The title is pretty clear. A critical path team has had hilariously high turnover. 3 – 6 months per person tops, except for me, I chime in at 18 months. When I say critical path, I mean the company WILL fail. Not immediately, but clients will not renew because we will look completely incompetent and fail to meet our contractual obligations.
With such high turnover, the knowledge of how these systems work is already fading in to the history books, lost forever. They have a very small window of opportunity to turn it around before it is too late. The cost? A million… probably less… $750k-ish a year to sprinkle around to turn 5 digit salaries in to strong 6 figure salaries, or double digit bill rates to triple for consultants.
They are delusional. They are ignoring what is happening right before their eyes. They can fix it simply by approving more capital to wages for our department. Just write the check already.
But they won't. HR says, “We are competitive.” No, you are not. You are competitive with the other companies that also can not retain talent. You are not competitive with the companies drawing people away. So as your business swirls down the toilet, and all the newer executives get labeled as failures for tanking a long standing high growth firm in a just a few years, be sure to proudly wave that banner high for all to see that says, “We are competitiv.. gurgle gurgle gasp cough gurgle gurgle FLUSH.
So, for other companies out there, I ask you, is this the hill you want to die on?