How much does your staff turnover cost?
By Brie Hobbs
When one employee leaves it can have a domino effect that impacts your entire team. And staff turnover can get expensive fast.
In truth, attrition is an often unavoidable part of business as good and bad employees alike come and go, but having to constantly manage staff changes will hinder you chances at success. In addition to the resultant loss in productivity, staff turnover costs businesses millions of rands in replacement hiring and training costs each year.
If you are facing the possibility of attrition in your business, these survival tips will help keep your business running smoothly as you manage the effect of staff turnover.
Be prepared. Whether the threat of staff turnover is imminent or not, you can help your business weather transitions better by simply being prepared. One of the most difficult aspects of staff turnover is the loss of knowledge, experience and expertise they bring to the table. Having job descriptions and written procedures in place for specific tasks, ensures that critical knowledge does not walk out the door with your former employee and it smoothes over training for the new recruit.
Another great way to ensure a smoother transition is to have more than one person trained for a specific task. While most employees give the traditional two weeks’ notice, it is seldom enough time to hire and train a replacement. Having more than one person trained for a particular job will ensure that someone is available to train the newcomer and that you have a backup in place when someone is sick or on leave.
Assess the situation. When an employee resigns, take time to assess the situation. Make sure you know exactly what they were working on, and whether there are any pressing deadlines that need to be met.
While staff turnover can be costly and difficult to manage, it also provides an opportunity to restructure or transition different projects or build an even better team by hiring suitably skilled replacements. Before hiring a replacement, weigh up the qualities of your existing team and determine which strengths and skills would complement the abilities of the team.
Assessing the situation also means looking at why staff turnover is occurring. Perhaps conduct an exit interview and ask for their honest feedback. This will provide you with an opportunity to remedy any problems before others follow suit.
Formulate a plan. Once you have adequately assessed the situation, formulate a plan to help your team weather the changes. For example, how will the additional workload be distributed and managed until a replacement is found? If the workload it to be shared amongst the remaining team members it should be distributed in a manner that protects already overburdened employees from burnout. Alternatively you could consider hiring temporary workers to help fill-in.
Communication during such a transition period is critical. Be open and honest. If your team has to take on more work, let them know how much you appreciate their willingness to help. Share with them where you are in the hiring process and ask for their input on candidates when a new addition to the team could impact them directly.
Of course your plan should also include ways to remedy the reason for the turnover. If several employees have left, determine if there is a pattern to the resignations. If it is an issue of compensation, revisit your salary packages by comparing it to that of other companies operating in your market to ensure that the compensation offered is competitive. If it appears that the job is simply not stimulating or interesting enough, consider offering training and personal development opportunities to hold their interest.
To get ahead of staff turnover it is imperative that your plan includes viable solutions and actively work to create a business that employees want to work for.
Hire right. Business changes on a daily basis. While you cannot always control when an employee leaves, you can make the most of the situation by hiring a replacement that brings new strengths and skills to the team. To ensure that the replacement complements your team’s strengths, experience and personalities, consider the applicant’s personality, abilities, strengths and experience. Take the time to hire the right employee for the position. The wrong decision could take you back to square one and may even cause additional staff turnover.
Express Employment Professionals
+27 12 641 0100
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