Sitting in a top management meeting, “turnover” comes up, and all eyes become focused on the HR Director. The forever-assumption has been that HR is about people and turnover is about people too, so HR should therefore solve turnover. So what should HR say when all eyes turn to them?
My professional passion for cutting turnover began decades ago with my CEO saying words that HR professionals, dread: “Turnover is high so HR, go fix it.” Looking back, I knew then that I had learned a lesson mostly unknown across HR circles.
The key turning point is when top team has determined the dollar cost of turnover and realizes paying a percentage of the cost to fill those jobs is a win/win, and actually a bigger win for the company.
The common belief is that the employees quitting during “The Great Resignation” are young and don’t make much money, so replacing their meager incomes is easily done. Two reports throw a heavy wrench into the assumption that the majority of quits are entry-level workers.
We believe a good retention strategy moves you past lamenting about Quiet Quitters and keeps the focus on the opportunity to retain your best workers.
Two years ago, at SHRM21, I gave a presentation called Seven Proofs That Managers Drive Engagement & Retention, Not HR. It was clear then that there was a disconnect between what research tells us and what we do to improve retention. I’m revisiting my notes from that event to see how far retention efforts have come in two years.
The highly-respected Gallagher 2023 Workforce Trends Report survey of 4,000+ organizations says that employee retention remains priority #1. Not only did 66% of HR executives say so, but more than half of operations executives did as well. So businesses who must get product out the door now see turnover as their main obstacle, just as nurse turnover drives patient-care shortcomings and ever-increasing agency costs.
Employee engagement directly impacts productivity far more than pay, benefits, and other compensations. However, most employee engagement conversations are centered on survey scores because scores are tangible. But engagement is more than just a number, and one day of data isn’t enough metric to measure it effectively.
The forced work-from-home in 2020 and 2021 has led to two immediately-recognizable acronyms: WFH for work-from-home and RTO for return-to-office. From the employee side, WFH represents options. For employers, the combination of WFH + RTO = higher turnover, worse recruiting, and for-certain-resulting lower productivity.
Four-day workweeks feel trendy, almost fad-like, but data shows its popular with employees. On the company side, data suggests work satisfaction and productivity is up, recruiting is easier…and turnover is down. And during these days of extreme workforce shortages, every company is seeking a recruiting edge. Could this be “it”?