Improving Staff Retention in a Start Up Hedge Fund - Jo Geraghty

Situation


The client was CEO of a start up hedge fund. The fund had rapidly achieved a turnover of £40m pa, however in the previous 12 months there had been a staff turnover of 32%, and revenues were on track to be down 20%, which was putting the survival of the fund at risk.

In addition the CEO had been making a significant investment with head-hunters, which didn't appear to show any signs of giving a return.

The Objective

The time critical objective was for the CEO to be able to recruit and continually motivate the people with the right skills and behavioural competencies to ensure the current and future success of the fund.

Action

The CEO and executive coach agreed a way forward which included:

1) An analysis of the current situation. This included face to face and phone interviews with a cross section of staff

2) A workshop session to identify, develop and articulate the vision and strategic plan, together with the key values that would support their achievement

3) Develop a communication plan for the above which included face to face sessions by the CEO and inclusion in all relevant written material including job descriptions, objectives and appraisals, to ensure they supported achieving the plan, vision and values

4) The CEO was coached to recruit and appraise individuals against the new job decriptions and objectives

5) A soft audit to check that the above had actually impacted company behaviour. Feedback processes were put in place to address anything that didn’t appear to be working.



Result

1) Within 9 months staff turnover was on track to have been reduced from 30% to 5% by the end of the year

2) During the period none of the ‘high performers’ had left

3) The impact of having a clear articulation of vision, strategy and values had significantly improved staff motivation scores as demonstrated by the confidential staff six month survey.



So What

The improving revenue and profit situation meant that the CEO was able to recruit additional senior management resource to compliment his strengths, so he was now able to concentrate on the funds next stage of growth.

Jo Geraghty is a leading member of the Executive and Business Coaching Network (ECBN)

Jo's Website: beyond the ladder