Key Takeaways
- Employees often exhibit warning signs before resigning, giving employers time to intervene.
- Retention often improves when organizations address compensation, communication, flexibility, and growth opportunities.
- Preventing turnover starts with better alignment in hiring and ongoing engagement.
The process of hiring the right person for the right position often takes a significant amount of time, which most companies cannot afford. For employers focused on how to prevent employee turnover, the challenge is both hiring well and retaining qualified employees once they’re on board.
Consider an employee earning $22 per hour, a common hourly wage for today’s administrative and office support roles. When you factor in recruiting, onboarding, and productivity, the cost of losing that employee can easily exceed $15,000 before accounting for benefits or overtime.
If your organization has experienced repeated turnover in recent years, you may be actively looking for how to prevent and minimize the effects of employee turnover that you might be experiencing, such as operational disruption.
If your organization has experienced a rash of turnover in the past few years, you may find yourself searching for a way to identify and prevent this trend from continuing.
Why Are Long-Term Employees Important?
First off, why should companies want to retain long-term employees? Well, according to Gallup research, businesses with highly engaged, long-tenured employees see up to 23% higher profitability and significantly lower turnover rates than less engaged workplaces. Long-term employees understand internal processes, client expectations, and company culture, making for less operational friction.
Four Clues to Help You Detect an Employee’s Potential Resignation
Your employees may be sending you clues — whether consciously or unconsciously. Here are four signs to help you identify any issues looming with employees you’d love to keep on staff:
- Decreased participation in office culture. If you notice that an employee increasingly avoids after-work gatherings, team-building exercises and holiday parties, you may consider it a red alert that he or she is considering leaving your company. On a smaller scale, an employee may simply stop participating in staff meetings and other strategic planning activities. Knowing how to keep employees engaged is a big part of a working retention strategy.
- Decline in quality of work and performance. A decrease in productivity is one of the main effects of employee turnover that we see in companies that don’t address potential problems with employees. It often reflects frustration or disengagement, which may result from distractions while considering their options or from a way of silently letting you know their intentions.
- Increased absences and leave requests. Whether due to illness or personal days, your first hint that an employee feels dissatisfied may be directly reflected in an increase in absenteeism.
- Poor attitude and less cooperation. Employees set on leaving — especially if they feel slighted somehow — may withdraw beyond social events or team-building opportunities. An employee who is ready to jump ship may become less willing to help fellow employees with projects or may become irritable with co-workers and management.
Four Tips to Help You Avoid Employee Turnover
If you’ve picked up on your employee’s hints that they are considering leaving your organization, there are some ways you can help prevent this unwanted employee turnover.
- Assess your compensation and benefits package. Competitive pay and benefits remain one of the most effective ways to boost employee morale, especially when rising costs make retention more challenging.
- Maintain an open-door policy. You’re not a mind reader, but you do want to know what is going on with your employees to keep them as happy as possible. Sometimes employees just need to feel heard, but these sessions also give you the opportunity to search for reasonable and meaningful solutions to avoid staff turnover. Open communication allows you to address concerns early, a critical step for employers focused on how to prevent employee turnover, before dissatisfaction escalates.
- Offer more work flexibility. Consider allowing staff members to telecommute for a set number of days each week, or explore a compressed schedule that gives them one weekday — or even half a workday — off each week. Providing better schedule flexibility is another proven way to boost employee morale.
- Provide challenges. When employees feel like they are stagnating, they are likely to become bored and dissatisfied. If you believe your employee has become bored and needs more challenges, work with their manager to find new projects or responsibilities
Find the Right Employee from the Beginning
Sometimes, the key to reduced employee turnover lies in the hiring process. If you’ve recently lost an employee, we may be able to help you find a long-term replacement for your next hire.
At Whitman Associates, our experienced and dedicated recruiters work closely with candidates to learn more about their background, education, experience, skills and goals to see how well they align with your needs. Our approach is designed to support employers focused on how to prevent employee turnover with the right hiring process.
Call (202) 659-2111, or submit a request form for temp to perm or permanent placement services today.
