You now have some sense of the problems that can increase turnover and hurt the organization, which puts you in an interesting situation. A classic problem in trying to solve a dilemma is to confuse symptom with cause. Often, people work to eliminate the symptom and forget that there is something instigating the trouble. Right now you're in exactly the opposite situation. You have some idea of the causes but haven't been looking at the symptoms. Now it's time to change that.

Using Diagnostics

No matter what type of situation you are trying to appraise — whether medical, electrical, or mechanical — you take the same basic approach. Proper diagnostics requires an understanding of what can go wrong and a keen eye for the signs of a problem. You work through the signs to trace back to the causes. Keep in mind that there may be more than one cause and more than one symptom, so when you find one problem don't assume there are no others.

You also need metrics: numbers you can use to measure how well a certain activity is going. For each diagnostic concern, you should find something that gives you a quantifiable grasp of how your team is doing. If you can't measure something, then you are left with hunches, suppositions, and guesswork. That is fine if you guess right, but most people tend not to.

You don't need to entirely ignore your hunches, though. You must measure what is happening to get a realistic sense of changing conditions. But don't take things to such an extreme that you miss another early warning sign. Often, your subconscious will piece together observations you don't even realize you're making and reach an important conclusion.

Planning Ahead

Diagnostics can be used two ways. You can start them when things obviously aren't working right, but then you're trailing the problem and the impact it has. The other choice is to work actively and monitor for troubles before they surface. Staying vigilant may seem like more work up front, and it is — a bit. But the cost in time, money, and aggravation compared with trying to clean up a mess after it has spilled everywhere is like taking your car to have the oil changed versus dealing with a seized engine.

Common Problem Indicators

The following is not an encyclopedic list of danger signs, but it should give you some idea of where to look:

• Sudden problems with “customers”

• Recruitment or training costs

• Low productivity or morale

• Sudden elevations in accident or illness rates

• Unexpectedly increasing expenses

Notice that in each case there is a specific result that would suggest a problem in team member attitude. Take all the definitions loosely. For example, customers could be people who buy products or services, other parts of the organization that depend on what your team does, or people from outside your organization who interact with your group. Recruitment or training costs could be all so-called soft costs, like team member time spent on getting new people up and running.

Any one of these can be the result of some systemic problem, such as a product with a design flaw, inadequate safety training or gear, or a flu epidemic. Nevertheless, each is also closely tied to team member attitudes. They can show displeasure as expressed through such things as doing little, doing tasks badly, or leaving. And if they aren't the result of existing negative attitudes, you can bet that they will quickly breed some. The bigger the difficulties you have in these areas, the bigger a warning you have that something is not right with your team members.

Understanding Dissatisfaction

If you do see signs of employee dissatisfaction, you need to better understand the problem to know how best to take action. There are several ways to do this. One is to study your team members' behavior. It might be that the actions they take will indicate something about the problems. For example, you might ask yourself some of the following questions:

• Are people highly motivated?

• Are team members eager to attack a new problem?

• Do people help each other solve problems, even if they are not directly involved?

• Do people feel comfortable asking questions?

• Are people willing to take chances and possibly make mistakes?

Such questions help you understand the impact of the organization's environment. It is this environment that has the greatest impact on retention.

Another approach is to ask the team members directly. It may take time to get them to open up and admit what they're thinking and feeling, but it can be the most effective way to learn. Finally, if people leave, try an exit interview. This can be a useful way of pinpointing possible problems.