In Today’s Tough Hiring Market, Here’s How to Reduce Employee Turnover

Why Employees Leave

In some cases, the last employee departure was mutual or even suggested. In other situations, the business lost a quality employee for unknown reasons.

When management terminates an employee for performance or behavior, the reasons are clear: the employee was not fulfilling their job description or demonstrated unprofessional behavior.

But when the business loses a quality employee who has fulfilled their job description, demonstrated professional behavior, and excelled in his or her role, management should pause and take note.

While some quality employees do leave to seek higher compensation or improved benefits, many leave their employer over company business practices. They often won’t tell management the real reason behind their departure – maybe they didn’t agree with how their manager was guiding the team, the overall direction of the business, or another deeper issue – but senior leaders may never know the truth behind why they left the company. When the root causes remain unclear, take a step back and conduct your own assessment as to why the key employee decided to leave the business.

In my experience, I’ve seen several poor business practices result in increased employee attrition. Here are the main issues to watch out for and suggestions for how to address them within your own business.

Job Descriptions

Poorly defined and measured job descriptions complicate the manager-employee relationship. Employees want to know the specific requirements and responsibilities of their role. When they aren’t provided with these structural job expectations, they can feel overworked or unclear on how to be successful in their role.

Effective and well-written job descriptions identify key requirements and attributes necessary for a specific position and outline to the employee what is expected of them. This gives them goals to aim for in their work and helps them determine what success looks like in their role.

Equal Accountability

Employees should be held equally accountable for performance. Management favoritism and personal relationships can have seriously negative consequences; the bar of excellence declines as poor and superior performers are equally rewarded by management. Employees view unequal accountability as a direct insult.

Opportunity

Not every employee strives to achieve a management-level role, but most quality employees seek opportunities to improve themselves and grow professionally. Education and skills development opportunities, the introduction of new technology, different departmental jobs, and the creation of employee team leader roles are just a few ways management can provide such improvement opportunities for their team members. These opportunities don’t need to be expensive – they can be scalable to your business – but they do need to deliver value to your team.

Onboarding

Onboarding is not training; it is a structured setting in which managers communicate information and expectations about history, culture, business practices, and customers. The process discusses the importance of quality and its relationship to products and services at the company.

It’s also an appropriate time to review the employee handbook and clearly establish the communication expectations and behavioral boundaries of the organization. This early-stage transparency builds trust and loyalty between management and employees.

Onboarding is also the prime opportunity for company leaders to be very clear in their responsibilities to support and guide all employees. The moment the company fails to achieve its employee responsibilities, they set the stage for attrition.

Training

Superior organizations are focused on continuous education. Education, a proactive approach to reducing stagnation, expands the mind and offers the employee opportunities for growth. Training isn’t just about learning new skills; it’s also an additional opportunity for management to connect with employees and offer refresher courses on company culture and innovation. 

Management

Some managers are facilitators and transformational in their approach to working with their teams by creating a work environment where employees are happy, communicative, and productive. These managers offer predictable style and leadership, garnering employee respect and loyalty.

Customers have the same experience with transformational managers. They know when product or service challenges potentially arise, the manager will address their individual needs in a helpful and expedient manner. Customer loyalty and satisfaction are constantly cultivated and measured. Employees are not exposed nearly as often to irate customers when management is proactive and involved in the business.

Employee Retention

Employee retention speaks volumes about the organization to employees, customers, and the community. When possible, consider promoting and hiring from within the organization, offering growth and education opportunities to existing employees.

Remember that employees are a financial investment. When we retain skilled and productive employees, company value to the customer increases. Customer surveys frequently report high turnover is concerning and seen as a risk, but consistent, reliable relationships between the customer and long-term employees help to improve relationships with clients.

Quality Management

Before you select a new employee, assess your business practices. Your employees’ salaries may be too low, your benefit packages may be lacking, or you may have deeper issues at play within your company. Remember that your business practices contribute not only to employee attrition but to customer attrition as well.

Be honest, direct, and fair as you assess the truth about your business – it will make a substantial positive difference throughout your company in the long term. 

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