Consulting
A company that outgrew the structure that got it there
The situation
Rapid growth had been treated as a hiring success. Internally, newer employees were unclear on who they reported to for what, and several experienced managers were quietly overloaded.
Turnover was concentrated in employees with less than a year of tenure.
What was actually happening
The organization was still operating on the informal structure of a much smaller company. Responsibilities had been assigned by availability rather than design.
What looked like a retention problem was largely a definition problem: new employees could not tell what good performance looked like, and their managers had never been told either.
What changed
- Roles and reporting relationships were documented and reconciled with how work actually flowed.
- Management expectations were defined explicitly, including what managers were accountable for.
- Onboarding was rebuilt so the first ninety days had defined milestones.
- Leadership held direct conversations with overloaded managers about scope.
The result
Early-tenure turnover declined over the following two quarters. Managers reported greater confidence about the decisions they could make without escalating.
The leadership team gained a structure they could hire against rather than react to.