Minimising Staff Turnover
The question then is how you keep good people and do you hire people who are highly technical or highly qualified and give them the supplementary training, or should you hire less-qualified people where a larger investment in training is required.
It is not easy to set up an environment of low staff turn over but there are many strategies that can help reverse this trend.
High employee turnover is mostly due to a mismatch between what the employee expects to be doing and the actual work you have them engaged in. Research has shown that money is a secondary factor, rarely a primary factor especially, within the first 1 or 2 years. Also, turnover can be due to very minor issues that could easily be resolved if there had been good lines of communication established in the first place.
To reverse a trend of high turnover, you must first determine four facts:
1. Conditions leading up to the resignation of employees
2. Why they chose to left
3. Understanding why those who remain with your company do so
4. The characteristics of your most successful employees
To start the process the first step is to set up an exit interview with an independent, non-threatening staff member where the employee is encouraged to discuss the good and the bad of their experiences with you, both from a staff, management and environmental perspective, as well as from an overall company position.
At the same you should also be putting other strategies in place. Firstly you should be conducting a staff survey at least annually, the key to this is that the employee knows that there will be no reprisals regards what they say. Setting up a system where the staff can feel totally safe that their comments are anonymous if they so desire is key to getting frank and honest feedback. Whether it is via handwritten forms or use of a 3rd party, it is key that the staff trust that their comments will be taken positively.
At the same time you must ensure that management and team leaders have the appropriate understanding and skills to be approachable and in-touch with their staff, while still being able to maintain a leadership role. Many companies call this an open door policy, and have in place mechanisms where staff members can safely go to their manager’s manager with an issue if they are unhappy discussing it with their immediate manager.
Thirdly an interview (or survey) should be implemented with successful and productive long term employees to understand what makes them want to stay. The key with this is ensuring it is with successful employees only, not those that are overheads or seriously disgruntled.
Next is to ensure that comprehensive job descriptions are in place including Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and they are part of the Job Offer, so that there are no surprises between being hired and turning up for work on the first day.
And finally look at the small things you can implement that will have major positive effects on staff morale. Ensure that you acknowledge the work being done, and communicate that you are concerned with staff well-being, to ensure that staff have a healthy work/life balance you may bring in an external speaker to talk about staff ‘health’. And how about that coffee machine they have always wanted, or maybe setup a local gym membership arrangement?
By incorporating the information from the exit interviews, the employee surveys and the long term employee interview you can develop a profile of an ideal prospective employee resulting in a hiring and retention strategy that will help save your organisation large amounts of money - measured in terms of recruitment costs, training, downtime and low customer satisfaction. Weight this off against a small investment in terms of time and cost – and you will find there is no comparison.
Machinery Automation & Robotics
1/101 Derby Street
Silverwater NSW 2128
Phone: (61) 2 9748 7001
http://www.machineryautomation.com.au