How to Reduce Employee Turnover

It’s inevitable that most people will change jobs at some stage in their lives. Whether they find a better-suited role elsewhere, change careers, take on caring responsibilities, retire, or simply want something new. You can’t reduce employee turnover completely, but you can mitigate it enough so that you don’t lose your strongest members of staff, and are forced to continually pay out recruitment and training costs. 

Your employees might leave their jobs for all sorts of reasons [1]. Some are familiar and unsurprising, like finding a job that pays more. Others are slightly more obscure and unfamiliar, like not resonating with the company’s values and culture, or the company not providing the necessary support for their employees to flourish.

We’ll go through all the major reasons why employees quit and then share how you can keep them with you.

Show appreciation

One reason why people leave their jobs is an insufficient amount of appreciation shown by the company for their everyday efforts [2]. No matter what they’re doing, your employees want to feel valued and know that their efforts aren’t going unseen [3].

It’s very easy for companies to take their employees’ labour for granted. After all, that’s what you pay them for, right? Many people need more than just their paycheck to feel rewarded for their efforts [4]. So, you should go out of your way once in a while to show your employees that their work is valued. 

This can take any number of forms, from employee-of-the-month programs and small kudos for jobs well done, to more tangible things like performance-based bonuses. 

Get workloads right

In this era of working from home, it’s easy for workloads to increase exponentially. With the barrier between work time and private time blurred even more, workers have been expected to take on more and more work that bleeds into their personal lives [5]. This can easily cause stress and burnout if your workloads aren’t managed properly [6]. If your employees are constantly overworked, they’re more likely to look for a job with less stress.

Make sure your employees’ workloads are reasonable. Check in with them on a regular basis to see if they need any support.  

Provide benefits

What’s the difference between a paycheck and a paycheck with benefits? As it turns out, quite a lot. 

Most job seekers admit that perks and benefits are among the top considerations when accepting a job [7]. They’re also more likely to stay longer if they’re given good benefits [8].

If you want your employees to stick around, you’ll want to offer them a compelling, competitive benefits package that other employers can’t.

Popular benefits can include:

• Private medical insurance
• Expense accounts
• Pension plans
• Free food and drinks
• Childcare services
• Tuition reimbursement
• Commuting reimbursement
• Paid parental leave
• Retail discount plans
• Stock, stock options, or equity
• Gym memberships

Increase  pay

It’s very common for high-value employees to jump ship because they’ve been offered a similar job with better pay. Higher pay is constantly cited as one of the top reasons why employees quit their jobs and move elsewhere [9]. Indeed, many people who change jobs regularly have higher salaries than those who don’t [10]. 

If you think an employee is about to leave, offering an increase in their wages may keep them where they are. Higher pay isn’t just attractive to people because of expenses. A raise in pay can give the employee a sense that they’re progressing within your organization, and gives them a sense of accomplishment and status. 

Improve workplace relationships

Another big reason why people quit their jobs is a bad boss or poor management [11]. There’s nothing worse than having a bad boss. Whether it’s micromanagement, insufficient leadership, aloofness, or some other factor, an ineffective boss can decrease productivity, harm morale, and create an inhospitable and unsafe working environment [12]. 

If you suspect there may be some unhealthy working relationships at your company, take action. Conduct employee reviews, and sit down with individual members of teams to find out what their day-to-day working experience is like. Foster a workplace culture where people feel comfortable coming to you with their problems. If you identify a manager with a bad track record, see if there are any ways you help them improve their performance, like with a management training course. Fixing the problem at the root will create better working conditions, which will increase performance and job satisfaction among your employees. 

Let them grow

Gone are the days when people had one job for life [12]. Most people will change careers three to seven times during their lifetime, with dozens of potential companies they can work with and roles they can occupy [13]. 

Many employees, unless they’re already in a fairly senior role, will treat their current job as a stepping stone to something better. Employers that recognize their employees’ drives and desires and help them achieve their goals will have a smaller employee turnover rate. 

Offer your employees routes for progression within your company, if it’s possible. If that’s not an option, invest in training courses that will help them grow their skills in areas that would add value to your business. The more you help your employees grow, the more loyalty they will feel towards your company, and the more likely they’ll be to stay for longer. 

Be flexible

Many employers are tied to the idea of workers being in an office during a set period of time [14]. Indeed, if workers aren’t present in the office during this time, many employers get cagey about their workers’ performance and question their dedication to the company [15].

Even though this attitude is widely held, it flies in the face of a lot of evidence that says that people are much more productive when they work from home or are given work schedules that fit around the rest of their lives [16]. 

Your workforce might welcome the opportunity to work flexibly or from home. If your company is able, see if you can offer more flexible working hours for your employees. If your workers can’t get the hours they need, or if they find themselves with new family obligations that your company aren’t taking into consideration, they may start looking elsewhere. 

Connect with their values

One of the best ways to attract great talent is to clearly define your brand’s values and to connect those with your employees and prospective hires. In general, people don’t want to buy from, or work for, companies whose values are out of alignment with their own [17]. 

Clearly identify your own brand’s values. Once you do, make sure you hire people who gel with them. If your employees don’t respect your company and what it does, they’re not likely to stick around for long.

Manage your workforce through your EPOS system

Managing your company’s schedule can be tough, especially if you’re a business whose peak trading times are outside of normal business hours. With many employees demanding specific schedules to deal with their own needs, it can be difficult to keep things straight. 

That’s why you need to take advantage of Epos Now’s retail and hospitality EPOS systems. With these systems, you’ll be able to integrate and manage all aspects of your business’s personnel scheduling. With an Epos Now point of sale system, you can:

• Identify your top-performing staff members for more shifts and pay rises
• Onboard and train staff in minutes
• Easily change shift patterns for your staff
• Track holidays and booked time off on your calendar to ensure you’re never short-staffed
• Integrate workforce and sales data to make ideal business decisions
• Predict staff counts and send shift updates

Contact Epos Now to find out more about our systems.