A Few Tips To Lower Turnover Rates

The market is crazy right now, especially with a lot of new opportunities out there and large corporations paying their employees "out of this world" compensation! If you are struggling to keep employees, you aren't alone in this world. In 2021, the average attrition rate in the US was at 57.3%! Companies shouldn't be more than 10% in their turnover rates, so that goes to show how crazy the market is no matter what industry you're in.

A question you might have is "That's great I'm not alone Nate, but how do keep my employees longer?!" We'll get to that, but let's start with a bit of information you'll need to start to compare what you're seeing to what should be:

1. The average turnover of your employees
2. Your positions open vs positions filled
3. When measuring the turnover rate break them down into three categories: Voluntary, Involuntary, and employees noted as high-performing.

How is your company culture?

Company culture can mean so many things, from diversity, recognitions, benefits, leadership, etc. so there are so many factors that can effect your employee's opinion of culture. However, there are a few things you can focus in on:

1. Onboarding - If you take the time to just form a solid, systemized onboarding process, it's been shown that 69% of the new employees will stay for 3 years or longer. First impressions DO matter, so that should be a priority.
2. Management Practices - Have you ever heard that people leave the manager, not the company? The MOST COMMON reason employees leave is due to management practices. Not showing recognition, appreciation, micromanagement, etc. Implementing a new onboarding process won't do a thing for you if the management practices are driving people out.
3. Recognition / Appreciation - Following my last comment, recognition and appreciation are HUGE when it comes to keeping top talent. When's the last time you said "Thank you, you do a lot for our organization, and I appreciate that so much."? When's the last time you bought your employees a small "thank you" gift to show your appreciation? Are you recognizing the top employees on things they do well, and blasting it all over company web pages and social media so they know they did something well, small or big?

Are you finding yourself hiring externally for management positions a lot, or promoting from within?

Another large reason that employees leave a company is for no development opportunities and/or seeing you hire externally for positions they feel they deserve. Something that can help with that is implementing a new development program and focusing in on your employees, and outlining clear and concise paths on how to get to the next step in their career, and what that next step is.

The cost of losing these employees is high as well; the average cost of losing that employee is 33% of their yearly salary. It costs precious time and money to replace them, so developing a program to show them a clear path AND how to get there will not only save you time and money in the long term, but help your company culture sky rocket.

Are you offering remote or hybrid work?

Okay, hear me out on this one. A lot of you have just left the building and closed the article, but there are still a few here with me! "Nate, we can't create the same culture we have here if people are working remotely," "Nate, it's just so much easier for me to walk into someone's office to talk with them instead of waiting on an email or call back."

Believe me, I've heard all of the rebuttals on this. However, I don't agree with most if there are employees that are fully capable of working from home. You can create a fantastic culture with people working from home or even hybrid, with local company events. Sure, it could cost a little for travel and bringing your people in to see the mother ship, but it's a lot less costly than 33% of their salary...

78% of US companies are offering either fully remote or hybrid models, so that means your employees have a lot of options to go to. By offering the remote and hybrid models, it helps your employees not feel over worked, gives them flexibility, and allows them to spend more time with their families. At the same time of making them happy, the average tenure at your company skyrockets because people are happier.

Are you hiring the right people?

Sometimes a high turnover rate means you're just not finding the right people. That can mean that you just need to sit down with your recruiting department (or HR department if they are doing all of it), and figure out what the makes and breaks are for new employees. Every employee you hire needs to have a version of your core values; whether it be Grit, Morals, Character, Persistence, and so on.

If you aren't finding the right people, it could mean a lot of different things. A few are: your job posts aren't visible enough, workplace ratings (Glassdoor, Indeed, LinkedIn, etc.), or your Recruiters aren't sourcing for passive candidates. I can almost guarantee that the candidates you are looking for are either passively looking or are completely happy in their current roles, so you need to be reaching out to them instead of them coming to you!

What now, Nate?

Freshly Staffed can help implement all of this stuff, and there are a lot more ideas that come along with all of this. Not only can we help you find the candidates, we can help you keep them, too. If this is a program you are interested in, reach out to us by visiting FreshlyStaffed.com and submitting a form to connect!