Employee turnover is a priority for every employer. Besides being costly, organizations plagued with employee turnover suffer low productivity, unfilled positions, low employee morale, and overworked staff.
On top of that, poaching is the new normal, employees bail when competitors offer a more positive workplace culture.
This article unravels four actionable ways HR executives and leaders can tackle employee turnover in their organizations.
Before that, what are the common causes of employee turnover?
Common Causes of Employee Turnover
Negative Workplace Culture
One striking trait of a negative workplace is that they fail to build policies and systems around the workforce.
According to the 2022 Global Culture Research Report, 2 out of 3 (62%) employees considered their workplace culture poor. Some common examples of negative workplace culture include:
- Negative gossip about third-party employees (especially the ones with fewer friends) in their absence.
- Verbal and non-verbal abuse of subordinates by their superiors.
When an employee considers a workplace culture negative, they are more likely to quit an organization with a positive workplace culture.
Employee Burnout
Many employees struggle with burnout. World Health Organization characterized it in three ways:
- Feeling or energy depletion or exhaustion
- Increased mental distance from one’s job or feeling negativism or cynicism related to one’s job
- Reduced professional efficiency
When an organization starts having turnover, other employees are forced to take on more responsibilities. They experience a decline in performance at work as well as the nagging feeling of incompetence.
Absence of Employee Recognition
Employee recognition has long been the bedrock of effective management. It lets employees know that an organization values and appreciates their work. But the lack thereof can make you lose your top talent to your competitors.
4 Ways to Reduce Employee Turnover
When you recognize and appreciate your employees, it strengthens their ties to your workplace culture. It reduces burnout and brings a sense of purpose and teamwork.
Showing appreciation and recognizing your employees’ work in your organization can also help reduce employee turnover.
Here are other ways to effectively tackle employee turnover in your organization.
1. Create a Positive Workplace Culture
Creating a positive workplace culture is an essential factor in employee retention. The negativity at the workplace begins with worried and unhappy employees. So, how do you fix it?
Highlight Your Organization’s Values
Identifying your company’s core values is a good start. The absence of values is a sign of a hostile workplace culture. Organizations operating without it are likely to progress without any sense of direction.
Mapping out the core values of your organization should include a list of ideas that matters to your team as well as pragmatic ways of achieving the goals.
Furthermore, ensure you run these ideas by the C-suite executives, HR representatives, and other stakeholders of your organization before presenting them to the entire team.
Create a Healthy Working Environment
Establishing a healthy working environment can be a real challenge as you won’t get to see everything that happens in the organization.
However, setting up an anonymous whistleblower hotline can help encourage employees to come forward with valuable information to create a safe working environment.
2. Hire Qualified Candidates
Now that you’ve identified your core values, it’s essential to hire qualified candidates that are the right fit for your organization’s workplace culture.
Most times, HR executives are only fixated on qualifications and skill set that they fail to vet candidates whether they are fit for their organization’s culture.
During the onboarding process, asking relevant behavioral interview questions during the onboarding process helps you see how candidates’ will use their skills and knowledge to manage certain situations.
Being honest about your workplace culture will save you from short-term retention problems. Don’t tell the candidate what they want to hear, instead present it as it is.
3. Manage Employee Burnout
American social psychologist, Christiana Maslach describes burnout as the direct response to excessive stress in the workplace. It is often characterized by the feeling of being emotionally drained or lack of emotional resources.
Decline in a feeling of competence and performance at work are some of the symptoms of employee burnout.
Here are the best ways to address employee burnout at your organization.
Take Your Employees’ Mental Health Seriously
We get that you have a business to run and customers to satisfy. But if your employees are having burnout from work, it can adversely affect the growth of your organization.
Enlighten your employees on ways to stay mentally healthy. You can discuss mental health topics such as coping with stress and the prioritization of work-life balance.
Also, learn how to spot mental health issues. While you are no mental health professional, you can learn how to spot some issues that would make it easier to help your employees.
Lastly, your employees should feel safe and comfortable to open up about their mental health struggles with you.
Invest in Tools that Maximize Productivity
Giving employees tasks to perform without necessary resources is another common cause of employee burnout. There are tons of productivity tools that you can explore with your team.
Trello is a productivity tool for project management and team organization. You can use it to organize, arrange, and collaborate on anything with your team. Apart from that, you can use Trello to assign different tasks to members of your team.
It’s a web-based CRM suite that’s great for managing leads, purchases, and pipelines. Zoho comes with exciting features like chatroom and account management.
4. Invest In Employee Development & Training Programs
Stagnation in an organization leads to disengagement and employee turnover. Your employees want to know about career growth in your organization.
When you offer them a clear career path to grow and develop in their respective fields, they will want to stay.
Here are some ways to provide your employees the opportunity to grow professionally and expand their skills:
- Offer training that encourages your employees to pursue development in areas that interest them.
- Provide remuneration for educational expenses, like certifications, advanced degrees, or courses.
- Assign stretch and challenging tasks that give employees the opportunity to learn.
Reduce Employee Turnover
Many organizations struggle to retain their employees and it’s an indicator of deep-rooted problems.
Creating positive workplace culture, hiring qualified candidates, and managing burnout are some solutions to reduce employee turnover in your organization.
About the Author
Philip Oyelola is a marketing enthusiast & content marketer. He helps tech companies with content that builds trust and educates their audience. He enjoys writing on topics like HR, client management, and content marketing.When Philip is not writing, he’s watching sci-fi, or listening to Afrobeats. You can connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.
