Reduce employee attrition with these practices

What exactly is employee attrition?

Employers who don’t hire replacements for departing workers are said to have a high employee attrition rate. As a result of people quitting their jobs more quickly than they are getting hired, the size of the workforce eventually decreases.  it weakens a corporation and gradually destroys it.

An employee may choose to leave a company for a variety of reasons. For instance, they might not feel like they are growing professionally or be uncomfortable with the work atmosphere.

They may also be losing faith in the company’s market expansion or feeling that management and leadership are lacking. Employee attrition may occur for voluntary or involuntary reasons. So, it’s frequently seen as one of the inevitable

Attrition and turnover have distinct impacts

• Employee Attrition:

The term “employee attrition” describes how long a worker stays with an organization. It is not under the organization’s control and does not in any way reflect negatively on the business.

• Employee turnover:

Conversely, employee turnover refers to employees leaving the organization for a variety of reasons, such as poor hiring decisions, unpleasant or biased workplaces, a lack of opportunities for learning or career growth within the company, finding a better job, etc.

There are various forms of employee turnover

1. Retiring-related attrition

• When an employee approaches the end of their career, they will retire and depart the organization. This is expected and natural. Therefore, the loss is typically too minor statistically to count under attrition in small numbers.
• However, it would be a mistake to ignore the number of employees that retire. Your attrition rate will be impacted if a substantial number of employees leave you all at once.
• This could be caused by a number of independent of age motivating factors. Many people opt to retire early because they can afford to, even if some people may be forced to do so for unavoidable reasons like a disease.
• Senior professionals seeking to use their knowledge of the sector while having a flexible schedule increasingly do this.

2. Deliberate attrition

• In the instance of voluntary attrition, the employee starts the process of leaving. Consequently, it is the most typical kind of attrition. The worker made the independent decision to leave the business. They might have disliked the office atmosphere or felt overworked and undervalued.
• Some workers quit their jobs because they still don’t know what they want to do with their futures and are “job surfing” and trying out several professions. Teenagers are particularly affected by this.
• They want to feel satisfied at work, and if they don’t, they won’t hesitate to leave. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to stop this from happening and keep your staff happier and more engaged.

3. Unwilling attrition

However, involuntary attrition is a decision that the business makes rather than specific people. A business might decide to do this for a number of reasons.

These could comprise, but are not restricted to:

• Acquisitions and fusions
• structural change
• Layoffs
• reduction of employment
• Elimination of job positions

A certain employee may have occasionally engaged in dishonest behavior at work. After that, continuing to employ them could reflect poorly on the business, therefore they are asked to leave.

4. In-house attrition

A firm or an individual may be the cause of internal attrition. Employees in this situation are leaving one department to work for another inside the same company. It may be cause for concern if one department has a high attrition rate. This can be a sign that the team falls short in some areas and needs to be looked at.

• Does the manager lack the necessary expertise?
• The environment seems hostile.
• Having trouble hitting their goals?

Your HR department can look into this and find a solution for it. However, in other circumstances, this could be a good development for a business! It may be redirecting talent to more lucrative fields. Additionally, it may eventually result in better employee-job compatibility

5. Attrition by populations

• Companies are particularly concerned about this. Innovation fosters diversity, which fosters progress. Therefore, an equal opportunity workplace should look at whether a significant number of members of a certain demographic are leaving.
• Women, persons of color, military personnel, senior professionals, and those with disabilities are included in this. To find the source of the issue in such a situation, an inquiry should start right away.
• Everyone should not feel uneasy at work because of their demographic, and if they do, it may be a bad sign for the business. You may not even need a complex solution to solve the issue; simply work towards creating a more supportive and inclusive company atmosphere

What does staff turnover actually cost companies?‍

Even if the financial consequences are only one aspect of it, the surviving employees also suffer significant damage. 

These elements consist of:

• The expense of employing a new employee, which includes recruiting, vetting, and hiring new employees.
• The expense of on-boarding a new employee will entail management and training time.
• Cost of lost productivity: It can often take a new employee one to two years to equal the productivity of an existing employee.
• Cost of lost engagement – Existing employees often get disengaged and less productive when they witness their coworkers leaving.
• Cost of error and poor customer service—new hires require some time to become used to their new surroundings, and during that period, problems with customers may take longer to resolve.
• Cost of employee training – for instance, a corporation is likely to spend at least 10% to 20% of an employee’s salary on training over the course of two to three years.

Effect on the organizational culture: When someone leaves, others take an effort to find out why. A high attrition rate has far more of an impact than is visible. Due to the potential financial losses caused by attrition, it is crucial to have a strong staff retention strategy in place.‍‍

How can employee turnover be minimized?‍

1. Examine your employees

In today’s workplace, we essentially use technology for everything. Therefore, why not use that to analyze your employees as well? To find out what employees desire and where the gaps in the workplace are, you can gather input by conducting polls and surveys among various teams.

Additionally, you can learn how the staff members feel about their teams and workplace, whether they are dealing with any particular difficulties, if they are unhappy with recent company decisions or events, etc.‍

This research makes it simple to spot early indications of attrition and take the required precautions to protect the organization from future harm. Intuitive surveys and polls from Empuls assist gather exact input and provide quick insights into staff metrics and data.‍‍

2. Create teams based on individual worker personalities

Every organization is made up of a diverse group of individuals with various characteristics. While some people are born leaders with extraordinary leadership abilities, others are carefree risk-takers, perfectionists, or taskmasters who pay attention to every last detail, while yet others are tremendous innovators who are constantly buzzing with ideas and solutions for any kind of challenge.

When individuals with various personality qualities are combined, they can lift one another up and accomplish great things. Building excellent teams and achieving superior organizational results can be facilitated by having a thorough understanding of human behavior and motivation.‍‍

3. Provide flexibility, benefits, and incentives

When their existing position does not meet their financial needs, employees quit their occupations. In order to keep personnel, it is imperative to provide competent and standard pay that is in line with market trends.

Offering customized benefits and bonuses tailored exclusively for your employees based on their demands and the location from which they are working is a terrific addition to the wage packages. It may take the form of monthly grocery store discounts, special offers on branded goods, dining specials, vacations, health & wellness, technology, clothing, etc.‍

4. Make your workplace enjoyable

More time is spent working or at work than at home or with family. Therefore, it is crucial to create an environment at work where employees are content, involved, productive, and successful.

Making sure employees have ample opportunity to interact with coworkers, gain new skills, advance their education, have their work recognized and valued, have their voices heard, etc. can go a long way towards increasing retention.‍

5. Enhance recruitment

A corporation should establish clear and detailed requirements for the task right away. Establish objectives and list duties and obligations. In this approach, you can ensure that employees are not let down because they are aware of what to expect from a job. Consequently, less money is lost on ongoing hiring.  

Therefore, ensuring that your recruitment strategy is on target and that neither party has any unclear expectations can assist you in hiring the best people and enhancing retention.

6. Employee engagement

Your skilled employees may start looking elsewhere if they don’t feel like they have the chance to advance professionally and broaden their skill set.

With 22.2% of workers citing it as their reason for leaving in a 2018 survey, this is one of the major reasons for attrition. Make sure to give them training and helpful criticism so they can develop their working style and experience greater professional achievement.‍

Employees will feel bored and unproductive at work without engagement tactics. As a result, you must make sure that you’re doing everything in your power to foster an environment at work where your staff members can work together and advance their skills. As a result, there will be fewer employees quitting because they feel undervalued.