Warning: You can’t fix this multi-thousand-dollar headache with money only
Are you building an employee retention culture? With skilled professionals in high demand, your organization’s ability to retain top performers has never been more important—especially when it comes to business success and survival. To keep your best talent, you need to tackle pervasive turnover. Benefits include greater employee productivity, motivation, and team commitment.
The key here is to build a retention culture among your employees—but that’s not easy, agrees human resources expert Carol Hacker. You must begin by asking: Do my employees believe what we’re offering is worth staying for? It’s time you know how to work toward a “yes” answer—and to earn deference, capitalize on employee loyalty, and get new hires off to a quick and confident start.
The Hidden Costs of Employee Turnover
Hiring employees only to have them walk out the door is not only frustrating and time-consuming, but it also eats into your bottom line, says PeopleKeep writer Christina Merhar.
“Frequent voluntary turnover has a negative impact on employee morale, productivity, and company revenue,” writes Merhar.” Recruiting and training a new employee requires staff time and money. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, turnover is highest in industries such as trade and utilities, construction, retail, customer service, hospitality, and service.”
The average cost to hire a single employee is $4,129, and the average time it takes to fill any given position is 42 days, according to a 2016 study from the Society for Human Resource Management.
Reality check: Want to calculate your organization’s turnover costs? SHRM produced a handy Turnover Cost Calculation spreadsheet; factors include adding vacancy, replacement, separation, and training costs
Tackle Pervasive Turnover: Salaries Are Only the Beginning
True, pay has a significant impact on employee satisfaction, but it’s not the only determining factor. And if your office experiences persistent turnover, it’s likely not a problem you can fix by throwing money at.
There are actually six factors besides pay, Fits Small Business says, that cause workers to clean out their desks and flee:
- Poor hiring: You’re selecting the wrong people.
- Poor onboarding: You’re not setting employees up for long-term success.
- Poor management: You’re not providing ongoing support and direction for long-term success.
- Lack of career path: You’re not offering compelling growth and change opportunities.
- Culture issues (such as gossiping): Your workplace is not a place people want to be.
- Harassment or other illegal activities: You haven’t addressed a significant, toxic problem.
Plus: Burnout can play a huge role in employee turnover, adds Forbes writer Joyce Maroney. And some of the “key factors driving burnout that are entirely within organizational control.”
For instance, you can disillusion employees with: poor management, providing no clear connection between an employee’s role and your corporate strategy, and creating a negative workplace culture, according to Maroney.
Here are three tips, from Recruiter, for tackling pervasive turnover:
- Invest in a good hiring & onboarding: Provide thoughtful employee evaluations from day one
- Use performance reviews: Include productivity and happiness factors. And conduct reviews more frequently than annually—such as in brief updates.
- Consider establishing a flex time/remote work policy: It’s important to consider and address outside influences—such as family issues and commutes—on employees’ work satisfaction.
Indeed, employee turnover can cost you time and money, says Hacker. That means, if you learn how to stem the tide, you can treat employee retention like a profit center.
(This post first appeared in a ProfEd blog)
By Jeff S on 26th September 2018
