Staff turnover refers to the leaving of current employees and the arrival of new employees in a short period of time. This swinging door of workers often signifies that employers are having trouble retaining their employees and thus need to keep bringing new people on board. This can result in high costs when it comes to training and a lack of reliable staff. There are many reasons why businesses have trouble retaining employees, some of which they might not even be aware.
Voluntary turnover is the willing exit of an employee from a company for reasons, such as better growth opportunities, continuing education, or retirement. This turnover can be premature if a company is not providing what an employee needs to thrive. James Dooley, the founder of FatRank and an expert in operating businesses with happy employees, shares his insights into why people might choose to leave companies and how to stop it from happening.
Lack of Benefits
One of the most significant reasons why employees leave their positions is because they seek better benefits. Benefits include dental insurance, sick pay, a good pension, holiday pay, maternity leave, and other services included in an employment contract.
How to Correct the Situation
If you conduct exit interviews and notice that most employees are leaving due to a lack of benefits, you can ask them what kind of benefits they would want in order to stay with the company. Then, when you bring new employees in, you can offer new benefits to them to make the job more appealing.
Pro tip: “Giving customized benefits to employees shows them that you care about them as a whole, not just as an employee,” says Dooley. “For example, if an employee is about to have a baby, make sure they are well aware of their maternity leave benefits.”
Disconnect Between Management and Employees
Having a sociable and egalitarian work environment has been proven to be a major factor in employee retention. If people feel like they can talk to their superiors and are not afraid to ask questions, they are more likely to care about the work they are doing.
How to Correct the Situation
“As a manager or owner of a business, it is your job to foster an environment where people feel comfortable to speak freely,” says Dooley. “When people’s voices are heard, they feel like they have a sense of purpose in the workplace, and they are more likely to stay.”
Low Salaries and Low Raises
In increasingly costly times, not making enough money to support yourself or your family would lead anyone to seek better employment. “When it comes down to it, people do their jobs in order to have money to live, and when their needs aren’t being met, they look elsewhere,” says Dooley.
How to Correct the Situation
Evaluate your business’s finances and figure out how you can better allocate funds to the salaries of employees that you can’t afford to lose. Offer yearly raises to employees as a reward for longevity and loyalty to the company.
No Work/Life Balance
When people feel overwhelmed in their job and they don’t feel like they can get a break from their overwhelming workload, they may seek a new career path. If an employee is receiving emails late into the night or on weekends to the point where they cannot separate their work life from their home life, they can end up feeling completely drained.
How to Correct the Situation
“Being flexible with employee schedules and allowing timetables to change according to different needs show that you are an employer that trusts your employees to get their work done,” says Dooley.
Workers who feel heard by their employers when they ask for things like work-from-home days are more likely to be engaged with their work and happier to be at the company. Creating a work environment that encourages taking breaks is beneficial so that workers do not get burnt out.
In addition to these main factors in the workplace that could be increasing staff turnover, it’s important to research your specific industry to see what other companies are doing to retain their employees long-term. Service industry members have the highest turnover rate as employees often get fed up with their working conditions and dealing with customers every day, while other industries like Public Administration have lower turnover rates.
“A lot of the decisions to leave a place come down to the work environment, so changes to the way in which employees are treated and how their day-to-day experience reflects on their happiness will determine whether or not a person will stay in a job or move on,” says Dooley.
