Despite the increasing emphasis of organisations in implementing measures to retain top talent, very few companies actually consider the financial implications of losing employees.
Rather, they opt to see increased staff turnover as an opportunity to cut the ‘excess baggage’ of unhappy and underperforming staff.
While businesses still focus on acquiring good candidates with the right skills, they often fail to retain these individuals once appointed.
With increasing competition for top talent, business cannot afford to lose their current employees to competing organisations. Scouting for and hiring talent is costly, and the training and orientation of new hires also comes with their – in both time and resources.
A recent survey by Deloitte, the 2016 Deloitte Millennial Survey, found that around two-thirds of millennial employees have expressed a desire to leave their organisations by 2020*.
With 76% of millennials planning to leave their current employers before 2020, “our next generational leaders already have one foot out of the door”.
The reality is that poor staff retention negatively impacts not only staff morale, but also productivity and therefore your organisation’s bottom-line. In addition, on-boarding a new employee – including advertising the position, interviewing the candidate, screening and hiring – can prove costly.
Compensating on the productivity backlog caused by high staff turnover cannot be done overnight, and realistically speaking, optimising lost productivity can take up to two years in some cases.
To minimise the potential impact of poor staff retention, organisations should consider the following:
• Ensure the right employment from inception by being stringent during your interviewing and vetting processes.
• Be fair and consistent when it comes to compensation benefits available to employees.
• Publically acknowledge that your employees are valued and appreciated.
• Promote a positive working environment, employee optimism nearly always translates into job satisfaction, which in turn means less sick leave, absenteeism and improved overall productivity.
• Keep the lines of communication open, to ensure you foster good relationships with employees.
• Employees, especially millennials, enjoy receiving ongoing constructive feedback.
When it comes to millennials and Generation Z, always bear in mind that they are driven by challenging, meaningful work that has a tangible impact in the world and workplace.
They are innovative and ambitious, and like to be stretched all while working independently on engaging assignments that allow them to optimise and innovate in the business.
Ultimately, you cannot stop each and every resignation however, through implementing proper recruitment processes and strategic employee management practices backed by appropriate reward and incentive programmes, you can ensure that your organisation experiences more highs than lows when it comes to productivity and retention.
Kay Vittee is the CEO of Quest Staffing Solutions.
*The 2016 Deloitte Millennial Survey.
