Keeping Retention Goals Top of Mind

This week we take a deep dive into how to actually cut turnover…and how to achieve our standard of cutting it by 30% or more. And the third image below tells a great story.

Most of you know our employee retention strategy…based on science versus “best practices”…is based on our Finnegan’s Arrow model that looks like this:

• Component #1: Converting turnover to dollars alarms executives to act
• Component #2: Establishing retention goals makes retention an operations metric versus an HR one
• Component #3: Stay Interviews enable leaders to build trust by seeing work through the eyes of their individual employees…and by solving their day-to-day issues
• Component #4: Asking leaders to forecast how long each employee will stay drives leaders’ commitment to retain them

Which leave us with component #5, accountability. Each of you reading this blog knows that nothing happens in organizations without accountability…nothing…yet my guess is fewer than 5% of global companies, large and small, actually hold someone accountable for turnover. This is why Finnegan’s Arrow begins with converting turnover to dollars. It’s the wake-up call.

And if any of that select group of companies that actually hold someone accountable for turnover chooses HR versus first-line leaders, they are way, way off track…because the #1 reason employees quit jobs is they don’t trust their immediate supervisors, proven by at least 25 research studies.

Wayne Farms is a major supplier of chicken to Chick-Fil-A with plants located throughout the southeast US. As our client, Wayne Farms’ top team fully embrace all Finnegan’s Arrow components but especially components #2 and #5, goals and accountability. This picture below tells a most interesting story:

At first glance, these women appear to be a group of hard-working, hard-hatted Wayne Farms employees. They are supervisors, though, and if we could peek closely at their helmets we would see this sticker:

The sticker represents two turnover goals each supervisor has agreed to achieve. One number represents an annual turnover goal and the other a new-hire turnover goal. So how many times during the day are supervisors reminded of their retention goals? MANY…including the first time each day they put on their helmets, each time they look at or speak with another supervisor…and even when they look in a mirror. Now THAT is an organizational commitment to retention accountability.

How much would your turnover fall if each of your supervisors were reminded of their retention goal twenty or more times each day?

The outcome of this full Finnegan’s Arrow implementation is Wayne Farms’ employee turnover is down a full 22% during 2021 at the one plant we worked with. Turnover is down…way down…for blue-collar workers at a time when:

• Many food plant workers have quit their jobs because they fear catching Covid from others.

• Predominately female workforces like Wayne Farms’ have higher turnover because more moms are staying home to home-school their children after trying pandemic-driven virtual learning…or not wanting their children to be in close contact with other children during these covid times.

• Quits among millennials and gen Z are at record numbers, especially among low-paying jobs for which pay is more easily replaceable.

• And the “Great Resignation” is sweeping our nation resulting in the highest-ever number of employees quitting their jobs.

Employee retention doesn’t happen by accident. Cutting turnover requires implementing more than just any plan, any ideas drawn up on a whiteboard based on what tradition has told us. New times and their associated new challenges require us to think freshly, think boldy…and think scientifically, based on what has proven to work. Finnegan’s Arrow drives down turnover because it works just like sales…as salespeople know the dollar value of a sale for themselves and their company, they have sales goals/tools/forecasts…and they are then accountable for achieving their goals and developing accurate forecasts.

Wayne Farms is successfully putting Finnegan’s Arrow to work. And their turnover will continue to fall.

Setting retention and engagement goals for 2022? I’m happy to share insights, client success stories, and more to help you set the right course for retention, engagement, and real solutions – free of charge. Just email me at DFinnegan@C-SuiteAnalytics.com to set up a time to talk.