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Brain Drain - Can we really stop it?

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Chanukya Rajagopala Director - IT Strategy - R & D| iPOCA Private Ltd United Kingdom
When you spend time and cost on training and nurturing talent, and the employee leaves the organisation, it results in brain drain. There is no rule in the book that can really stop one from leaving the company after receiveing training, coaching etc. Recently a employee left an organisation after a major skills upgrade. The recruiting company agreed to pay back the trianing cost to the company the employee left, thus releasing the employee from the obligation of staying a certain period after training. Though the company received the costs for training, it lost an employee who was factored into many projects downstream.

Most of you have encountered such situations.
How have you dealth with them?
How have to filled the talent gap?
Unless you recruit a champion who can hit the ground running, how have to shored up the time lost for new starter to gain speed?
If you have head-hunted talent and recruited, have you considered that it could happen to you? What would your planning be if it did happen?
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Chanukya Rajagopala Director - IT Strategy - R & D| iPOCA Private Ltd United Kingdom
Jan 09, 2017 7:02 AM
Replying to Drew Craig
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^ Agree with Sergio. Knowledge Management is crucial for separating the knowledge from the individual - tacit to explicit. Its the old 'Hit by a bus tomorrow' we've all heard before.

Additionally, by having a structured KM system/team/process in place, the time to competency (TTC) will also decrease, saving the organization time and money in training. The whole cycle becomes more self-maintained, and shorter.
After a few "Hits", we have a back up plan if a employee leaves. The success of the situation also depends on how the succession is handled and how the successor can pick up where the last employee left and run with it. Its easy to groom a junior for each role so, should such instances occur a junior can ease into that role, but once a junior thinks he/she is fit for the role, then, unless they see a potential growth, they could leave to other companies that can offer an improved role. Every plan made has a failure element. your suggestion of keeping the role and individual as seperate entities may work to a greater degree.

Thanks for the response Andrew.

Regards
Chanu
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Stéphane Parent Self Employed / Semi-retired| Leader Maker Prince Edward Island, Canada
And let's not forget the following exchange.

CFO: What happens if we train them and they leave?
CEO: What happens if we don’t and they stay?

The following LinkedIn article discusses this duality.:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cfo-what-ha...ay-canary-wharf
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Chanukya Rajagopala Director - IT Strategy - R & D| iPOCA Private Ltd United Kingdom
Jan 09, 2017 3:49 PM
Replying to Mayte Mata Sivera
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People move from one company to another, that is inevitable, whether for economic or intellectual motivation.

The implementation clauses in the contract or agreement, such as Anupam mentioned can help. Also as Sergio and Andrew mentioned, the Knowledge management will be key.

But I think an important part that we should analyze is, why do they leave? Am I not motivating team members enough? Is the paycheck low compared with a similar role in another company?

I worked in an organization that they did every 3 months, surveys to all employees in order to check their motivation grade and happiness in the company. Also, they take into account some employees notes and something simple like "more microwaves in the break room" reduced the brain drain. Ah! and when a team member left, they should fill a form without personal questions with why he/she decided to do it.
Maria,

Thanks for your reply and comments on other responses. That is quite useful.

The motivations to leave from a company are numerous, but the wage packet is the most important one. On some roles, my employees receive a higher than industry standard wage. But there are so many perks and add-ons like number of days for annual paid leave etc sometimes cause people to leave. I dont think any company can fix any specific criteria to prevent brain drain. The most successful company is the one that has the least brain drain.

Thanks once again

Regards
Chanu
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Jan 16, 2017 7:15 AM
Replying to Chanukya Rajagopala
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Rami,
Thanks for your response.

I have learnt this the hard way,, not to prepare for a key staff leaving business suddenly. Most times, its the most unexpected member who leaves you. I now have a natural replacement ready to take over, when anyone leaves a role. Sometimes I do get caught out,but the other preparations I have put in place, i.e, documentation, a log of work carried out by each employee ( including myself), a open relationship with my staff, where they can discuss their plans of leaving and give me enough time to prepare, etc etc are a few contingency plans I have.

Nevertheless its never sufficient.

Thanks once again.
Regards
Chanu
This is a good approach Chanu but as you said, it might not be sufficient sometimes so you have to treat it as a case by case and mitigate the situation.
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Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
Jan 16, 2017 7:19 AM
Replying to Chanukya Rajagopala
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Sergio,

Thanks for taking time to reply.

Will dwell on your suggested solution.

Regards
Chanu
You are welcome. This type of forums give me the opportunity to learn and to improve myself so thank you very much to you for starting the debate.
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