Employee turnover is a concern for all types of businesses because it is a significant expense. The problem, however, is that most companies do not to action to find ways to retain their employees.

If a business owner is interested fixing a high employee turnover rate, he/she must start with collecting data to identify the most effective retention methods. Administrators must stop making their decisions based on emotions and intuition. Instead, exploring the problem areas and creating plans to deal with them will help you figure out what does/does not work.

The first step for a business owner is to educate your managers on the business costs of employee turnover. Without a dollar amount attached to it, turnover is easy to ignore. However, if you factor in recruiting costs, the cost of overtime to cover the vacant position, the cost of training a new employee and any negative impacts on customers as a result of the turnover, the expense can be quite significant.

Most employees leave their jobs because of poor management. We all know that a job is a job, but what makes it special is the people you work with. However, if your managers create a miserable working environment, they are causing your high turnover rate.

Having an employee leave is not always a negative thing. Not all employees have a positive business impact, so it can be a relief when they move elsewhere. Thus, using retention efforts that cover all employees is typically very ineffective. It is important to tailor your retention efforts to the importance of the employee to the business, such as your top performers or other key employees.

In order to ensure that your company’s best retention practices are shared and become consistently applied. In other words, find a means for your managers or HR personnel to share their retention problems and effective solutions to them.

A few examples of the most common errors made in employee retention efforts include:

● Relying solely on salary increases

● Offering cash retention bonuses instead of project completion bonuses

● Failing to tailor the retention offer to the unique individual

● Assuming that a low turnover rate means you are doing things well

● Failing to provide employees with room to grown or future career opportunities

If you need the advice and guidance of an experienced business attorney, contact our office today to schedule an appointment with one of our knowledgeable attorneys. We can help answer questions regarding employee retention or any other business issue you are facing.