The Federal Aviation Administration is the poster child for the kinds of risks facing organizations that must sustain or improve operations despite major turnover due to retirements or mid-career attrition. More than 50% of today’s air traffic controllers have been hired in the last five years, due to the wave of controllers forced to take mandatory retirement. There are several contributing factors, but it is not surprising that the FAA reports operational errors among controllers have increased over 80% in the last three years.

These incidents include the highly publicized example of First Lady Michelle Obama’s jet that had to abort a landing earlier this year in Washington, D.C. to avoid another plane. Most go relatively unnoticed and, fortunately, these errors have not led to any serious accidents.

Still, up to 25% of controllers on duty on any given day are trainees. This puts inordinate pressure on the veterans who are training them. FAA leaders now admit they didn’t recognize the financial impact that the new controllers would have on operations. According to one report, it has cost at least $50 million more than expected to implement complicated new training processes, while also sustaining highly-reliable operations.

The FAA’s experience provides important lessons for leaders. In many cases, reducing the organization’s experience base will degrade operating performance and increase costs.

• Given the talent needed to implement your strategy, what assumptions are you making about training and development costs in the future?
• Do you have adequate metrics in place that will reflect important shifts in performance due to changes in your experience base?
• What will your organization do differently to sustain quality performance if you have major turnover in key roles?

Many organizations will be facing turnover in critical roles in the next few years. But if you don’t take the right steps to manage these talent risks, then fasten your seat belt.  That’s because you will be dealing with a lot of turbulence while trying to explain the increased costs and performance problems, like those now plaguing the FAA.

Our new book, The Executive Guide to High Impact Talent Management, can jump start your thinking on how to reduce the costs of many serious talent risks