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Ways to Reduce Employee Turnover from The New Zealand Herald

Here’s a great article from the New Zealand Herald…..

How to minimise high staff turnover

By Val Leveson

Understanding a job applicant’s behaviours can be more important than knowing his or her skills. It’s important that there’s a good fit between the values of the company and the new employee.

Staff turnover in New Zealand companies is a significant cost to the country’s employers and needs to be addressed, claims consulting group Lawson Williams, after completing a survey in partnership with the Human Resources Institute. This is their sixth annual national survey, and it found that turnover is particularly high in the first year of employment.

John Lawson of Lawson Williams says that having to repeatedly recruit people is extremely expensive. “Not only is there the expense of hiring someone, but if someone leaves, there is a loss of productivity as a new person needs to be trained into the job.” Lawson says: “Perhaps surprisingly, turnover rates for those employed less than 12 months is higher than total turnover – 20.7 per cent is the average turnover inside 12 months employment compared to turnover overall of 17.7 per cent. “This finding highlights a major improvement opportunity for organizations where first-year turnover is high …”

Lawson says what companies need to do is vastly improve the selection process. “Companies have been getting huge volumes of job applications, and it can be difficult to decide who will be best for the company and the position. It’s important for the company not only to be looking at the skills and qualifications a person may have on offer, but also at the behavioral aspects.”

He says it’s worth spending money on psychometric testing, reference checks and in-depth interviews. “You need to be looking at both the skills and the behaviors to see if the person will indeed fit into your organization.” Lawson says the principle is to hire tough and manage easy. If you get the right person for your company, that person will stay and bring value.

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An example would be if you hire someone on the basis that they have a diploma in accountancy, and they happen to be someone who thrives in a hierarchical workplace where they are told what to do all the time, but your company is more relaxed and expects people to “just get on with things”. You may find the employee is not a good fit and leaves and then you have to find someone else and train them up.

To continue reading visit The New Zealand Herald here!