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Retention: How Many Employees Can You Afford to Lose?

Guest post by: Robin Throckmorton

Article Overview: Each year whether we are in a recession or boom, we continue to hear statistics ranging from 60 - 85% of our workers are actively seeking employment. Even during unemployment numbers of 10% following our latest recession, surveys say over 80% of workers are actively seeking their next job. Employers often find themselves in disbelief that these numbers apply to them, especially if they've been lulled into low turnover rates - UNTIL their best employees exit out the door right before the eyes. What are you doing?

Retention: How Many Employees Can You Afford to Lose?

Each year whether we are in a recession or boom, we continue to hear statistics ranging from 60 - 85% of our workers are actively seeking employment. Even during unemployment numbers of 10% following our latest recession, surveys say over 80% of workers are actively seeking their next job. Employers often find themselves in disbelief that these numbers apply to them, especially if they've been lulled into low turnover rates - UNTIL their best employees exit out the door right before the eyes. No matter what the state of the economy, the best employees can always leave at any time. But, once they start leaving, others start feeling more confident that they can too! Turnover is contagious. So, what are you doing to prevent a mass exodus from happening to your organization? If there was there was such a thing as a magic bullet to retention, I'd say it would be....ASK YOUR EMPLOYEES!!! You can spend and spend on retention and never hit the mark. But, if you just ask your employees, you'll find out exactly what will do the trick. Some of the best ways to this include:

• Employee Surveys:
  
  Whether you call the survey an employee opinion, engagement, satisfaction or climate survey, the key is you want to find out information from your employees about how they feel about your company, supervisors, work conditions, job, and even intentions for staying. Make sure the survey is anonymous and you must respond to the data with action. What are you going to do with the feedback and if you can't do anything with it, why not?
• Focus Groups:
  
  The same type of information can be gathered by a neutral third party in focus groups. Ask employees why they come to work each day, what they like about the company, what they dislike, and what would they like to see improved? You may be surprised at some of the simple solutions employees may provide that you never even thought about. But, again, be ready to take action and respond to employees with what the company is doing with the results so the employees know their voices have been heard.
• Exit Interviews:
  
  Don't give up on asking employees who are leaving these same types of questions. You may find they are more willing to share vital information right before they leave or better yet a few months later. Which of these two times gets you the best results from exiting employees? What trends are you seeing from departing employees? What are you doing with the results?

It is critical you start creating retention solutions that work in your organization NOW! Don't wait until you lose that first key employee. Once you know what employees want, start implementing some of the solutions they shared to help retain your workers. You'll most likely find yourself implementing some of the following "stay strategies" depending on your workforce and what they tell you:

• Supervisor Training
  
  How many of your supervisors have become supervisors but never received formal training? Do they have the skills to effectively coach, motivate, empower, communicate, delegate and most importantly represent the company in the right way? Remember, in many cases, the supervisor is the company to the employee.
• Leadership & Direction
  
  With the economy in flux from year to year, many companies find their organization doing the same. How clear is the direction from leadership? Do employees feel like they have clear goals and expectations set from the supervisor and the leadership of the organization? Does the organization have clear cut policies and procedures that are applied fairly and consistently across the organization? If not, now is the time to tighten up and make your employees realize the ship is on course and has some strategy in place that has direction for everyone.
• Training & Development
  
  What learning opportunities are you providing to your employee? Do you have a formal or informal way to help identify employees' career goals and help them meet those goals within the organization through training and/or on the job experiences? Because of today's ups and downs, employees are forced to focus on their career loyalty. But, if you help them focus on their career development, they are likely to be more loyal to you.
• Communication
  
  Do you know an organization that has ever been told they over communicate? I don't mean that you send too much email; this just means you aren't communicating efficiently. Employees need to know what is going on in the organization during the good and bad times. Different employees like to hear messages from different media (i.e. email, memo, face to face). And, oftentimes, employees need to hear it repeatedly to really get the message. What do your employees feel they don't hear? How do they like to be communicated with? Do you have a communication plan?
• Recognition and Reward
  
  Too often, we all get too busy in our workdays to take time and simply say "thank you" to employees even for just doing their job, let alone for going above and beyond. Recognition doesn't always have to be about a monetary reward. Employees often express that if someone just noticed and showed appreciation, it would mean a lot. Both managers and companies will be more successful AND retain more employees when they take the time to just say "thank you" to the employees. Find out what type of recognition employees seek. Individualize the recognition as much as possible. One person may enjoy a Home Depot gift card and another may like Starbucks. What means the most to the employee?
• Flexibility
  
  Survey after survey continues to say that employees want to work for a flexible company. Is your workplace one that realizes the need to have flexible workplace policies? This need started with the Gen Xers but has become contagious. All of the generations have gotten on the bandwagon. If your organization isn't considering creative ideas for offering any form of flexibility in your workplace, you are likely to start seeing your employees leave for organizations that do offer this - alternative work schedules, telecommuting, PTO, etc.

These are just a few ideas and they may not be right for your organization. Your solutions depend on your employees. But, when you say retention is too expensive, remember to do your math! What is the cost of turnover of one, two, or three key employees? This cost should become your budget for retention. Retention isn't expensive - turnover is! How many employees can you afford to lose?

Related Articles
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  April Fools Day: Employee Morale and How to Kill it in 5 Easy Steps
  Finding and Keeping The Organizational “Keepers”
  Is there some business you don’t want?
  Find the Key to Motivated Employees
  Building Training Goals into Employee Reviews
  Creating a Retention Culture
  Do you have an employee retention strategy that also increases employee motivation?
  The Difference between AIG Small Businesses
  Are You Serving Your Customers Well?
  LEADERS NEVER EFFORT TO LOSE IT……
  RISKY BUSINESS
  Engaged Employees Increase Bottom Line Performance
  RETENTION OF STAFF
  Top 5 Employee Retention Mistakes
  Are You Playing to Win or Playing Not to Lose?
  Winning the Talent War In Turbulent Times
  Motivating Employees
  Keep Them Hungry: Innovative Bonus Plans for your Best Employees

Article Tags: exit interviews, recession, recogntion, retention, supervisor, training, turnover rates, unemployment numbers



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