Reducing Employee Turnover: 4 Proven Tactics

Reducing employee turnover is the type of thing that keeps some human resources leaders up at night. It’s a very difficult thing to do, especially in today’s world when employees are more willing than ever to jump from job to job. Employees are constantly looking for new jobs for a variety of reasons – some you can control and some you cannot. But can you truly reduce employee turnover?

Yes. Let’s look at some unique, modern solutions to reduce employee turnover.

What Causes Employee Turnover?

There are many studies, workshops, and think pieces published each year that talk about why employee turnover is increasing in almost every industry, including foundational industries like healthcare, education, and construction. Employees will leave their jobs, even if they are happy, for a better work-life balance, more pay or benefits, or because they are moving. Increasingly, employees are more likely to jump from job to job just because they are bored or looking to advance their careers. 

Sometimes, workers will leave because the company culture is poor, their managers are ineffective, or they don’t get the support and tools they need.

Why Is Reducing Employee Turnover So Important?

Reducing employee turnover is important on multiple levels, but the primary one is that a revolving door of employees impacts company culture, which can lead to even more exits. For HR leaders and the C-suite, it costs a lot of money to continually hire and train new employees.

Having long-term, experienced employees is important to delivering on objectives, developing effective business plans, and upscaling your business. Finding the right people can take a lot of time, cost money, and require a lot of hours of work from multiple people.

But hiring isn’t the only part that takes time and effort – onboarding new employees, teaching them what your business does, and allowing them an acclimation period all takes time and money. If you have to do it over and over again for the same positions, it can result in major losses.

Hiring doesn’t have to be difficult. Trakstar Hire can help to make it easier by streamlining your process. It will post your jobs on the most successful job boards, help you track the applicant process, integrate with all of the tools you use, and more. To find out more about Trakstar Hire, be sure to schedule a free demo with us today.

4 Proven Tactics to Reducing Employee Turnover

If you are trying to improve employee churn and retention, there are four methods you can try that have proven success. You need to implement them in a good way, and ensure that you are following through with the work you do, remaining consistent, and embracing any change or hurdles you face.

Ask Employees Why They Have Left

If you do exit interviews with your employees, ask them why they are leaving. Often, they won’t be honest with you about what the reasons are, but you should be able to get at least an inference about why they are switching companies, careers, or placements. Sometimes employees will leave for reasons other than being unhappy at work – there are things you can’t always avoid, like moves, family changes, mental health challenges, going to school, and more. 

If you do interviews with your employees that are leaving, be sure to look for trends that could signal organization-wide changes that need to be made. You could prevent other employees from leaving, even if you can’t get those employees who have already left back.

Reward Employees When They Do Things Well

One way to reduce turnover is to reward employees who are doing the right things. Sometimes, employees can feel like the work they are doing goes unnoticed – in fact, up to 82% of employees feel like their work goes unrecognized. Even if it isn’t something monetary or physical, saying a word of appreciation is a great way to reward them. At Trakstar, we have a slack channel specifically to call out employees who are going above and beyond in their jobs. 

Some other approaches include:

• Written thank you notes
• Early Fridays
• Small thank you gifts
• Special programs
• Certificates
• New Equipment

You might think that these things are small and won’t make an impact, but they can have an impact on reducing employee turnover. You want to acknowledge new employees and old employees at the same time. Even if someone is doing a fairly consistent job, find something new to point out about the work they are doing.

This type of recognition can come from teammates, managers, HR, or even clients and customers. The goal is to create a positive feeling amongst your employees and create more engagement.

Utilize Performance Reviews – In The Right Ways

Want help reducing employee turnover? Use performance reviews as a time to talk to employees about the work they do, collect feedback on their engagement and happiness with the job, get suggestions, find out whether or not they are looking for a new job, and even limit employee churn by opening a line of communication with your employees. The traditional performance review isn’t going to be enough here. You need to utilize a performance appraisal that is multifaceted, dynamic, and actionable.

Employees who have the traditional yearly performance review with little preparation actually leave those reviews more likely to start looking for a new job. By making your review process more collaborative and dynamic, you can create a better culture around those reviews. Use them as a time to get to know your employees better, find out what makes them tick, and develop trust – trust that goes both ways. 

At the same time, your employee needs to leave the performance review feeling like they are aligned with the company, managers, and HR on all levels, including goal setting, performance expectations, and more. When most employees leave reviews feeling this way, you are actively reducing employee turnover.

If you are looking for a new, better way to do performance reviews, learn more about Trakstar Perform today. Our software helps you continually gain information about performance throughout the year so that when you do sit down for a review, you have a more productive conversation. Even better, we can help you to gain Insights from your performance reviews and the analytics behind your KPIs (key people indicators). 

Remember to Develop Soft Skills

One thing we don’t talk about regularly is how developing soft skills can be a great tactic for reducing employee turnover. Soft skills, like creativity, emotional intelligence, compassion, problem solving, and so much more can make employees great assets to your company. By developing soft skills, you are making a more conscious, adaptable workforce. 

When companies develop those soft skills, employees often feel like they are being taken care of by their employers. They are better at handling difficult situations and can help other employees be better. If you notice a high turnover rate among employees under a manager, it could be beneficial to train that manager in soft skills – it isn’t all on you or your employees. Reducing employee turnover depends on everyone.

Reducing Employee Turnover & Make Hiring Easier With The Trakstar Platform

Are you ready to reduce employee turnover? It requires growth and change at all levels of your human resources management. It starts by hiring better candidates that have a proven track record of success at companies and competence in their position, then it goes to having a great onboarding process that sets them up for success at the company, and then it goes into maintenance mode.

Performance reviews and maintenance are going to be the two most important tasks you do to reduce employee turnover. With the Trakstar Platform, you have access to a full suite of tools, tactics, tips, and resources that help you to not only keep your employees, but help them thrive in their positions. 

Don’t waste another day without taking charge of your workforce and reducing employee turnover. Schedule a demo with Trakstar today to see how you can easily make the change.