Causes For Employee Turnover — And How To Decrease It
- July 22, 2021
- Humantelligence
Today’s employers face a rapidly increasing problem: Long before the COVID-19 pandemic became a stark reality — resulting in lockdowns, remote work scenarios and the ultimate reluctance of employees to return to the office — employers and HR teams were trying to understand the reasons for high employee turnover.
Even in 2015, a study reported that 51% of employees were searching for or considering launching a search for a new job. In 2019, it was found that more than 75% of employees who resigned could have been retained if employers had focused more attention and effort on matters such as work-life balance and career development.
You can’t afford to look at employees as dispensable and replaceable at the drop of a resignation notification: In 2017, over a 15-year period, the average economic cost for a business experiencing turnover of highly skilled positions cost 213% of one year’s compensation for the position.
Further, once you hire an employee, you begin investing in the individual’s abilities and potential to best ensure he or she will grow with your business and feel like a vital part of it all. When you lose this person, you lose all the ground you and your team gained in fostering his or her success. You’ve instilled invaluable industry knowledge and training in someone who may take it to competitors.
Ultimately, saying goodbye to your best employees costs your business in morale and profits. It makes sense to get to the bottom of any underlying issues and course correct as quickly as possible.
If you are trying to find ways of decreasing employee turnover, keep reading.
5 Reasons for Employee Turnover
Talented employees sometimes receive offers they can’t refuse from competitors, or they want to make a large-scale professional change based on personal goals. However, there are often underlying reasons why an employee chooses to leave an organization. Here are five top employee attrition causes to help you better understand the situation. 1. Poor Compensation Today’s workers — especially those categorized among younger generations — are less likely to stay with a company for the long haul out of loyalty like previous generations. Lack of competitive pay and other benefits is the No. 1 reason professionals change jobs. Employees want a tangible expression of how you value their skills, background and ongoing contributions. Without offering competitive wages, you risk losing valuable team members to another company, as they become targets of headhunters looking for the best of the best who want commensurate pay for their talent. Keep in mind that employees who change jobs earn an average of 5.2% more than the job they left. 2. Work-Life Balance and Flexibility The question of work-life balance and flexibility was already a growing concern among employees leading into 2020. With COVID-related restrictions, employees got a taste of working remotely. Many workers were surprised at how much they enjoyed it and thrived in a work-from-home environment. In any case, today’s employees do not want to feel tethered to their jobs the way past workforce generations have, so it’s vital to find ways to offer flexibility and balance. 3. Poor Management Some managers are bad actors who undercut employees. However, many issues can also be attributed to a lack of proper management experience or training. In either case, without resolving any management issues, you leave employees feeling unheard and devalued. 4. Lack of Professional Development to Allow for and Foster Advancement When investing in training and professional development for employees, they know that you believe in them and want them to stay to help benefit your organization. The promise of future promotions and leadership roles is as vital as compensation to employees who yearn for long-term associations with an employer. If your employees can’t see themselves in the bigger picture for your organization, they might seek a spot where they do. 5. The Absence or Lack of Employee Recognition and Feedback The best employees want to know how they are doing and how they can improve. According to a survey, workers who received supervisor or manager feedback felt four times more positive and engaged in their daily work. Without recognizing contributions and feedback to help employees improve, they often feel disregarded.3 Ways for Improving Employee Retention Rates
You might worry that losing employees is a foregone conclusion these days, as you try to find ways to create work-life balance in the age of COVID-19 and other issues that draw valued employees from your workplace. Here are three ways to build a team that wants to stay and help your business grow. 1. Develop Strategies to Hire for a Company Culture Fit A great deal of employee retention starts with hiring candidates for a solid company culture fit. If you are trying to find ways to find the right recruiting fit, start by eliminating subjectivity in the hiring process with a top talent fit recruiting tool that relies on behavioral science to:- Match new or internal job candidates
- Compare candidates to one another
- Explore the compatibility between the candidate and hiring manager, team, high performers, and your ideal profile for each position