You can have the most productive meetings, the best projects and presentations, but there’s one thing that can upend your work: turnover. Workers leave for a variety of reasons, from salary to benefits—and millions of them do so every month.
An employee leaving your company costs you in a multitude of ways. You have to find a replacement, of course, but you’ll also find a cost to productivity as other employees make up for the loss as well as possibly fumble through skills or knowledge they don’t have. But you can take measurable steps to reduce turnover; this graphic outlines some of the issues at stake and solutions to help.
How to reduce employee turnover
If those numbers have you spinning, take a deep breath. Remember that in some cases, it’s actually beneficial to lose an employee. If they under-performed, treated coworkers poorly or were an otherwise bad fit for the company, then it’s better for everyone that they moved on.
And here’s more good news: It is possible to reduce the likelihood that your top performers leave your organization for greener pastures. You simply have to create a work environment that maintains morale and inspires employees to keep coming to work.
Sound easier said than done? Research suggests that creating a desirable work environment is actually pretty straightforward. Invest in policies that support workers, such as paid sick days, parental and adoption leave, professional development training, health care, flexible scheduling, fair wages and consistent salary increases.
These policies aren’t just the right thing to do. They also keep employees engaged and productive, reduce absenteeism and human resources issues, limit the chances your top performers leave for a job with better benefits and even improve the company’s bottom line. In fact, high employee engagement can translate to up to 400 percent more profitability. That should be motivation enough to treat your workers right.
