Managing employees about to leave

In today's episode, Mattias is talking about how he deals with situations where employees want to leave iGoMoon.

Building the right team

Building the team is probably the hardest part of scaling up a company. Especially during the pandemic, the job market has changed drastically. It is really hard to find the right talents in the digital marketing industry, since all companies that had the urge to survive, realized how important it is to ramp up their digital and online game. For that reason it is really important for Mattias, to keep the "keepers" close. For him, those are the people with the right "cultural qualities" and people who lead and look after iGoMoon's purpose and values. They are often at the core of positive work experiences for everyone onboard. He underlines how, as a leader, you need to understand what drives them and use your ears and pay attention to what people think and what motivates them.

Letting keepers leave

Whenever a person decides to leave iGoMoon, it is hard for Mattias to let them go. Especially when it is one of the "keepers" he could take it personally for an hour to two but then needs to focus on the bigger picture again. For him dealing with feelings like this is all about self-awareness. It is okay to feel things and drown in self-pity for a minute, but you need to actively make the decision that this moment is over and you need to move on.He explains that this is an important part of being an entrepreneur and if you can't handle this then you shouldn't choose this career. However, in some situations it might also be a good thing when people leave. For example if they decide to go because they realized they're not aligned with the company's culture or values.

Culture and values as assets

Some of the most common reasons why people take a position elsewhere is that they have received an offer they couldn't refuse. It is actually really common that the people working for iGoMoon get job offers from head hunters several times per week. That is one of the reasons why Mattias puts in so much work around the culture and the values and tries to create the best work environment possible. Like this, he hopes to defeat other companies who might have more budget, but not the best culture. In addition, he also hopes that if something might be wrong or has room for improvement, the positive work environment will encourage people to rather talk to Mattias, than simply leave the company.

Creating suitable roles

Another reason could be that they were looking for a role that simply doesn't exist at iGoMoon (yet). Obviously, Mattias can understand that decision if there was a discussion about possible roles beforehand. However, if there was no discussion prior to the termination he could be frustrated about it. Many times he is more than open to create a new role and really find out what works best for everyone. In the past people have also left iGoMoon while they were shifting from being a traditional website agency to a HubSpot agency.

Finally Svea wants to know if he fights for people to stay after they have decided to leave, or if he believes that it is better to let them go. His answer is very clear: "I never let anyone go without fighting". At least when he believes that they still believe in the culture and the values. In these cases he tries to find out what their motifs are and may be able to offer them a deal. In some cases people actually decide to stay, in others they still leave iGoMoon.

💡 EPISODE TAKE AWAY
Keep your "keepers" close.

Which measures do you take to keep your keepers?