The four habits of companies with low employee turnover

When you start a new job it takes time to find your way round, remember everyone’s name and make sense of all those new acronyms. It’s a tad overwhelming, a lot to take on board. In fact, it takes the average new starter 28 weeks to reach full productivity*. That’s half a year of lost time every time someone leaves a firm.

While attrition is natural and healthy in moderation, above average rates of voluntary exits are telling you something about your company culture. In the age of social media, peer-to-peer review websites and with talent at a premium, businesses can’t afford not to review their culture. 

Four key areas where world class companies stand out. 

1. An extended sense of responsibilities to their people

Companies that recognise people as their main value driver know they need to take responsibility for emotional wellbeing.

Listening to employee issues is just the start of it. Companies with a people-first approach don’t hesitate to mention that additional support is available before people are struggling, even when problems aren’t work related.

The more supported people feel, the less stress they carry with them as a matter of course and the more likely they will excel in their roles which benefits workplace atmosphere and collaborative spirit.

As well as helping people in a career-building sense, world class companies go beyond the traditional call of duty, providing add-ons such as free mental health services and financial wellbeing training.

2. Proactive, pragmatic attitudes to pay and packages

Genuine people-first companies have remuneration packages that reflect the company ideology and benefit the people you want to attract and keep.

Taking a strategic approach on this can mean the difference between people feeling valued or not, which will impact on performance.

Different people want different things from a package of course; compare the needs of an aging but relatively well-off employee to those of young professionals scrimping and saving for their first home. The mind-set of seeing people for what they are outside of the workplace runs deep within companies with a switched on, strategic approach to their workforce.

Surveys and benchmarking against competitors are regular activities for proactive, pragmatic HR leaders.

If you would like some help studying what your competitors offer, speak to Howden. We have access to respected benchmarking tools that help you compare, contrast and plan to outmanoeuvre your rivals by sector, geography and company size.

3. Hiring the right people in the right way

Work life is always a popular topic of conversation, particularly with people who are job hunting.

Companies that play this to their advantage invest in talented recruiters internally or externally and take time giving them a crystal-clear brief, in order to avoid a thick pile of lacklustre CVs.  

Getting the right candidates to interview is hard enough but once they’re in the process it pays to make it fast, friendly and efficient. All assessment measures should seem reasonable and befitting of the role, as it’s easy to turn people off by making the company seem arbitrary by nature.

The ‘personality’ of a top quality company should shine through the entire recruitment process, really selling what the employee experience will be like, with particular reference to points one and two.

For companies that really stand out during the recruitment process, even unsuccessful candidates become advocates, as job hunters share their experiences with friends and trusted colleagues.

4. Optimising performance through good communication

Once the right people are on board, the biggest key to optimising performance is an on-going dialogue.

Starting with new employees, the vision of the company is properly explained when they join. And they don’t just talk – they listen too, taking the time to learn what motivates them.  

This is a two-way process, throughout their career.

The appraisal process should be simple enough to use so that everyone participates wholeheartedly. Feedback disseminated in the right places should be used to iron out issues before they become reasons for someone to exit.

Understanding what is bothering or obsessing your employees and finding solutions all across the business is a major challenge, but one that people centric companies relish.  

Make it fun: work is like a party

In summary, to retain people, great companies create work-life experiences that meet expectations from day one of a new entrant’s career.

If you like analogies, try thinking of your business as a host at the world’s longest tea party. A never ending tea party, in fact.  

The party must be planned. To have a good time your guests should be interested (as far as possible), find out new things and go home ready to talk with enthusiasm about what they’ve been doing.

If the party gets tedious they’ll leave and they won’t necessarily say why.

Smart employers know loyalty must be earned. They think about how to engage the workforce the whole time, because they recognise the financial rewards can be huge.

Being a good employer makes your business more profitable, and the right people are notoriously hard to find and hard to keep.