9 completely free ways to reduce your staff turnover
Having a high staff turnover can be devastating for a business in terms of expense, morale and the loss of expertise. The recruitment process is incredibly expensive with high recruitment fees, management time and onboarding all contributing to costs that you would do well to avoid.
Businesses that have a high turnover often find that this is accompanied by a resulting reduction in staff morale for the people who are left behind as they struggle to cope with expertise leaving the building and the extra work they have to take on.
With this in mind, we wanted to put together a mini-guide to reducing your staff turnover with some actionable things you can do to make sure you hang on to the people who make your business successful.
Say thank you
This may sound crazy but one of the main reasons that people leave their employers is because they feel unappreciated.
If the only feedback someone gets is at the annual appraisal then it’s easy to see why they form the opinion that they aren’t valued and yet the solution is simple, quick and free. This is why taking a few moments to just say ‘thank you’ to valued staff members is our number one tip for reducing your staff turnover.
Bear in mind though, this can’t just be a cursory thank you. It’s much more powerful if you are able to give a little feedback. For example, identifying what they have done well and how it helped is a great way to show people that their contribution really is valued and reinforces desired behaviours.
Put your thanks into the wider context of the organisation as a whole and show them that they are an important part of a well-oiled machine. It's Simple, quick and free! Alternatively, you could look at a tool such as Access Applause to allow your entire workforce to show their appreciation for one and other.
Let people know what you need
Imagine how annoyed you’d feel if you got to your annual appraisal and were marked down because you hadn’t done something that you were never told was part of your job! This is one of the things that employees report regularly as a reason for leaving. Put simply they have no idea what they are being scored on and so they give up.
Being absolutely clear about what you need from them and how they can surpass your expectations goes a long way to improving morale.
Funnily enough, we often hear stories of managers who didn’t want to upset their staff by being overly prescriptive but ended up annoying people because they had no clear sight of what was wanted or expected of them! Make sure that you have a regular session to discuss expectations and performance and be completely clear about what is required.
Communicate, communicate, communicate!
Another of the big reasons why people press the ‘eject’ button is a lack of communication. This really follows on from the previous tip and is more about letting people know how the department is doing, how the company is doing and what their place is in the bigger picture.
One of the most human mistakes that managers make is that they think that just because they know something then everyone else does too when this really isn’t the case.
Have a get together with your teams and go through what’s happening in the department and the wider business and give them the opportunity to ask any questions that have been on their mind and see your communication scores rocket!
Give people control
One of the main frustrations that we see is where people have little or no control over their working lives. It’s almost as though managers feel that if they give any control away to their staff then bad things will happen. This was an argument used against working from home but as the covid crisis has shown people really can be trusted.
Giving people control over their working hours and location and how they structure their days improves morale considerably and as long as you have sensible parameters, who cares whether someone takes their lunch break at 11am or 3pm or works from home every Tuesday?
It seems really Dickensian for staff to have to come to their manager and ask for a day off given that we are now in the twenty-first century. Consider using an HR system that allows people to book days off online and see how much holiday they have left.
Check out Access EarlyPay for a great way to give staff a method of getting an advance on their earned pay without a potentially difficult chat with HR. Also, look at ways that you can offer flexible benefits so that people can choose things from a menu of options that really make a difference for them personally.
None of these methods cost any extra money but they do give people more control over their lives.
Manage by walking about
It can be really difficult for senior managers to understand what is happening on the shop floor unless they visit once in a while. This is especially so when feedback gets filtered through several layers of managers so our tip is to start walking about.
Things won’t change immediately but if you are operating at a senior level, it is really important for junior staff to see you and feel that they can talk directly to you about any issues they have.
Even changing the route you take to your desk every so often helps you to see different people and begin to understand their concerns. When people feel that you are a real person and not some faceless manager in a big office then they will also start to feel that they are part of a human organisation.
Do a lunch ‘n learn
Another of the often-cited reasons for people leaving their jobs is that they don’t feel that they are progressing or that their employer values them enough to invest in training.
A totally free way to change this is to hold regular lunch ‘n learn sessions where a senior manager gives a short (30 mins or so) session explaining some of the aspects of the business or the industry that you are in. It improves the capability of the staff for sure, but it also shows that you are willing to take 30 minutes once a month to invest in their wellbeing.
These sessions can also be used as a way to get junior managers and supervisors comfortable talking to a group so it’s a win-win! Although these tips are supposed to be totally free we’d also suggest offering to get a bit of food in. Everyone enjoys a slice of pizza or a sticky bun.
Show people their development path
If you have young staff who are ambitious then you could well lose them if they see a better opportunity for advancement on the horizon. Often people will leave for another employer that has exactly the same opportunities because the recruiter took time to explain what their development path would be.
Head that off by making sure you understand who your ambitious staff are and then charting a career path that shows how they can progress. Identify what you’d be expecting at every stage and make sure that you regularly discuss their progress.
Praise in public, criticise in private
Wouldn’t it be great if everyone did everything right every time? Sadly we don’t live in a perfect world and as humans, we are all susceptible to making mistakes.
One of the biggest demotivators is criticising people in front of their friends and peers. It doesn’t just demotivate the subject of your points it also shows people in the wider team that if they do something wrong they can expect the same treatment.
Make sure that if you have negative feedback to give you do so in private and away from prying eyes. If you are giving credit then make sure you do so publicly in front of the team as a whole. As the positive benefits are very much more powerful.
And if you are giving credit then find ways to spread it around the team as a whole as this reinforces positive behaviours and reminds people that good things are achieved as part of a group.
Remember that it is harder to leave a team
Although people make decisions about their future as individuals, one of the things that weighs heavily on this is how much they feel part of a team. People who enjoy working with their colleagues and who believe that they are part of a wider group effort are much less likely to look for pastures new.
Work on simple ways to develop a team ethos and always refer to good things in relation to how the team has achieved. Make sure you stress that you’ll only reach your goals by working together and you’ll find that your turnover reduces quickly. Reducing your staff turnover doesn’t have to cost the earth.
We hope that you have seen that reducing your staff turnover to a more acceptable level doesn’t have to be complicated or massively expensive. In our view, stopping people leaving isn’t about giving big pay rises or bonuses but more about connecting at a human level.
Understanding what people are looking for from their working lives, communicating what you need from them and keeping people informed as you go are all methods of making people feel valued. Given that our methods are totally free there’s no reason for you not to use them so why not go for a walk around the office now?
Find out more about our innovative Access EarlyPay solution.
Read how the Co-operative Bank used Access EarlyPay to provide its employees with flexible and instant access to the pay they've already earned via our on-demand pay app.
