People churn has historically been a metric we all look at as a yardstick of culture, great leadership practices, fair pay and an “employer of choice”.  We take the market average and assess how we are performing.

Great if all businesses measuring churn looked and felt the same, but when startups grow to scale ups and beyond the traditional rules have to be thrown out the window.

Let me explain why I don't mind churn:

Churn Matrix

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1. Wrong Person: Little to no values alignment
2. Right Person: High values alignment
3. Wrong Stage:
    
   • Come from corporate to start up but will not get hands dirty.  Can be heard saying “This is a great project, lets hire a project manager” or “what is our hiring plan for the next 2 years”; or
    
   • Come from start up to scale up but does not like “rules and bureaucracy”.  Can be heard saying “policies are for corporates’ and “People Processes are a waste of time”.  Can also be seen jumping into shiny new projects that sit outside their remit

Disclaimer 1: The above are generalisations based on experience. I have also seen folks flex from corporate to start-up and vice versa.

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Let me be 100% clear, none of the above make your team members unsuccessful, bad people or not able to make a huge impact somewhere.  It just means for your particular organisation, at this particular stage it may not be quite the right fit.

So what do you do if you know you are squeezing a square peg into a round hole?

Be brave, lean in and have a tough conversation in a caring way.  Tell them what you need to see, support them to adapt. If they cannot do that, set them free to be exceptional somewhere else and free up the headcount to hire someone in your top right box!

You do not need churn to be your friend but in the changing world of start/ scale up, it cannot be a dirty word.

If you need help framing a courageous conversation then give us a call!

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Disclaimer 2:  This above assumes you treat your people fairly and equitably. If not then PLEASE give us a call.

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