For the leader of a small marketing agency, it's an all-too-familiar sight: A talented employee submits her notice and prepares to leave. She might go to a bigger institution, to a different field, or to start a business. But the effect on you is the same - another valuable person to replace. If this sounds like something that happened to you, you can take some comfort in that you're not alone. "Talent is leaving the [marketing] industry in droves, and agencies don't know how to stop the flow,"
Elliot Schimel wrote in an AdWeek post . Every employee who walks out the door is left with a jagged hole that needs to be filled. Their unique abilities, specific skills, relationships with clients , and rapport with their teams are not easily replaceable. At IMPACT, we have industry mailing list years surviving this situation. Our team is constantly shaken by departures - a combination of downsizing and layoffs.
Back then, we weren’t always able to articulate exactly what made a “good” employee, so it was hard to tell the difference between a departure that made us weaker and one that had the opportunity to improve. But we found turnover to be contagious. Whenever we lose a person or two, we know someone else will soon follow. Today, we’re more stable — and our hard-earned lessons are what I’ll share with you in this article: employee retention strategies that are proven to help you keep your team intact. These include: The impact of turnover on your agency.