Common sense tells us that, with an increasingly diverse workforce, to expect single measures to reduce staff turnover at a stroke is both naive and wasteful. Some companies are beginning to realise that a range of tailored measures including, but not dominated by, loyalty bonuses is the key to having sustained impact (see Summary of Pay within Retention and Reward)
So what elements should comprise an effective retention strategy? The checklist below sets out some of the main areas that we have found to be most useful.
Good data
| Be able to identify turnover ‘hot spots’, high risk groups, costs and trends over time. Use our wastage calculator (see Measuring the True Overall Wastage Rate of your Organisation in this section) to establish the problem. Avoid spending too much time on benchmarking (seeMaking External Comparisons in this section) - it is internal trends and patterns which are the most revealing. |
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Reasons for leaving data
| Use well structured exit interviews or leavers surveys to highlight reasons which are in your control. Differentiate between voluntary resignations and other forms of turnover. Identify which factors have 'pushed' staff out (eg dissatisfaction) and which have 'pulled' them out (eg better prospects). |
Risk analysis
| Establish, by looking at the likelihood and consequences of resignation, to what extent you have employees in the danger zone. Target your effort on those most likely to leave & those whose departure would have most serious business consequences. Prevention, they say, is better than cure. |
Recruitment
| Avoid recruiting turnover by matching people to posts and by not inflating recruits expectations before they join. In your eagerness to fill vacant posts, resist the temptation to 'over-sell' the job. |
Training & development
| Tailor and deliver training and development opportunities to the needs of both the organisation and the individual. For many, professional development is critical to their capacity to do their job and stay at the forefront of developments in their field. Don't believe the mythology saying that if you train people they just leave. There is much more evidence supporting the notion that people will stay after training than leave. I.e., people are much more likely to leave if you don't train them. |
Management style
| Ensure the managers have the skills to manage people and that they understand that the way they manage can increase or lower staff turnover. Generally, good managers experience lower turnover among their staff. Setting clear goals, giving constructive feedback, making people feel valued and involving them in decision-making all make a contribution to improved motivation and retention. |
Job content
| Allow as much autonomy, team-working and control as practical. Ensure flexibility does not meet only the organisations needs. Most people want to do a good job and, as Hertzberg said 'if you want people to do a good job, give them a good job to do'. |
Rewards
| Use loyalty bonuses only where nothing else will work, — and even then don’t expect their effects to last. Ensure rewards are seen to be fairly determined and distributed. You should aim to pay the market rate, but paying well, by itself, won't buy loyalty, motivation and commitment (see Remuneration and Reward). |
Flexible working
| Ensure that employees with a need for flexibility in hour or location feel that the organisation is responsive. There is now much more evidence that, when choosing between employers, potential employees are now looking for working patterns which allow them to balance work and life and which avoid unnecessary long-hours working. With growth in the number of women in the labour market expected to continue, flexible working is here to stay. |