---
title: "Are you at the mercy of your employees?"
type: "Article"
date: "2021-02-08"
updated: "2026-10-20"
description: "A team member leaving who has been with you for a number of years can be tougher to replace as they have the advantage of knowledge gained over the years. When looking for the exact replacement, it is important to be mindful of this and look for the person who can achieve the result you require and fit rather than being a replica."
url: "https://one-international.performia.workers.dev/en-au/learn/are-you-at-the-mercy-of-your-employees"
canonical: "https://one-international.performia.workers.dev/en-au/learn/are-you-at-the-mercy-of-your-employees"
markdown_url: "https://one-international.performia.workers.dev/en-au/learn/are-you-at-the-mercy-of-your-employees.md"
site: "Performia"
publisher: "Performia (Performia International AB)"
contact: "info@performia.com.au"
language: "en-AU"
topics:
  - "hiring"
  - "tips"
author: "Negar Riazati, CEO, Australia & China"
reading_time_minutes: 2
---

# Are you at the mercy of your employees?

*Article · 8 February 2021 · 2 min read*

> A team member leaving who has been with you for a number of years can be tougher to replace as they have the advantage of knowledge gained over the years. When looking for the exact replacement, it is important to be mindful of this and look for the person who can achieve the result you require and fit rather than being a replica.

It can be quite painful when good staff want to leave. Aside from losing a productive and helpful team member, you also lose the time you invested in that person, not to mention the recruitment costs of hiring a new person.

More painful though is the length of time it can take to find the right fit and replace that person.

A team member leaving who has been with you for a number of years can be tougher to replace as they have the advantage of knowledge gained over the years. When looking for the exact replacement, it is important to be mindful of this and look for the person who can achieve the result you require and fit rather than being a replica.

Some companies measure themselves on retention and are proud to report high staff retention.

However – high retention is not always good. Who are you retaining? Are you too nice or not measuring results and also retaining people you should be letting go?

Some companies are also keeping low contributing staff and most times they do this is because they’re not confident they can hire a new person.

This causes them to be at the mercy of their staff. This can be a problem if it causes them to not correct staff and take the necessary actions to push up productivity, since they don’t want to “upset” the person and cause them to leave.

**THE SOLUTION**

You need to know how to **attract** and **select** the right people and have the ability to do it in an abundance.

For many roles you should never stop attracting candidates since good people drive a business forward, and also with every good hire, you push the team’s performance to the next level.

Allow enough time to start your hiring and review your attraction strategy. Are you targeting the right people? Are you being proactive?

With every right hiring, you can start to move your performance curve to the right. Best practice is about looking at how you are doing things and looking at how you can even make a 1% improvement.

To learn more about how you can take your business and team productivity to the next level and improve your hiring results, schedule a complimentary [Performia Discovery](https://performia.ontraport.net/c/s/6G3/U05y/s/soK/WZ7/6M5Xm5/zEGt3f9mRo/P/P/Wq) today.

## Related articles

- [The best candidates are choosing you, too](https://one-international.performia.workers.dev/en-au/learn/to-make-a-selection-work.md) — Article, 2026-10-14
- [The hidden cost of hiring the wrong people on your culture](https://one-international.performia.workers.dev/en-au/learn/the-hidden-cost-of-hiring-the-wrong-people-on-your-culture.md) — Article, 2025-09-15

## How to cite

Performia (Performia International AB). “Are you at the mercy of your employees?”. Performia, 2021-02-08. https://one-international.performia.workers.dev/en-au/learn/are-you-at-the-mercy-of-your-employees (accessed <date>).

## Company & contact

- **Company:** Performia — legal entity Performia International AB
- **Address:** 2/162 Albert Road, 3205 South Melbourne
- **General enquiries:** [info@performia.com.au](mailto:info@performia.com.au)
- **Phone:** 1800 603 023
- **About:** Makes you build and manage teams more successfully.

---
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