“By implementing a few key strategies to retain talent, it doesn’t have to be this way in 2020”, says Global Head of HR for The Instant Group, Lucinda Pullinger.
Replacing a lost employee is an expensive exercise. Conservative estimates suggest it can cost anything from one-half to two times an annual salary as costs increase when recruiting and training new hires. Employee retention numbers aside, losing a team member also impacts morale, interrupts tasks and causes others to take on heavier workloads until everything goes back to normal, which can impact productivity. It can also lead to the potential loss of client relationships that employees have built up.
While this is a worldwide problem, stats suggest employee turnover in the US is up to four times higher than the global average of 10.9%, leading to considerable losses and missed opportunities for US businesses. Most significant of all, 77% of the reasons employees quit could have been prevented by employers in 2019.
Top reasons American workers left their job in 2019
- 22% – Career Development
- 12% – Work-Life Balance
- 11% – Manager/ Supervisor Behavior
- 9% – Compensation
- 8% – Wellbeing
- 8% – Job Characteristics
- 5% – Work Environment/ Culture
Studies also show that women are more likely to quit due to the need for more work-life balance, or for wellbeing reasons like the need to focus on family or personal health. Men are more likely to quit because of a lack of career development and compensation reasons.
Career development and work-life balance are the two biggest driving factors behind voluntary staff turnover, and the number of employees citing work-life balance as their reason for leaving a job has risen by 20% since 2013. Most notably, those citing a long commute have increased by 403% since 2010!
This highlights how important the role of employee retention is when it comes to keeping more women in the American workforce and promoting better gender equality and diversity.
Six Simple Ways to Invest in Employee Retention
1. Offer Improved Work-Life Balance: A recent survey revealed that 62% of Americans did not apply for a job because of the commute that would be involved. A growing majority of workers are looking for jobs that offer better work-life balance, a flexible schedule and the option to telecommute. If you haven’t already embraced the flexible working trend, make 2020 your year to do so. Start small, by offering more flexible hours or the option to hot desk closer to home.
2. Discuss Career Growth Opportunities: Career development is the leading reason behind turnover in the US. If you see the potential for your employees to grow, develop a clear career progression plan to help them get there. Communicate this to them during performance reviews, and make them aware of their potential prospective career paths. It is also important to have succession planning in place, with development plans in place to help team members accelerate to their next role when needed.
3. Promote Learning and Development: Encourage learning and growth to help your employees develop their skills and stay motivated. This goes hand-in-hand with career growth opportunities, and it doesn’t need to cost anything. On the job training and getting involved with new assignments outside of the day job are all ways to learn and develop – as well as formal courses, mentoring, work rotation schemes, buddy systems and internally run knowledge-sharing workshops.
4. Reevaluate Compensation: We’ve seen from the above survey results that while retention is about more than just money, compensation is still a significant motivator for staff turnover, with 10% of employees admitting it’s their main reason for leaving. Review your salary structure regularly, to ensure that you are offering competitive pay and benefits to your staff.
5. Recognize and Reward Achievements: Acknowledge the efforts and accomplishments of your employees. This will help them to feel more valued, motivated and engaged. Special achievements can be rewarded with a bonus or company award, inspiring more employees to go above and beyond.
6. Improve the Conversation: Managers should be having important conversations with their teams regularly, but according to exit interviews, 51% of employees say that in the three months leading up to their decision to leave, neither their manager or any other leader engaged them on job satisfaction. Encourage regular and meaningful catch ups between managers and employees to talk about the future of their work.
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