Limiting staff turnover

By Lee Rossini

After spending time and resources upskilling employees and treating them properly, why do they still leave? Have you taken the time to consider what your staff turnover has been in the past? Although a certain amount of turnover is to be expected, when there is a trend of highly skilled, positively contributing employees leaving a business, it can leave big gaping holes in a small business. To prevent these situations from taking the business by surprise, it is important to try to reduce turnover.     

There are many and varied reasons for staff turnover. They may be a mix of factors which are external and internal to the business. When economic conditions are good, turnover tends to be higher as employees look for better work opportunities; when conditions are poor, employees tend to stay in their positions for job security and because there are fewer opportunities available. Employees who have greater family responsibilities tend to stay in a job for longer than younger, more mobile employees. Employees who feel insecure in their position also tend to move to a business which provides more certainty and security for their future. Turnover may arise due to death, illness, downsizing, mergers, retirement, poor hiring decisions, better opportunities or just plain dissatisfaction on the part of some employees.

The policies, programmes and changes that can be introduced to reduce turnover include:

• Always selecting and recruiting the right person for the right position.
• An appropriate induction and orientation programme which clearly spells out what is expected from the employee.
• Ensuring that managers have the appropriate skills to coach and manager new employees so that early issues or challenges can be picked up and dealt with.
• Good communication strategies.
• A well thought-out skills and knowledge development policy.
• Programmes designed to enhance employee satisfaction including fair salary structures, competitive benefits, opportunities for advancement and employee grievance procedures.

Understanding why the turnover of business is higher than it should be requires data collection. This entails checking in with employees using employee surveys to keep a close eye on satisfaction levels. If the levels of discontent are high, it is time to act swiftly to prevent employees from leaving. It is also important to carry out exit interviews after employees have decided to leave the business. If carried out in an appropriate manner, a soon-to-be ex-employee can provide insight into why they are leaving the business. The data from employee surveys and exit interviews should be used to direct the future policies and programmes of the business.     

Although not all turnover is bad, sometimes it is necessary to get rid of dead wood and bring in new blood to introduce new ideas and fresh blood which can move the business in a positive direction. However, when turnover is unacceptably high, it may be an indication of dysfunction and a lack of effectiveness within the business. It can be very disruptive and often leads to instability and uncertainty in the workplace. High turnover also adds significantly to the costs and time associated with the recruiting, training and upskilling of new employees. For these reasons, it is important to keep an eye on and actively prevent high turnover from happening.   

Source:

Grobler P, Warnich S, Carrell MR, Elbert NF and Hatfield RD Human Resource Management In South Africa 3rd ed (2006) Thomson.