Employee turnover is expensive. It’s often estimated to cost between six and nine months of the employee’s salary, but when calculating in the cost of advertising for a replacement and the onboarding process, it can end up being much more.
In addition, there are time and morale costs as it can take new employees years to become as productive as those they replaced. Other employees would have to pick up the slack in the meantime and may be left wondering why the original employee left. Low morale can in turn cause further losses of productivity and increase the chances of more employees deciding to quit.
Further, vendors and other companies you work with may see high employee turnover as a sign of poor company health.
Preventing Employee Turnover
How can you prevent employee turnover in the first place? Offering more pay is one method, but money isn’t the only motivating factor when employees decide to move on to other job opportunities. Before taking steps to address employee turnover, it’s important to find out what your employees would want that could encourage them to stay.
Ask Your Employees
The first step in preventing turnover, especially if you already have a high turnover rate, is to interview employees. Exit interviews are great opportunities to find out why employees are quitting. If there is something at your company causing them to leave (such as a micromanaging boss), then you can take steps to address any issues to improve the work environment for the remaining employees.
Work-Life Balance
Many employees value a good work-life balance. More than half of employees wish that their company offered more flexibility in their schedules. This flexibility can occur in the form of flexible schedules, telecommuting options, and even unlimited PTO.
All of these things can help employees balance their personal lives with work, maintain better health (both mental and physical), and reduce stress. All of this helps boost employee morale and productivity.
Encouragement and Motivation
Employees often work more productively when they have a sense of progress and achievement. Clear goals can help motivate employees to work harder towards those goals. A HRIS can help managers track goals for employees and rewards received for achieving those goals as well as other accomplishments.
Feelings of Value
It’s important for employees to feel valued by their company. Their work will be more fulfilling if they are involved in the company’s vision and feel that they are making a difference. Feeling that they are listened to and that their ideas are valued by the company will go a long way towards making employees feel important to the company.
Education and Training
Providing education and training opportunities for employees can contribute to their sense of value to the company. It can also help employees feel that they are making progress. With training and education, there will be more opportunities for employees to not only do a better job for the company but also to move up to higher-level positions.
A HRIS can help you manage employee progress and achievements as well as keep track of exit interviews. If you feel that HR software could help you in your employee retention goals, we can help you find the HRIS that best fits your needs. Visit our Software Match page to let us know how we can help you.
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