High staff turnover is an illness that can be cured

It's exceptionally difficult, especially in a 'local market' situation to keep recruiting because your staff are going elsewhere. Eventually, most candidates, your competitors, and your peers will get to know about your reputation.

You're probably bored silly hearing about Employee Engagement - but i'm not talking 'cycle to work' schemes, dress-down days or fruit baskets in the kitchen. There are real issues, and those issues are affecting your bottom line, whether you know it or not.

Before you blame yourself - It's important to remember that nobody starts of trying to be a 'bad employer' - but the day-to-day pressures can take over as priorities - and your employees will suffer. Putting your pride aside is the very first step to taking back control, and engaging with your workforce.

It can be hard to identify what's going wrong sometimes - especially from the inside - and I have put together a list of symptoms your company might have - and how to put it right.

SYMPTOM - You think that you know what salaries your competitors are paying, and you won't pay any more than that.

ILLNESS

Only the employees who aren't wanted elsewhere will move to you. You end up having to pick an employee from a bunch of lacklustre applications.

MEDICINE:

Seek out specific candidates - ones you know will work - and open a discussion. Nothing makes you feel more valued as a candidate.

Try having not just an interview process, but also a separate, face-to-face meeting to make an offer. Talk about costs - car parking, train fares, commission and bonus.

What you will find is that most candidates don't want the earth - and will be happy for a meager increase - in return for being truly engaged with. Dialogue is key and the time you spend doing this pales in comparison to going through the whole hiring process again from scratch.

SYMPTOM - You have silly hours - wanting someone on ￡18k to do an 8.30am-6pm working day, or even worse, on a Saturday.

ILLNESS

Your employees will be desperately trying to get some of their life back, and will probably move for a pay cut.

MEDICINE

If you don't have a genuine business reason for those hours - why do it? It's old fashioned and makes you look backwards. Make the change. 'Presenteeism' is a horrible word. The days of sticking to your desk to impress your boss belongs in the 80's and has been proven to have no value.

SYMPTOM -You have an HR manager that is more elusive than the Scarlet Pimpernel.

ILLNESS

The HR manager is probably being bogged down with tasks from management - rather than dealing with the real issues; Employee engagement, L & D & performance management.

MEDICINE

Redefine the role that HR does. Look at the tasks they're given - what could be done by another team? How do you free up their time to focus on making your employees better?

SYMPTOM - Line managers are drowning in work. there's the new system testing to complete, bad debts are an issue, there's compliance headaches, documentation needs to be changed, marketing needs to be chased up, and it's all on them.

THE ILLNESS

Managers have no time to spend with their team. Employees feel undervalued and not respected. The team effectively loses their champion, and engagement plummets.

MEDICINE

Managers are there to manage people. Sit down as a team - divvy out the responsibilities whilst taking a load off of them too. Respect goes both ways - and you will be amazed what effect it will have. Make yourself an integral part of your team again - be the captain of your ship, and see them fly.

Turning around employee engagement needn't cost you thousands, sometimes, it just takes a little introspection. I help many businesses turn around their staffing issues; If any of this rings true to you - get in touch.