Monday, February 2, 2009

Attrition-Fear It? Loathe It? Love It?

My job deals with shift bids this time of year. Shift bids are just what they sound like bidding on shifts based on performance from the prior year. As you can imagine there are a number of tenured employees that have low morale after completing these. Since low morale becomes an issue increased attrition can occur. Losing good people can be tough for a department or organization to overcome depending on the percentage of attrition that actually occurs.

With this in mind I recently had a leader inform me that attrition from this shift bid is ok because this actually becomes an opportunity for the department to bring in new talent. I wonder though how attrition is viewed? Do you view it like the leader above almost as a necessary evil to bring in new talent? Do you loathe or fear it because low staff may mean low production? I'm curious about what leaders think on this issue.