Most businesses small and large, have experienced cycles of high staff turnover. This can be attributed to several factors outside their control. Staff leave for many reasons - better pay, more opportunity for advancement, a career change, to name a few. This is to be expected, but when it becomes a regular occurrence, cultural and financial problems will follow closely behind.

High employee turnover rates are a bad sign for any business and it's crucial to get to the root of the problem. An honest assessment of business practices will often be enlightening and enable managers to change cultural paradigms.

1. Perfect Your Recruitment Process
This is the baseline. Everything else flows from this. Just as one needs the right modelling clay of the right consistency to build a solid sculpture, a well-defined, thoroughly vetted interview process can ensure you have the right people for the right job, right from the start. Ensure job descriptions are clear and precise and that candidates not only possess good skills but are aligned with your company values and culture.

2. Listen to Middle Managers and Practice Managers
Middle managers in an organization are at the coalface. They know their employee contingent and they also interact with the leadership team. Get curious with the group, some of who might be considering departing as well. They have immense perspective.

3. Larger Businesses Need to Invest in Leadership Development
A high level of negative employee sentiment indicates that the business is in poor health. Conduct open forums in all corners of the organization to promote dialogue. The inability to retain qualified candidates is indicative of inadequate management. Create a lasting solution by implementing leadership development programs to expand growth and boost morale.

4. Teach Your Managers How to Build Relationships
People leave their managers. Grievances around lack of clarity, doing work of others who aren't held accountable, lack of meaningful development or growth opportunity, little or demeaning feedback, poor communication are all fodder for poor retention. Your conversations are your relationships; your relationships are your culture. Equip managers with better communication skills and standards and watch the paradigm shift begin to materialise.

5. Conduct Regular Reviews
Take a staff pulse survey, at least quarterly. Ensure that staff know the survey is anonymous, and that management will share results across the business or organisation as well as develop a plan to address pain points for staff if possible. This increases organisational transparency, and lets staff know there is a viable mechanism for feedback.

6. Fix Your Culture
If there is high turnover, it is likely that people are not finding a connection between their work and its impact. Observe areas where turnover is high and examine how people relate to each other along with any managers in that area. Do the same in areas of low turnover. What can you deduce?

7. Interview Top Performers
Sit down and interview top performers about what they love about the company, why they perform the way they do and find out why they achieve for your company. These top performers should be selected from every employee level. By doing this, you will see what they see.  Document their answers, then ask them what they would do to change things.

8. Analyse Your Current Organisational Environment
With high turnover, it's natural for organisations to focus all their attention on employees and hiring practices. Too often, they assume that they simply hired the "wrong" people. Commonly, there are problems in the environment that prevent people from realising their potential. Organisations and businesses should first ensure they have the structure, training and support to get the best results.

9. Encourage and Reward Honest Feedback
Talk to your employees. Gather their insight. Create a culture that encourages and rewards feedback. Don’t just say your organisation has an open-door culture. Create opportunities for employees to share their ideas. Consider hosting facilitated monthly conversations that solicit and reward honest, direct feedback. Then, report back to employees on how their ideas were utilised. 

10. Ask People Why They're Leaving, & Be Ready to Hear the Truth
The quickest way to find the problem is by asking your employees — the ones leaving and the ones who stay. It may be hard to hear the truth, but it’s the best place to start. This can be done face to face, or by email, comments card or a confidential survey. Exit interviewers need to be really receptive to hearing the truth and recognising the problem. From this, you can start to design an effective solution.

11. Team Building Team Building and More Team Building
This is probably the most important element of an exceptional working environment. People are social beings and don’t enjoy working in isolation. When there is good rapport in all levels of the business, people are happy to go the extra mile when the need arises.

  Back to At work