How Do You Fix High Employee Turnover?

Every time an employee leaves your company, the cost of replacing them can add up to tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars. There’s the cost of hiring a recruiter, and/or placing listings on job websites. There’s the time it takes to interview possible candidates and the resources necessary to train the one you eventually hire and acclimate them to your company culture. Every day spent with that position vacant causes your company to lose productivity. Then even after it’s filled, getting your new employee’s productivity levels up to those of the seasoned employee who left will take time. And time is money.

Therefore, it’s in your best interest to reduce employee turnover as much as possible and keep workers at your company for as long as possible. Here are a few tips for fixing high turnover at your organization.

Offer Competitive Benefits

You may not have the money to offer employees as high a salary as your competitors. You may not be able to give them as comprehensive a retirement plan, or a company car. But with a little creativity, you can still give them an attractive benefits package.

Give them a little extra paid vacation time each year. Provide opportunities to volunteer with charities, so your social justice minded employees can feel their time at your company is helping them do some good in the world.

You can also offer flex time, enabling employees to work from home part of the time. This way, people with families can balance work with things like picking the kids up from school, taking care of them when they’re sick, attending soccer games, etc.

The key to offering competitive benefits is to find out what’s important to your employees and then find a way to give it to them. In the end, that’s worth much more than money and will keep them with you for the long haul.

Celebrate Employee Success

In many companies, when an employee makes a mistake, their boss immediately reprimands them. But when they do well, it seems like no one notices. This will quickly make your workers feel unappreciated, often prompting them to look at job opportunities elsewhere.

However, if you take just a little bit of time to celebrate your employees when they do well and show them that you appreciate them, it can greatly increase their job satisfaction, motivate them for the future, and most importantly, instill in them a sense of loyalty to your company.

Even small, inexpensive expressions of appreciation can go a long way. Buy lunch for the marketing team when their latest campaign is a success. Give sales reps a certificate when they exceed their quota for the month. Hold parties and other events when the company is doing well. Even just a public word of praise for an employee after a win is a great gesture. Make it clear that the company’s success is everybody’s success, and make it something to be proud of.

Provide Opportunities for Advancement

One of the biggest reasons why employees leave a company is because they feel like their career has stalled there. So actively work to help your workers advance. For many that means promotions, but that’s not the only way people look to advance.

Take an active interest in employees’ careers, to find out what it is they want out of their job. Maybe they want to increase their knowledge of the field, or gain a new skillset. Maybe their passion lies in a different department, and they’d rather make a lateral move than an upward one. Maybe they’d like an opportunity to mentor someone else and use their experience to help new employees get acclimated. Whatever it is your employees are looking to do, find a way to help them achieve it. If your company is helping them find a path to the career they’ve always wanted, they’re more likely to stick around.

There are a myriad of other ways of fixing high turnover and getting employees to stay at your company. Most important, though, is respect. Show your employees that you respect them and care about them, and are willing to go the extra mile to make sure they’re happy and fulfilled at your company. The more you can do that, the more employee turnover will decrease within your organization.