Is your company hemorrhaging manpower? Do you have job positions that have seen different people filling their seats every couple of weeks? Are you getting tired of giving the pink slip to people who are just not up to your standards?

If you ever find yourself nodding in agreement, then the bad news is that there’s something wrong. And your employees are not the problem.

Letting go of people is always expensive for business. It’s expensive because it means (1) the loss of company investments in training; (2) the loss of potential networks and linkages; and (3) the loss of time, which is probably the most valuable resource sacrificed, as you have to once again start from scratch and hire someone new and suspend your programs while you train for that position all over again.

Ouch.

Turnover is a two-way traffic problem. One, the people must fit well with the firm. And two, the managers must do their part to make sure that the people fit in.

MAKING THE PEOPLE FIT. High turnover can happen when new recruits never seem to fit into the company’s standards in the first place. So the company eventually fires them and assumes that it’s the employees’ fault for not living up to their standards.

This argument would be understandable if firings are more of an exception than a rule. But if turnover is high, then it’s a sign that it’s the company’s hiring practices that are the problem. It’s a sign that the company’s hiring policies have to be reassessed. After all, why hire someone in the first place if that person won’t fit in anyway? You just end up wasting his time, and you end up wasting your company’s time (and resources).

Therefore, beef up your hiring policies. Make them tougher, stricter, and more rational as per your job requirements. Excellent companies are characterized by having really stringent hiring policies that ensure that only the best-fitting people enter the firm.

MAKING MANAGERS DO THEIR PART. The other side of the coin is when the people are all competent… but it is the managers that end up making their lives difficult. And this would lead to the high turnover.

This is actually a more expensive problem than the earlier one because, if your hiring policies are tough and tight, then this means that you are losing VERY good people because of your managers. And that’s a tragedy.

The right way for managers to deal with quality employees is with mutual respect. Many employees confess to resigning from their jobs because they do not feel respected as individuals, or that their managers have somehow made them feel incompetent. Which is unfortunate because, as we’ve established earlier, the fact that these employees managed to enter the company in the first place should already vouch for their competence.

So managers are also tools for reinforcement. Their job is not just to get things done, but to treat their employees as investments — making them grow in their jobs. And this includes boosting their confidence as well as their capabilities.

If your company has a tightly-run screening function and managers who are intent on making their employees grow, then you already have the recipe for a loyal and potentially powerhouse organization. Otherwise, well, expect your turnover to be high. And this means sacrificing the growth of your company as you bleed employees continuously.