Have you ever looked at your employee turnover results and cringed with how high they were? You are definitely not alone. Long gone are the days where people found a job they liked and then retired with the same company. In today’s environment, companies are being treated like revolving doors where employees come and go at an alarming rate.
It is to the companies’ and leaders’ advantage to make employee retention a priority. Turnover not only impacts productivity but drains the bottom line.
In order to be able to reduce turnover, it is important to determine what the main causes of turnover is. Look at why your employees are becoming disengaged and then create a plan to increase employee engagement.
I worked for a few companies that invested greatly in employee surveys. Their main motivation was in identifying opportunities to increase employee engagement and retention. I still remember the HR meetings conducted afterwards to review results. This is a great start, but it needs to just be that, a start.
The investment that really needs to be made is not in the dollar amount used to pay the external survey company. Nor is it the time spent analyzing the data. The real investment comes afterward. It comes first in creating a plan on how to overcome opportunities uncovered. Next, the real step is in taking steps in ensuring your plan is a success.
One of the symptoms of a losing streak is a turnover of top executives. It’s a revolving door. – Rosabeth Moss Kanter
What can you do if you don’t have the financial means to invest in conducting employee surveys? Sure, leaders can conduct their own in-house survey. That is a great option to figuring out what your employees need. Depending on the size of your company however, this can be a huge undertaking.
As a starting point, you can use industry average statistics to give you an idea of where to start.
Alarming and Insightful Statistics on Employee Turnover:
A Study Conducted by TINYpulse, an employee engagement firm, surveyed 400 full-time U.S. employees reported the following information:
- Micromanagement is eating your profits – There is a strong correlation between job satisfaction and employee autonomy. Employees who feel constrained are 28% more likely to look elsewhere.
- Importance of Culture – Employees who give their work culture low marks are nearly 15% more likely to think about a new job than their counterparts.
- The Return of Recognition – The survey showed a correlation between recognition and turnover. The interesting part about this statistic is that it refers to the recognition from peers and not just management. Those citing low levels of recognition were 11% less likely to plan on staying.
Another study from Gallup sheds new light on worker-manager relationships, finding that about 50% of the 7,200 adults surveyed left a job “to get away from their manager.”
“Managers tend to blame their turnover problems on everything under the sun, while ignoring the crux of the matter: people don’t leave jobs; they leave managers.” – Travis Bradberry
Here are Other Reasons Why Employees Quit Increasing Employee Turnover:
- Employees feel overworked.
- Employees feel that their employers don’t care.
- Management doesn’t honor commitments.
- The employee wasn’t the right person for the job.
- Employees felt like their skills were not being developed.
- Their creativity was not being utilized.
- Employees don’t understand company vision.
Do any of the above reasons reflect issues you are having in your company? If so, taking the necessary measures today can go a long way in protecting your profits.