Experiencing high employee turnover can actually be good for your business—if you know how to take advantage of it. Don’t just sit back and let your employees leave, racking up hiring and training expenses. Learn from the experience and use it to help your company grow and become stronger. Here’s how:
Find out why your employees are leaving
When an employee resigns, conduct some kind of exit interview. It may be difficult to schedule a sit-down exit interview around the time of the employee’s departure, so you can either schedule it for a later date—which will give the former employee time to gain perspective—or ask them to complete a post-employment online exit survey. For either method, the best way to get open, honest and unfiltered feedback is by hiring a neutral third party and assuring the interviewee that anything he or she says will be confidential.
Look at your management team.
As the saying goes, people don’t leave jobs, they leave managers. If employees don’t like, respect or get along with their managers, they will quit despite a high salary or great benefits. Think about how your managers communicate. Consider whether they recognize and reward good work. Determine whether they are creating opportunities for their employees. This could be a company-wide problem or limited to a few managers, but either way you may need to spring for management training.
Look at your corporate structure.
How stable are things at your company? If you’re reorganizing frequently, shifting management and changing up business units, you’re creating fear of layoffs. And if employees are afraid they’re going to get laid off, they’ll start looking for a company where they can put down roots.
Determine whether your corporate culture creates stress.
A little healthy competition among coworkers is good, but pitting people and departments against each other is not. Working together to solve problems is also healthy, while laying blame is not. While some people thrive in stressful environments, most don’t—and they will leave a job if it constantly causes them stress.
Evaluate the level of support you provide.
How does your company communicate with employees? Is it an open, transparent policy that keeps employees informed and allows them to share feedback and ideas? Do you offer opportunities for growth within the company and do you share those plans with your employees? If employees don’t feel appreciated and respected, they’ll leave.
If you commit yourself to identifying and correcting problems like these, you should see your turnover rate fall. But if you’re still having trouble hiring and retaining the right people, contact the team at Synerfac. We’d be happy to help you find employees with the skills and personalities you need.