Acquiring and retaining the best employees is crucial for a business to thrive in today’s economy, whether you’re a professional service provider or an insurance marketing company. Of course, there will be times when, despite your best efforts, some workers will choose to leave the company for whatever reason.
While it’s normal for employees to decide to leave a company, it’s a cause for concern when people start quitting more often. This frequent turnover harms all aspects of your company, from operations to marketing.
The cost of employee turnover
According to a 2019 study by the Work Institute, which surveyed over 250,000 employees and reviewed 37,000 exit interviews in the United States, the average cost of losing a worker is $15,000. It could go up, depending on the role and monthly wage of an employee.
Other effects of employee turnover include:
- The cost of hiring and onboarding a new employee
- Customer service errors
- Lost employee engagement
- Lost productivity
- Training costs
Why do employees quit?
Some employees leave their jobs due to factors that are out of an employer’s control, such as relocation, retirement, and termination. However, most of the aspects cited by employees who quit are things that employers could have prevented. These include:
- Career development: Employees were not satisfied with the type of work, or they didn’t see developmental or growth opportunities in their position. They may also see no chances of being promoted while working there.
- Work-life balance: Schedule flexibility, burnout, and commute concerns, were common reasons for employees to leave.
- Manager behavior: Poor communication, lack of support, unprofessionalism, and manager incompetence may have caused an employee to resign.
- Compensation and benefits: Employees who cited compensation as the main reason for quitting think the benefits and salaries they received were too low.
- Well-being: Employees felt that their employers didn’t actively pay attention to their needs or took care of their physical and mental well-being.
- Job characteristics: Employees mentioned limited resources, lack of empowerment, dissatisfaction, inadequate training, and task overload as factors.
- Work environment: Employees may not be satisfied with the facilities, the physical environment, their co-workers, or the organizational culture.
How do you prevent your employees from quitting?
If you’re seeing a disturbing trend in your workers leaving more frequently, take immediate action to prevent others from voluntarily quitting. Although there are a variety of tips available, they may not always apply to your organization.
Look for relevant information in your previous exit interviews and determine the most common reasons they cite for leaving. Make sure that you ask open-ended questions and not have your employees answer a multiple-choice type interview.
Your existing employees may also have information about the issues that caused their co-workers to resign. Ask them how satisfied they are about the organization and what makes them dissatisfied. Give them a voice and ask for suggestions for improvement.
With data gathered from previous and existing employees, you may identify the root of the problem and create interventions that will minimize turnover.
Most of the time, organizations prioritize finding the right people who fit the workplace but forget to shape the workplace so that they can find the right people. When you discover that your employees are quitting their jobs more frequently, take control of the situation and implement the right interventions. This will improve your organization’s financial position and morale.
