With the possible exception of house price inflation in the south east of England, the state of the economy is encouraging with most measures showing positive signs. Concerning employment, we are at record highs and unemployment is on a steady trend down. The worry now for many businesses is can they keep their staff and, if they can’t, can they find suitable replacements?
Understanding why employees leave is the first action employers can take. If they know why employees leave they should be able to do something about it and improve employee stability, because the majority of reasons why people leave are under the control of the employer. So what are some of the key reasons why employees quit? In simple terms these reasons include: poor relationship with their boss; poor relationship with co-workers; boring and unchallenging work; lack of training and development; lack of empowerment; undervalued; weak organisational financial viability; poor corporate culture and better prospects elsewhere.
Employers need to understand these reasons before employees quit not afterwards. There is nothing to be done after the exit interview, but if exit interviews are undertaken and analysed and employers are prepared to make changes to ensure employee stability is improved, this action will dramatically improve profitability. Some independent organisations put the cost of employee turnover at £8,000 per person, so lose 10 employees in a year and profits go down by £80,000, lose 100 employees and profits go down by £800,000 so labour turnover is an absolutely vital strategic issue for a company.
What else can be done? Well you could undertake “stay interviews” (very few companies do this). Such practice obtains reasons why longer serving employees stay with the company. If adopted and there is consensus on key reasons, the company can take action to spread the word and promote those good practices amongst all employees.
If you can’t stop all employees leaving the company try using a reputable recruitment agency to find a replacement. Fees are relatively small beer compared to getting a good replacement quickly.
Dr Hugh Billot, Deputy Chairman
HR GO Group of Recruitment Companies
HR GO Recruitment offers solutions to all your staffing needs, temporary and permanent, please call 0845 130 7000
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