Has your company suffered from high staff turnover? If yes, have you identified the cause of the turnover? The answer to these questions may vary over time for any company, yet it’s important that companies be aware of any issues that their employees are having. The question now lies in understanding what staff turnover is, the issues that cause staff turnover, and how can employers avoid them from happening in the first place.
What is staff turnover?
Staff or Employee turnover, also known as staff turnover rate, is the number of employees who leave a company in a given period of time, usually a year. While the total number of employees exiting a company is commonly recorded, turnover can also pertain to subcategories within the company, such as certain divisions or demographic groups. staff turnover includes everything from resignations to terminations and should be taken into account when estimating your own turnover rate.
In more ways than one, high staff turnover is costly. Losing any member of your team can have a negative impact on how your company operates, as well as team morale. It can also have an impact on customer interactions, as well as your company’s brand and reputation. All of them have a monetary cost to an organization.
It’s crucial to keep in mind that staff turnover is unavoidable. Staff turnover can be divided into two categories.
Involuntary Staff Turnover
Involuntary turnover refers to any situation in which the employee’s decision to depart is made for them. In other words, the employer decides whether or not to dismiss an employee. Poor performance, company reductions, company restructuring, or a breach of company policies, to name a few examples, are all common causes.
Voluntary Staff Turnover
Involuntary turnover refers to any situation in which the employee’s decision to depart is made for them. In other words, the employer decides whether or not to dismiss an employee. Poor performance, company reductions, company restructuring, or a breach of company policies, to name a few examples, are all common causes.
What are the common issues faced by firms as a result of staff turnover?
Companies face different kinds of issues as a result of voluntary staff turnover, because it can often be unexpected to the firm. This makes it difficult for companies to find a replacement, especially when the job to replace requires training or a certain level of experience. However, this is just a small short-term problem that companies face, and often employees give their employers a notice beforehand about their resignation. As a result, they are able to search for potential candidates earlier and find a replacement without losing any productivity.
Nevertheless, the main issue arises when there’s constant voluntary turnover, and the reason behind such high turnover is not visible. Based on 2 different research studies gathered by ‘Science of Work’ and ‘European Journal of Business and Management Research’, it is possible to identify 11 different causes for voluntary turnover, out of which 8 of them can indicate issues with the company and its management. The 8 causes of staff turnover reported by the research study are:
- Lack of training and feedback
- Lack of trust
- Job Stress
- Work too challenging
- Lack of Job satisfaction
- Poor Working environment
- Unhappy with Salary
- Problems with leaders and managers
These problems affect employees behavior and productivity, and eventually force them to find a job elsewhere. This can have some huge repercussions for the organization:
1. Rehiring and Retraining new employees
The organization must hire and train new personnel, as well as allocate the time necessary for the new employee to produce effectively. Furthermore, due to the replacement expenses for new personnel, staff turnover is costly to the firm. When an employee leaves due to turnover, the company’s ability to maintain high employee performance is jeopardized, and large resources are expended on the recruitment and training of new employees, ultimately leading to the company’s demise. Furthermore, if people continue to leave firms, corporations will have to spend time and money acquiring and retraining new employees. This would have a long-term detrimental impact on the company as their focus remains away from growth and expansion.
2. Loss in productivity
High turnover limits the number of entry-level employees, necessitating the use of temporary workers, which has a detrimental influence on productivity and competitiveness, as well as hindering skill development. staff turnover can also have a detrimental influence on operating costs and the ability to maintain the skills needed to maintain business operations and gain a competitive advantage. A shortage of talented and skilled people can result in a management issue that affects productivity, profitability, and product and service quality. From the perspective of the remaining workers, high attrition rates can have a negative impact on working relationships, morale, and workplace safety.
3. Increasing direct costs
Staff turnover is linked to organizational costs, such as the financial costs of staff turnover, recruitment costs, and training costs. The cost of replacing an staff is estimated to be 1.5–2.5 times the person’s annual salary, including separation replacement and training fees.
Similarly, replacing an staff can cost a company 50 percent to 60 percent of the individual’s annual compensation, and the costs don’t stop there. Furthermore, high staff turnover will result in financial losses for the company. Compensation for replacing a key staff might cost up to 25% of a company’s total annual expenses.
4. Loss in customer satisfaction & profitability
Staff turnover has been shown in numerous studies to have a negative influence on customer service and satisfaction. One of the company’s performance indicators is customer satisfaction. Furthermore, due to the highly competitive environment in the field of retail, customer satisfaction has become increasingly important. Satisfaction is a critical factor in organizations’ success, as well as the incentive to purchase or use the service. It is essential to achieve a competitive advantage, according to the research.
Furthermore, researchers have discovered that the employee has a direct impact on the consumer. Not only that, but the staff-customer relationship is a critical factor in a company’s success. Customer satisfaction is linked to employee happiness, according to many studies. When people are happy with their jobs, they provide superior customer service. As a result, researchers conclude that staff turnover has a negative influence on both customer service and profit margin. The impact also increases when these turnover rates include staff who execute daily operational tasks as well as managers and assistant managers.
Companies often find themselves impacted by high turnover, and resultantly lose revenue, suffer higher costs and disrupt their organization’s operations. While companies do find mitigation strategies to dampen the effects of staff turnover, it is more crucial to nip this issue in the bud. The next part of the blog looks to find different ways for an organization to avoid staff turnover.
How to avoid staff turnover?
