Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 3: Improving Working Conditions
• Part 2 of 3: Improving your hiring strategy
• Part 3 of 3: Retention Measures
• Tips
• Warnings

In the business world, high employee turnover is a major problem. Economic studies show that in some industries, finding, training and hiring one employee costs up to one-fifth of their annual salary. If employee turnover is too high, it threatens the company with serious costs that may not pay off. By improving working conditions, refining hiring strategies, and optimizing the organization for staff retention, you will keep turnover to a minimum.

Steps

Part 1 of 3: Improving Working Conditions

1. 1 Pay more (or educate employees on how to get them a salary increase). If you pay your employees more than your competitors, there will be no noticeable employee turnover in your company. An additional benefit of a pay increase is that it allows you to expand the range of responsibilities of your employees - high-paid employees have an incentive to work and take on additional obligations; on the other hand, low-paid employees are not always loyal to the company they work for.
   • If you don't have the money to pay for a pay raise, get creative. For example, offer employees options to buy shares in a company; it is an inexpensive way to increase employee earnings in the long run. By owning shares in an enterprise, employees will try their best to make the company generate more profits and increase the price of its shares.
2. 2 Promote. Employees love when their work is rewarded. As a rule, most employees expect not only material (salary, bonuses, shares), but also non-material remuneration. Here, the promotion of successful employees up the career ladder is often a non-material reward (by appointing them to a higher position, you increase their responsibility). An employee who has risen to a management position from the lowest position will be much more loyal to your company.
   • It is not enough to simply promise employees a promotion - it is important to explain to them how they can achieve such a promotion. If you cannot communicate this to your employees, invite a career development consultant once or twice a year to discuss relevant issues with your employees.
   • Try to appoint people in your company to leadership positions rather than outsiders. If you are hiring such employees for managerial positions, while your company has competent employees with many years of experience, then the employees of the company may feel that you are not interested in their promotion.
3. 3 Balance your workload. If the work of your employees is stressful, repetitive, or extremely difficult, then your employees will leave for companies with a less intensive workload. Never force your employees to work to the point of exhaustion - this is the first reason for a massive shift to another job. It is also inefficient from a financial standpoint - employees with a heavy workload need to be paid more.
   • Statistics show that an overworked employee has a sharp drop in labor productivity (in some cases, labor productivity drops lower than that of an employee with a much lighter workload). Some studies show that working hours that are too long leads to more time spent on tasks (compared to workers with normal workloads), poor coping skills (which require critical or creative thinking), and more mistakes. and spend their work time on leisure or personal life.
4. 4 Offer perks. Increasingly, job seekers are not just looking at salary levels, but at benefits or other benefits offered, such as health insurance, stock options, or corporate retirement. By providing employees with these benefits and benefits, you will make the job in your company more attractive and reduce employee turnover. Review your company's benefits package regularly (at least once a year).
   • Find out what benefits and benefits your competitors offer to employees. If their benefit package is more generous and valuable, they'll lure away your best employees.
   • By offering good health insurance, you make the job at your company particularly attractive, reduce employee turnover, and make it easier to hire. Plus, having good health insurance for your employees is a profitable investment in the long term, as healthy employees are efficient employees.
5. 5 Encourage friendship, communication, and emotional closeness between employees. Don't let work become a source of boredom or hate for your employees. Instead, make your work environment friendly. Employees should be open to communication, joke and smile (unless, of course, this interferes with their work).
   • If employees seem to be closed off and are holding back their emotions, try doing something that will cheer them up. For example, going to a bar or a movie together after work, or playing a game, is a great way to build relationships between employees (even if you do it once or twice a month).
6. 6 Give your employees authority (responsibility). People tend to perform much better when they know their work matters a lot (although this simple postulate is often overlooked by even the best leaders). For example, guess who does the best: the postal clerk with minimal responsibility or the heart surgeon who is responsible for the lives of others? When giving employees even minor assignments, do it in such a way that employees feel that these are important and responsible tasks. If employees realize that their work is essential to the success of the company, they will be motivated to do better.
   • Ironically, by adding responsibilities to employees that increase their responsibility, you can actually make the job more attractive to them. Nevertheless, in this case, be prepared to promote an effective employee in the service (after some time) - no one wants to deal with increased responsibilities without receiving remuneration for it.

