Employee Retention is the CEO's job

If costs , customers, and quality service is important, then turnover should be at the top of your list. If the CEO does not own turnover, he is more comfortable with poor performance than he may admit. High turnover that is something that unquestionably costs money and time for existing staff, but its tentacles extend to just about everything a company does. If you can reduce turnover it will positively affect the entire organization, it links to every department and ultimately every customer, client or future employee.

Turnover is fundamentally about the culture of the organization and whether or not it cares about retaining good people, not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it puts your among the best in your industry and financial well being.

Until the recent downturn, many leaders could legitimately blame turnover on external factors, such as shortages of people across all industries and the hot job market. Many of those external pressures have resided and now is a perfect time to for senior leaders to address the internal problems causing turnover. By doing so, CEO's can better attack problems with morale, unproductive teams, client service, and mistakes.

Many CEO's don't see employee turnover as an area where they can (or should) make a substantial impact. Maybe they can't match higher salaries being paid elsewhere. Maybe they can't match the challenging smaller more nimble competitor. Concerns about turnover are often directed to HR. But, CEO's can make a huge difference in employee turnover.

A focused strategy on retention and reduction of turnover does not mean that low performers should be allowed to hang around. Quite the opposite, in fact. If low performance means that you may lose your job it creates a sense of ownership for each employee and become embedded into the fabric of the culture. The turnover of low performers is very healthy it is when you lose top performers it can literally implode and organization from the inside out.

CEO's need to own turnover no matter what industry. Employee mortality can mean the difference between profit and loss and thriving or survival.