3 Ways To Strengthen Your Employer Brand To Combat High Turnover Roles

Some job positions are notoriously high turnover.

It’s an issue that can lead to a whole host of problems, including low employee morale, a poor employer reputation and serious commercial implications.

Think about it: every time someone leaves a company, thousands need to spent finding a suitable replacement. That individual then needs to have proper training and onboarding to make sure they’re well equipped for the job. This puts a strain on the existing workforce who have to spend time bringing new talent up to speed, which means they can’t focus on the important tasks at hand.

According to the latest research, the jobs with the highest turnover rate are:

1. Retail, 67%
2. Customer facing sales, 66%
3. Food service, 63%
4. Nurses, 43%
5. General hospitality, 34%

But while high turnover may plague certain positions, you don’t need to be a victim. In fact, there are a number of simple yet highly effective strategies you can implement today to make a real, long-term difference to employee retention and turnover.

If you’re interested in learning how you can strengthen your employer brand to combat high turnover, then this article is for you.

1. Listen, learn and analyse – why is your position high turnover?

While your organization may sit within a notoriously high turnover industry, that doesn’t mean you can simply use this as an excuse to justify why certain positions experience such high turnover rates.

The first and most important question you need to ask is, “Why are people coming in and leaving so quickly?”

Believe it or not, there’s an inherent reason for this. And it will be different for every organization, even if there are similarities in some of the root causes.

To ascertain a balanced view of your organization, you need to apply a multi-faceted and nuanced research approach. There are a number of highly effective research strategies that, once in place, help you unearth the secrets of your unique employer brand. This could include conducting one-to-one Zoom interviews with existing employees, running online surveys, investing time into market research or planning competitor analysis.

Each of these initiatives will help you unlock the truth about what it’s really like to work at your organization. Look beyond the ‘what’ and focus on the ‘why’.

When you discover the reasons why your turnover rate is so high, then you can take tangible steps to fix it.

2. Set the expectations of the Give & Get

If you’re struggling with a high turnover rate for a specific position, chances are you haven’t designed or articulated your employer brand correctly.

The traditional employer brand framework doesn’t reveal anything about the employee experience. It doesn’t answer the burning questions on the minds of candidates, and it doesn’t acknowledge the sacrifice, commitment, and achievement of existing employees.

Let’s consider this traditional value proposition: we want your skills, experience, and capabilities in return for a prescribed list of strengths, benefits and opportunities we can offer you.

This isn’t a value exchange that fulfils or satisfies your talent audience.

Instead, you need to think of your employer brand and EVP as a smart filter that sits between your recruitment marketing and your recruitment, helping to weed out people that are not suitable.

An EVP should articulate the expectations, harsh realities, vulnerabilities and challenges that people must be willing to overcome in order to thrive at your organization. Pair those with the benefits they stand to receive in return, and you’ll be amazed what starts to happen to your recruiting funnel.

At Ph.Creative, this what we call the ‘Give & Get’. If you can craft a powerful Give & Get that is rooted in the authentic truths of your organization, in the adversity that people must overcome, then you’ll be able to deliver on the derivative of what everyone ultimately cares about: impact, purpose and belonging.

By leading with a clear value exchange, you’ll be able to resonate with people on a much deeper level and significantly reduce the amount of turnover you experience in specific roles. 

3. Start a culture of recognition

Far too often, organizations see vulnerabilities as weaknesses. The harsh realities are what make your company unique, and it’s in the act of overcoming adversity that we truly find purpose and meaning.

If you’re struggling with high turnover and have identified some of the causes of this turnover (for example, the job requires long hours), be open and honest about this truth from the start.

When you wear the harsh realities of your organization as a badge of honour, you move one step closer to repelling the many and compelling the few. This means that your initial hiring decisions will be smarter and more well-suited to your own brand of different, because you’re attracting talent that feels up for the challenge.

If you can articulate what your company wants, needs, expects and demands in return for the spoils on offer, then people will be far more equipped to make an informed decision about whether they have what it takes to thrive and whether they want to take on that challenge.

Taking this approach means that you should only bring on board the right talent that sees your challenges as an opportunity to overcome adversity. This idea can be applied to each of the five positions we analysed:

1. Retail – It’s going to be busy, there will be times when you have to be on your feet for hours at a time, but if you can bring your energy and enthusiasm then you’ll be rewarded with the fulfilment of knowing that you can thrive as a team to help customers find the items that matter, when it matters.

2. Customer-facing sales – We have high demands for our sales professionals, and there will be periods of stress and pressure that can cause some people to crack, but if you’re able to summon your strength and see challenges as opportunities, then you will receive financial rewards and personal impact knowing you helped us achieve our goals.

3. Food service – This position isn’t for those that want to coast through life; we’re constantly on our feet, working overtime to provide the best possible experience for our customers; if you can marry passion with an attention to detail, then you’ll get to further your skills and be part of a welcoming team that has fun and works together to create experiences people won’t forget.

4. Nurses – As the world comes together to battle the COVID-19 crisis, our nurses work on the frontlines and sacrifice their own safety for the betterment of society. With long, arduous shifts and an ever-present danger, this role is truly not for the faint of heart. But if you can summon your bravery, compassion and empathy, then you’ll be rewarded with the best feeling in the world knowing that every little action you take helps save the lives of others. 

5. General hospitality – Our hospitality professionals come from all backgrounds, so you’ll get to work alongside interesting colleagues that become lifelong friends. The work we do can be very demanding and stressful, particularly as we have to work while others play. But when you bring your interpersonal skills and flexibility, you’ll be given a career that you can grow into and truly make your own.

While the above examples will be different depending on the organization, you can start to see how leading with adversity will create a culture of recognition that inspires talent to perform. Moreover, when you’re honest up-front, the candidates that wouldn’t be a match will simply self-select out of the application process.

As an employer, it’s a win-win, and definitely a sure-fire way to reduce churn in notoriously high turnover positions.

To find out more about how you can build and design an effective employer brand, my new book, ‘Give & Get Employer Branding’, is available now on Amazon and at all major book retailers.