Part 2 of 3: Improving your hiring strategy

1. 1 Hire selectively. Most business experts agree that one of the best ways to reduce employee turnover is to immediately hire someone who exactly matches the vacancy. Choosing an employee with the right skills and personality will ensure that they learn faster, perform better and, most importantly, feel right in their place. Below are some of the most important criteria for selecting the right candidates:
   • Skills. Does the candidate have the necessary skills to benefit your company?
   • Intelligence. Does the candidate have enough mental capacity and talent to work under stressful conditions?
   • Personal characteristics. Does the candidate fit your corporate culture?
   • Duties. Will a person cope with the responsibilities assigned to him?
2. 2 Talk to employees. Regular employee surveys, in which you (or another qualified person) meet with each employee and talk about what they like and dislike about their job, is a great way to find out if employees feel important and to learn about their problems at work. places. If you are unable to conduct such surveys, hire a professional from a recruiting agency.
   • Such surveys can serve as a source of new ideas. For example, if an employee gets tired of sitting at his desk during the whole working day and offers to put a table at which you can work while standing, do it; the employee will be happy, and it will cost you very cheaply.
   • Don't just use these polls to criticize your employees - they should be able to criticize you. Be prepared to listen to reasonable demands from employees.
3. 3 Interview quitting employees. Even the best companies quit employees.Use this moment to have a frank conversation with the departing employee. Business experts have found that some employees are more outspoken in these conversations, while others are reluctant to criticize management or the organization in the hope of getting good references. Either way, talking to a quitting employee is your last chance to find out what's wrong with your company and fix the flaws. Here are some questions you can ask a retiring employee:
   • "What's your favorite / least favorite aspect of your job?"
   • "Is there anything stopping you from performing your duties properly?"
   • "How can our company avoid the problems you faced at work?"
   • "What changes do you propose to make?"
4. 4 Regularly investigate and evaluate employee concerns. It's not enough to just ask employees what they don't like - you have to solve company problems and communicate it to employees. If your employees see their comments and suggestions being implemented, they will be sure that they are being listened to and that their opinions matter to the way the company operates.
   • For example, if many employees do not understand how their work affects the development of the entire company, arrange monthly team meetings at which employees from different departments can talk with each other and understand how the work of individual parts of the organization affects its success.

Part 3 of 3: Retention Measures

1. 1 Improve the qualifications of managers. Sometimes high staff turnover is not a problem for the whole company, but for its individual subdivisions (departments). In this case, the reason may be hidden in the company's policy (for example, the salary level or work schedule) or in the management style of the head of the department (department). If so, consider retraining managers in troubled business units (before firing them and looking for replacements). The cost of an executive development course is usually much less than the cost of finding a new highly qualified employee for a high-paying executive position.
   • Some business experts argue that immediate supervisors of employees influence their job satisfaction even more than salary levels, work schedules, or benefits. Either way, effective managers are essential to a company's success, so by investing in their training, you can dramatically reduce employee turnover.
2. 2 Find other positions for dissatisfied employees. Sometimes good people just aren't fit for the job they do (and therefore seem to be ineffective). The personal qualities and skills of such employees can be useful to your company if you transfer them to the appropriate positions. Therefore, do not rush to fire such employees or you will have to incur the costs of finding a new person, while your company already has a competent employee.
   • If you are transferring an employee to another position, please submit it accordingly. Don't tell him that he is performing poorly and that he may be better suited for other responsibilities. Instead, focus on the positives in that person’s work and tell them that you’ve found more important work for them. How you present an employee with his transfer to another position determines whether the employee considers it a promotion or demotion.
3. 3 Avoid frequent reorganizations. In many cases, the transfer of old employees to new positions leads to increased productivity and increased employee satisfaction. Nevertheless, in large companies, workers tend to fear reorganization (and not without reason), which leads to an increase in layoffs (employees begin to look for more stable jobs in other companies). Therefore, avoid frequent, sudden and large-scale reorganizations - it is better to make incremental changes.
   • If a company reorganization is essential, inform employees why the reorganization is necessary and reassure the remaining employees that their jobs will be retained. Even then, communicate with employees to minimize the increased stress.
4. 4 Don't be afraid to fire bad employees. Inefficient or incompetent employees hinder the development of your company. Moreover, they can foster negative attitudes towards work in other employees by setting a personal example when poor performance goes unpunished. Get rid of such an employee - this way you will reduce employee turnover in the long term.
   • Don't ignore negative attitudes towards work! Research shows that employees with negative attitudes toward work negatively affect employees who are satisfied with their jobs.
   SPECIALIST'S ADVICE

   

   Elizabeth douglas

   
   
   WikiHow CEO Elizabeth Douglas is the CEO of wikiHow. He has over 15 years of experience in the technology industry, including work in computer engineering, user experience and product management. She received her BS in Computer Science and an MBA from Stanford University.

   Elizabeth douglas
   WikiHow CEO

   Understand that staff turnover is normal. Elizabeth Douglas - CEO of wikiHow - advises: “Good employees are always valuable. It takes time and resources to find those who will work with dedication. It is always better to keep a good employee than to look for a new one. Meanwhile, staff turnover is common, and it will always be part of business management».

Tips

• Employees who feel they are the owners of the company are less likely to be fired. You can make them feel like owners by giving them additional responsibilities (that is, increasing their responsibility). Regularly make it clear to these employees that you value their contribution to the common cause and reward them accordingly. Let everyone feel the importance of their contribution to the common cause. Grateful and successful employees are more loyal to the company they work for.
• Cross training can be helpful. There are employees who know and love their job, and there are those who get bored if they don't constantly learn something new. These employees are very helpful and needed - their skills will come in handy to replace a retired employee and they might even get promoted! Yes, not everyone will be interested in cross-training, but there will still be such people.
• Listen and listen again. Money is not the main reason for high employee turnover. Therefore, raising salaries is unlikely to solve the problem (at best, to reduce employee turnover for a while). Discuss with your employees why they are leaving. Failure to do so will create an atmosphere in your organization that is not conducive to normal operations.
• Reward for achievements. The rewards can be very different, such as time off for good attendance or bonuses for increased productivity. Most importantly, avoid situations in which the reward pits some workers against others, as this will negatively affect the work atmosphere.

Warnings

• In some cases, low employee turnover is very beneficial. However, zero turnover is counterproductive to the company's development. Employee turnover not only deprives you of valuable employees, but also brings them to you, and with them you get new ideas, new perspectives, new skills.