Minimising staff Turnover
Regular training and learning opportunities are an investment that help employees to prosper and develop their careers while giving your business a highly skilled workforce and a competitive advantage in the market.
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As a general statement, it seems that organisations with lower staff turnover spend the most on training and education. |
Minimising staff turnover will benefit your organisation. Replacing staff is a costly process - skills are lost, resources are disrupted and recruiting new personnel takes time and money.
Staff who receive ongoing training are more likely to commit to their employers because:
- Completion of the training develops their careers; and
- The training enables them to take on greater responsibility and higher paid work.
Where organisations are serious about minimising staff turnover, managers have to realise money isn't everything. Of course, it is important, but financial incentives will usually encourage employees to stay only over the short term. Over the long term they need opportunities for growth.
To put a stop on the steady flow of people out the door, you need to offer a solid foundation for growth. Employees need to know specifically where they can go in the company and what they need to do to get there. A clear path is very much a plus.
Other proven techniques for ensuring that people stay for longer, are:
- Praise employees when they've done a good job; and
- Create a good working relationship with employees. Individual workers are less likely to leave, if they feel they are valued members of a team.
In some situations, in some industry sectors, it is possible for management to minimise the costs of staff turnover through remote office solutions, that allow employees the flexibility to work at home with full access to corporate applications and systems.
To minimise staff turnover, forward-thinking companies go to great lengths to help employees balance work and life demands. In addition to lower turnover, this strategy generates greater employee loyalty, creativity, and productivity.
One, greatly valued work-life initiative in some industries, (eg. retail), is the introduction of "family friendly shifts." For instance, a 9.30 am to 2 p.m. workday can be tailored to allow parents to be with their children before and after school.
Such an approach to being ‘family friendly’ is really appreciated by employees with family responsibilities. And it is an approach that is paying handsome dividends for certain employers. Such employers can attract motivated, permanent part-time professionals with very positive effects.
Companies with serious staff turnover issues, can consider turning managers into ‘retention champions.’
Apart from managing the business, a ‘retention champion’ is some one who listens and is supportive. Equally, such a manager will ask employees for input, he or she will empower people to make decisions and will go a long way towards making work fun.
Turning managers into this sort of ‘retention champion’ actually changes the atmosphere in the workplace. And creating a positive atmosphere is perhaps the single most important way to combat staff turnover.
People might seek out a job because of pay or benefits, but if their boss makes them miserable every day, they won’t stick around no matter what the compensation.
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