Human Resources Management: A Key Role
Natural attrition and turnover of staff is healthy for any organization. A company must ensure that they manage to retain the people they want to keep and for as long as they want them. It should be someone's job to make sure that nobody leaves unexpectantly. If anyone leaves like this, that manager has failed in his or her job. Through effective communication and human resources (HR) processes, and in an open, honest, attentive environment, this kind of surprise just shouldn't happen-if it does, something's gone wrong. Did the company not deliver on its promises? Did someone oversell the company's vision and then not deliver on it? Find out the departing employee is dissatisfied and then put steps in place to rectify the situation so that no one else leaves.
In other words, make sure that you have effective and efficient exit interviews, but remember that by the time you get to an exit interview, it's too late to "save" this person. They have already made up their minds to leave and will almost certainly already have another job lined up. Proactive management of your staff while they are employed is absolutely key to staff retention. Be aware of, and deal with, their issues before they get so big as to force them to look around for something else. In some circumstances, it will be right for all parties that the individual leaves. But if you know about it early enough, at least you have plenty of time to manage the situation and to recruit and train his or her replacement. In this way, it's a win-win for everyone, and you can mitigate any possible damage.
This HR management needn't be a full-time position, especially in a small company, but make sure someone is responsible for it and that they give it a very high priority.