With the average annual employee turnover rate in the U.S. being 47%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is a really good chance your department will experience the loss of a top employee in the next year.
This employee might be the only one who knows where all the fire panels are located on your campus. Perhaps they are your sole liaison to the IT department. Maybe they are the only ones who know where all the keys are to your building. If you are at an institution of higher education, perhaps the employee that just left is an integral part of your Clery and/or Title IX compliance efforts.
In all of these examples, as well as many other situations, relying on only one person for a critical activity could lead to confusion or non-compliance with the law if or when that person leaves your organization.
I’m mentioning this because of an article I came across this weekend from KSBW. The California State Auditor found that the University of California, Santa Cruz underreported 40 crimes over the past two years, including incidents involving dating violence, domestic battery, and rape. The reason for the underreporting? The Clery coordinator for UC Santa Cruz left before compiling the school’s 2022 Clery statistics.
According to the report:
“Although Santa Cruz stated that its previous Clery coordinator generally tracked in a central location all Clery‑reportable crimes, that Clery coordinator left her position before compiling the 2022 Clery statistics, and Santa Cruz relied on other staff in its Risk and Safety Services office to compile those statistics. In the absence of written guidance, the staff in the Risk and Safety Services office did not use the files that the previous Clery coordinator used, and they did not have access to the databases that the university police department, the Title IX office, or the Student Conduct office use. As a result, the staff at the Risk and Safety Services office compiled the statistics that each of the departments gave them but did not check the accuracy of those numbers. The university explained that the Risk and Safety Services office mistakenly thought the data had been cross‑checked by the former Clery coordinator.”
Related Article: 5 Takeaways from the Liberty University Clery Audit
Train Multiple Employees and Give Them Access to the Resources They Need to Do Their Jobs
This example highlights the need for organizations to train multiple people to do critical duties. Sure, you might have one person who knows everything and everyone, but does anyone else in your organization know how to do their job or what their job actually entails? Also, as the UC Santa Cruz example demonstrates, does the replacement employee(s) have access to the information, systems, and technologies they need to do the job properly?
This is not to beat up on UC Santa Cruz (five other colleges in California were also found to have inaccurately reported crime data, by the way). And this is not to beat up college campuses in general. Every organization experiences this challenge when a top-performing employee leaves.
So, what is your organization doing to ensure the appropriate transfer of knowledge from former employees to current ones?