1. Create an Ideal Workplace
It is critical to cultivate a work atmosphere that motivates your employees in order to increase staff engagement and retention. A DISC evaluation can reveal an employee’s ideal working environment, motivators, communication style, and what they require from their boss or boss. The results of a DISC evaluation can be used by companies to create the optimum working environment for their staff. Employee retention and turnover rates are improved as a result of the insights. Understanding DISC methodology and the four major DISC personality types alone can help companies have a better understanding of their staff. This includes how they interact and how much stress they are under. Completing a DISC assessment shows your employees’ distinctive characteristics, allowing you to gain the most insight into them. The more you know, the better equipped you are to reduce staff turnover.
2. Recruit the Right Candidates
To keep staff, it’s critical to hire people who are a good fit for the organization. Make sure the role is clearly defined, and that the abilities of the candidates match the needs and the corporate culture. Disengagement and a lack of job satisfaction are two major variables that contribute to staff turnover. Using a DISC evaluation during the hiring process will disclose how to keep your new hire motivated, recognize when they are under pressure, and identify areas where they may require development and support.
Another fantastic strategy to reduce turnover is to hire the best employee for the job, as well as the company’s culture. Take the time to analyze and modify your personnel selection process to prevent losing good employees and having to go through the costly hiring process all over again. This isn’t going to be simple, but the time and work you put in will pay off in the end. Staff referrals are an inexpensive and effective approach to improve your process; 48 percent of organizations believe their best staff comes from them. It’s also crucial to make sure that prospects are a good fit for your company’s culture. Ask open-ended questions to get the candidate to reveal what they’re really looking for.
3. Gather Employee Feedback
Employee satisfaction or engagement surveys are a good approach to keep track of your employees’ input and keep them happy. An HR survey’s results might reveal what drives employee engagement in your company. Identifying these essential areas of staff engagement allows companies to focus resources on the areas that provide the best results and assure top talent retention. Obviously, high retention equals low staff turnover.
Use open-ended questions in surveys to look further into internal and external issues. This helps to determine how likely people are to stay in the role or organization. For instance, ‘How long do you expect to stay with the company?’ and other similar questions demonstrate how probable it is that your staff will quit. While external factors are out of your control, you may affect internal elements to guarantee staff retention. Surveys may reveal why your staff is distracted and disengaged at work. They can provide qualitative insight into why engagement levels are low. Respond correctly by analyzing open-ended questions to uncover major themes and developing difficulties in the workplace. Gaining current input on job satisfaction, employee engagement, and employee commitment is essential for employee retention in the workplace.
4. Invest in Employees through Training
Employees place a high emphasis on advancement chances. Several workplace studies have looked into the direct link between a lack of opportunities for advancement and high turnover intentions. Businesses that do not invest in their workers are far more likely to have high turnover rates. Investing in your workers’ training and education is one method to show them that you care about their careers. You will witness a rise in their business loyalty if you take an active role in their professional growth to show you care about their success. According to LinkedIn’s 2021 Workplace Learning Report, 94 percent of employees would stay with a firm longer if there was an investment in learning.
5. Encourage and Facilitate Work-life balance
Creating a work environment that promotes a healthy work-life balance is advantageous in more ways than one. Encourage work-life balance while trying to reduce voluntary turnover to boost employee engagement and productivity. Poor work-life balance, according to 68 percent of employees, has a detrimental influence on their morale and motivation at work. This figure is only expected to rise as people throughout the world place a greater focus on work-life balance.
Fortunately, there are a number of strategies to encourage and assist a great work-life balance today and in the future.
Flexible scheduling;
Depending on your sector, allowing employees to choose their own schedules is a terrific approach to empower them. Look at options like self-scheduling and shift bidding to help with this!
Work from home;
Depending on your sector, you may want to explore allowing your workers to work from home. It’s enough to provide a mix of in-office and work-from-home options.
Personal time off;
While this may seem like a no-brainer, it’s critical for employees to understand that they are permitted to take personal time off when they require it. Many firms discourage employees from taking personal days, but times are changing, and employees are demanding more paid time off for personal reasons.
Restriction work communications;
Although being a recent concept, several organizations are implementing restrictions on job-related conversations outside of working hours. This aids employees in establishing a better sense of work-life balance and avoiding the idea that they are always working. This also increases the likelihood that, in the event of an emergency, your employees will be more eager to assist beyond hours if they feel their time is valued.
Review workloads;
How often do you check in on your staff to make sure they aren’t overburdened? Probably insufficient. Providing a realistic workload for your staff and not forcing them to start early or remain late is a great way to ensure they feel balanced and productive.
Reward your staff;
Reward your staff with on-the-job social trips and team-building events! While some firms conduct similar events outside of work hours, this takes away from workers’ personal time, and they frequently fail to go or resent the fact that they are required to participate.
Staff turnover is a very fragile issue, and there are a combination of factors that cause it in the first place. When it comes to lowering employee turnover, managers and HR professionals may only come up with a few suggestions, but a comprehensive approach is more likely to yield the best results. To concentrate action on the true reasons of employee turnover in your business, start with an accurate diagnosis. Keep in mind that external factors such as unemployment rates must be taken into account.
Then, learn about the most common internal causes of employee turnover, including management, team dynamics, job features, salary and benefits, stress, and workforce demographics. Through such effort, employees are more likely to feel committed and hence more likely to stay. As an employer, the best way to make employees feel more committed and satisfied would be by being a role model as well as communicating a vision that inspires and motivates them.
