Despite all the technological advancements today, more and more employers are realizing that human resource still is their most important asset. Employees are the first ambassadors of a company and indeed its first customers.
Their skills and contributions are key to setting a company apart from its competitors.
While it is inevitable that employees will move on to pursue other opportunities, a high turnover rate doesn’t signal good health and can affect productivity if skilled labour keeps making an exit. Aside from the obvious disruption of business activities, staff turnover has a heavy monetary cost.
In order to prevent high staff turnover, companies need to understand why employees leave and take steps to remedy the situation. Mark Zuckerberg has been quoted to say; “Treat your employees right so they won’t use your internet to look for new jobs.”
Let us break down what exactly companies can do to prevent high staff turnover:
Offer opportunities for growth
Nobody wants to be stagnant. And employees, especially the good ones, will be hungry for growth.
It is important for employees to have an idea of where their current position can next lead them in the company (or elsewhere), to examine if they might have more satisfaction in another department, if they will be able to have more responsibilities in the future and clear steps that they can take to get there.
Avail career and personal growth opportunities through trainings and workshops. This will improve their skillset and make them more effective at their work. Sometimes up-skilling will require an employer to factor in study leave.
A positive attitude to this will improve job satisfaction. By showing a genuine interest in and supporting their personal career advancement, you will earn loyal employees.
Develop a culture of dialogue
Developing a culture where employees can comfortably talk to managers – and have their issues resolved – will prevent a high staff turnover. Seek to reduce one-way communication models and establish one-on-one meetings, staff surveys and open forums.
The one-on-ones can provide a chance for managers and employees to discuss a range of things including the latter’s desired career trajectory. This will show employees that you are concerned about their growth.
They can also reveal issues that the employee might not have been able to raise in a more public forum. When employees are heard and issues resolved, it can mean the difference between someone leaving or staying on at a job.
Hire the right people
To prevent a high staff turnover, start by hiring the right people. While it is important to hire the most qualified person, the most qualified person might not be the best fit for your organisation. If they cannot fit in, they will turn out to be a less engaged employee. Eventually, they will naturally seek for a job where they are more comfortable.
Employers should look beyond candidates with the right job skills and also factor in their behavior. Behavioral-based testing is becoming popular in interviews. It seeks to predict if a candidate will fit in with the workplace culture of your particular organisation.
Hiring the right people might also require a tweaking or total overhaul of the hiring process to include activities like role-playing to see how candidates conduct themselves with others and walking potential hires through the office space and letting them in on what the workplace culture is like.
Their responses will bring you closer to hiring someone who will be with your company for a longer time.
Recognise and reward employees
Showing employees that you value them is another way to prevent high staff turnover. Recognise wins and reward efforts of individuals and groups. Don’t let big milestones and long difficult projects end without saying thank you.
Make it clear that you saw and appreciated your employees’ efforts. This will give them a sense of accomplishment and increase loyalty and give them reason to stay.
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Offer competitive salaries and/or benefits
According to this research summarized here , money isn’t the biggest motivator for people to stay at a job. In reality, employees have lives out of the office and are working so that they can finance these lives. If a job does not help them meet this need, they will keep looking to find another that can.
Offering a competitive package will prevent high staff turnover. Do market research on salaries and find out what your competitors are paying to arrive at an attractive figure. The salary you offer employees should be commensurate with their professional development.
A promotion or increase in responsibilities should invite a proportional increase in salary or else the employee will feel exploited.
In some cases, even though an employee wants to raise wages, the company might not be in a financial position to do so. This is where you offer benefits like health insurance or more vacation days.
Offer flexibility
This is another way to prevent high staff turnover. Employees are rating flexibility at work higher and higher on their lists of requirements. Where possible, employers can allow people to work from home, work half days, take a later or earlier shift, have late or earlier lunches and entire days off.
This will allow your staff to take care of things in their lives that are outside of work. Being free to do this will actually allow them to be more focused on the job. In the absence of flexibility, employees will be distracted by all the things that they have not done-and look for ways to do them on work time.
Flexible work schedules allow employees to create a work-life balance, another thing that increases job satisfaction and lengthens the tenure of employees. Managers should actually encourage staff to maintain a good work-life balance, to take their leave days and full lunch time off.
They should also ensure that work loads are manageable so that employees don’t keep odd hours in order to complete their work. It makes for happier, more productive employees that stay around longer.
In Summary
A high staff turnover rate is one every organisation’s worst nightmares. Employee retention is closely linked to happiness at work.
A happier employee will stay longer on their job. With one or several of the above interventions, employers can achieve this and reduce their employee turnover rates.
