Employee turnover or attrition is one of the major challenges for businesses nowadays. While involuntary turnover is usually not a cause of much concern; it is the voluntary attrition that requires close monitoring. Human Resource professionals spend considerable efforts into analyzing the causes of attrition and devising methods to lower employee turnover. Following are some of the predictors of employee turnover trends and what can be done to combat them to lower employee turnover:
Job Satisfaction Levels
This is perhaps the most common reason people leave their jobs. They often have certain expectations and if things do not work accordingly, employees feel their individual needs are not being met. As a result, employees become disengaged or “checked out.”
Some ways in which this can be handled are-
- Ensuring proper role clarity. Employees need to understand their job descriptions properly.
- Role alignment with individual career aspirations.
- Avoiding any kind of role conflict if possible.
Relationship with Manager
There is a reason why it is said that people do not leave jobs, they leave their managers. If there is a lack of supervisory satisfaction, then it can be a predictor of higher employee turnover.
To handle this, some of the steps that can be taken are as follows-
- Managers should be trained on how to handle teams.
- ‘Skip-level’ meetings are a great way to ensure effective communication channels between leader and subordinates.
- If an employee raises an issue with their supervisor, proper steps should be taken by the HR department to address the issue. This will help to lower employee turnover.
Team Dynamics
The teams that employees work in become their families at the workplace. And if there is no team bonding, employees might lose motivation to come to work. An effective way to ensure better team dynamics is through employee engagement activities and team-building exercises. Events such as company picnics or team parties are great places where people can connect and build their networks. This, in turn, creates an environment which motivates people in their work, thus leading to lower employee turnover.
Misalignment with Role
This happens when the hiring is not done carefully enough, resulting in a skill set mismatch. In such a case, an employee will feel out of place in their role and decide to leave. Companies can lose good workers due to this.
To prevent this from happening, care should be taken during the hiring process as mentioned below-
- Recruiters need to ensure that they choose candidates with the required skills for the job.
- Proper learning and development sessions also help to lower employee turnover in the future.
Behavioral Indicators
These are the predictors which usually indicate employee’s engagement levels and hence give an idea of whether they might leave or not. Some of these behavioral indicators are absenteeism, performance, punctuality, etc.
If noted, these can be addressed in the following manner to ensure lower employee turnover-
- If absenteeism or lateness is high, then the manager or HR can have a one-on-one discussion to get to the root cause of the problem. Often, these problems can be solved with a little bit of flexibility.
- Should performance become an issue then the employee must receive proper feedback and the necessary support to improve.
Conclusion
Employee attrition can become a big problem if not dealt with in a timely manner. At the same time, there are so many steps that can be taken to lower employee turnover. Businesses must care for their employees to become successful; after all, employees are perhaps the biggest asset they have.
If your firm experiences high employee turnover, contact Flexicrew to help improve your recruitment efforts.