From high turnover to high performance: 5 ways to improve employee retention
Content
- Understanding turnover
- How to work out employee turnover
- How does turnover vary by sector?
- Ways to improve employee retention
People join, people leave. It’s a normal, expected part of business life. As predictable and familiar as the sun rising and falling each day.
But if you’ve noticed the array of farewell messages, leaving speeches, and inopportunely timed handovers increase, it’s not something to take lightly. If employees are beginning to leave at an unexpectedly high rate, team morale and progress could be stalling. Widespread business issues may need to be addressed.
Understanding turnover
First, let’s clarify what we mean by turnover. Turnover, churn and attrition are sometimes (wrongly) used interchangeably.
Put simply, turnover is the rate at which people leave your organization and need to be replaced. This includes layoffs, voluntary exits and firings, but excludes internal maneuverings, such as promotions or title changes.
How to work out employee turnover
To measure your employee turnover rate, divide the number of employees who left your business in a given period (usually a year) by the number of employees still there. Then multiply that number by 100.
How does turnover vary by sector?
Once you’ve calculated your employee turnover rate, you’re probably wondering, “Is this percentage good or bad?” The truth is there is no single answer; it’s the context that matters.
While there are common drivers that lead to both voluntary and involuntary turnover, employers should be aware of and address the unique challenges and nuances of their industry.
High turnover industries
Certain sectors, such as retail or hospitality, are more accustomed to higher turnover rates than average due to seasonal needs or more transient employment. In such cases, high turnover may be considered less of a concern. However, that doesn’t mean that improvements can’t be made. Creating employee-focused, mentally healthy workplaces can go a long way towards bucking the trend, even within these perennially high-turnover industries.
Highly in-demand workers
In other areas, where workers are in high demand, keeping employees can be challenging. The tech sector, for instance, is always competitive, with companies competing fiercely for top talent. If an organization lacks growth opportunities, or fails to address poor company culture, these employees won’t hesitate to take their skills (and vital institutional knowledge) elsewhere.
Ways to improve employee retention
Creating a high-performance culture starts right at the very beginning – by ensuring roles are filled with the most suitable candidates. Data suggests this is far from the case right now. According to Forbes, Over 40% of employees who leave a company within the first year, do so in the first 90 days. This suggests there is a mismatch between the role being sold, and the day-to-day reality once hired.
What you can do:
Be straightforward: Provide useful, specific details about open roles and use clear, simple job titles.
Choose inclusive language and sourcing channels: Remove any potentially discriminatory language and try different channels to reach a wider audience.
Build your talent pool: Post your role on sites that can reach more diverse candidates, and build links in your community – Unmind inspire future talent with insight days and work experience for local students
Once embedded in a role, employee experience is largely shaped by the behavior and actions of their immediate manager. People leaders are in a position to affect the productivity, wellbeing and personal growth of those they manage. Yet 82% say they have had no formal training in people leadership skills since they became a manager.
What you can do:
Support your managers: Unmind’s targeted manager training has been shown to be transformative. Supporting leaders’ mental health can lead to better communication, confidence, and proactive behaviors that benefit the mental wellbeing of the whole team.
Work should be good for your mental health, and that starts with a culture that prioritizes work-life balance. It’s become a priority for job seekers – in FlexJobs 2022 Career Pulse Survey 63% of respondents said they’d choose better work-life balance over higher pay. It’s a similar story in the UK, with Hays 2023 Salary and Recruiting Trends of 8,000 UK employees finding that 56% were willing to accept a lower-paid job for better work-life balance.
What you can do:
Encourage breaks: Getting employees to step away from work can reduce burnout. It also helps to increase focus, which can improve productivity.
Make wellbeing an active part of the working day: Integrating wellbeing tools within the systems people use everyday, like MS Teams, embeds wellbeing into the flow of work.
Increase autonomy: Trust people to manage their work demands. Employees who can make their own choices are happier, more productive, and more loyal.
Meaningful work can lead to more engaged, satisfied employees. It’s not just about a paycheck, but a shared purpose that everyone is pushing towards. According to a 2020 report by Deloitte, 73% of employees who work at purpose-driven companies are engaged, compared to just 23% of those who don’t feel aligned with their company’s purpose.
What you can do:
Lead with empathy: Embody your company’s purpose and values so that others will follow
Form networks: Peer support can increase job satisfaction and promote wellbeing.
Employees who say they are burnt out are 2.6 times more likely to be looking for a new job. So, don’t wait for that moment to happen – protect your people with preventative mechanisms to ensure everyone receives the right care at the right time.
What you can do:
Coaching and therapy: Provide easy access to professional coaching to help your people achieve personal and professional goals.
Develop a clear strategy: Learn from the experts to create a strategy that prioritizes wellbeing for your organization.