they stick with your company, the fast learners will be pros after a few months while the experienced people who are slow learners will continue being the way they were whe you hired them
Be a vulture
Keep your eye out as a manager. Become a specialist at seeing the signs and watching for them. If someone loses interest, stops communicating, it is time to get your backups reved up as you might need to fire someone fast. Timing is everything when you work with millenials because they lose interest so fast, their replacement needs to be ready for action at a moment’s notice!