How to Squash Employee Turnover with Phillip Thune

2025-02-18

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We have all heard the phrase that people do not leave jobs, they leave managers… This truth is supported by data from Gallop, 75% of over 1 million workers surveyed, left because of their bosses and not the work or the company. So how do we combat this? First, let’s train our managers. Second, let’s do a better job of hiring people who will align with the values of the company and the manager. Setting both parties up for success and ensuring the company’s forward momentum. Guest Bio: Phi...

We have all heard the phrase that people do not leave jobs, they leave managers…

This truth is supported by data from Gallop, 75% of over 1 million workers surveyed, left because of their bosses and not the work or the company.

So how do we combat this?

First, let’s train our managers. Second, let’s do a better job of hiring people who will align with the values of the company and the manager. Setting both parties up for success and ensuring the company’s forward momentum.

Guest Bio:

Phillip Thune, CEO of Adthena. Phillip has been involved in the tech startup and online search sectors for 20+ years and is a proven leader in the ad-tech and digital media space. Adthena is an award-winning search intelligence platform to help brands, marketers, and agencies dominate their competitive landscapes.

Philip is a values-driven leader who had helped scale four different companies from early stages, including FindWhat.com, which went from $500k of revenue and 35 employees when Phillip joined to $200 million, 500 employees, and a market cap of $700 million.

Problem:

Turnover - For at least 4 years, the company had not gone more than a few months without the departure of someone from the exec team
Soon after Phillip joined, the Chief Revenue Officer of Adthena left, but since then, not a single exec turnover, so it’s now been about 14 months and counting…
Before: Difficult to get any momentum with a high turnover
- Phillip replaced the founder, who had been CEO for 11 years
- The departed sales leader had only been there 3 months. His replacement, the company’s long-time UK sales leader, was the 5th leader of the sales team over a 6 month period!!
- CFO, CMO, CTO all rock solid. Lot of turnover with head of people, CRO, and CPO
Phillip started in March 2023. In Q3 and Q4 2023 very little turnover. Problem solved!?! Nope - a lot of turnover at the manager/team level in Q1 2024
- Shifted

How do we solve the problem?

Put in the don’t-quit rule & sherpa plans
- “Don’t quit without notice – whether it’s money, responsibility, ability to grow/learn, a new challenge, etc. – first try to see if we can fulfill that need at Adthena via your Sherpa Plan. If not, we will do everything possible to help you find a new job outside of Adthena that gets you what you want.”
- Reasons: tell us you are unhappy, and figure out if we can solve the problem
- Commitment: if we can't help solve the problem, we will give full support in terms of transitioning out
- Sherpa plan: formal understanding of what is available for you at Adthena. Career progression plan
Thought it worked, but discovered it didn't.
- Introduced the rule, but didn’t communicate well enough.
- In Q1, a few key people quit
Reintroduced the role formally
- Communicated the value of staying
- Interesting new opportunity

Rick’s Nuggets

Creating a safe environment for open communication
Leaders take leaving personal
If a person is not working out, take the time to replace them with a person who will thrive in your environment

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!

If you want to be known among your current and former employees for something - in our case, it’s that we’re weirdly obsessed with our team member’s career growth - you need to
- 1) bring it up regularly and have it reinforced on a regular basis - in our case with Sherpa plans that must happen at least twice per year
- 2) it needs to benefit the employee as much as the company.

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