Four Proven Ways to Stop New-Hire Turnover

November 18, 2024
Richard Finnegan
Articles

In a world of too many metrics, I’m sometimes amazed at the very important metrics we wish we had but we don’t. For example, how much does it cost a hospital when 25% of newly hired beside nurses quit in their first year?[i] Or when newbie manufacturing workers abandon their jobs in the first month? Or call center workers complete 12 full weeks of training and then no-call-no-show a week later?

We’ve invented a turnover cost calculator, an actual algorithm, that you can use that will produce a reliable cost for any employee who leaves. But the ongoing accumulation of these costs on company productivity plus the spinning wheel of hire/onboard/train/wave good-by is like an ever-worsening chronic illness. And I’m certain that illness has killed off some companies. And it’s possible those companies thought early turnover was just “the cost of doing business”, flying blindly, right up till the end.

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Further Reading: Escape the Benchmark Data Trap and Calculate Turnover’s Real Cost

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Data Says Much, and an Impact Example is Manufacturing’s Monthly Turnover Churn

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us that the median tenure for US workers has slipped to 3.9 years, down from 4.1 years in 2022 and the lowest since 2002.[ii] This slip seems tiny except when compared to the average tenure of baby boomers which has been greater than 8 years which is double the above amount.[iii]

We will miss them in oh so many ways. Even the “get off my lawn” ones who still brought day-to-day grit to their jobs.

Many manufacturing companies tell us a tale like this one:

Last year we lost 241 employees and hired 236. We’re trying to grow staff but it’s impossible because every month we’re hiring about as many as we’re losing.

This is probably why we buy faulty products. The machines that make the products work OK but not the people who run them. One must wonder how well these new hires are trained when rushed into production, and how much they care if they feel unwelcomed or unprepared. I’ve actually heard stories of managers who say I won’t memorize their names until I know if they’re going to stick around.

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Further Reading: Young Workers, “Grit”, and New-Hire Turnover

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The Cavalry Isn’t Coming to Fix Turnover

My recent work with the U.S. Census Bureau makes clear that fewer new workers will come our way, and the quality of those workers offers no greater promise. That sentence is as meaningful as any in this report, so it’s time that we get a lot smarter about who we hire and how we retain them. Here are four ideas that I promise will work.

New-Hire Retention Idea #1:

Invest at least 10 hours to develop a realistic job preview. Start with the top 3 reasons employees in this job quit and the top 3 reasons you fire them. Take candidates on a realistic job tour, turning on the “tell’ and turning off the “sell”, using these examples:

How hot/cold/wet does it really get in here?
How much overtime and is it forced?
How many people have you fired this year because of attendance?
When will my pay increase?
How much time do I have to ramp up to meet the production standards?
What must I learn in the first 30 days?
What’s the real percentage of time I must travel?
Is your return-to-office policy final or might it change?

Then ask each candidate (1) what’s the least attractive part of this job, and (2) how unattractive is that part on a scale of 1 to 10? Some you will pass on and others have already gone out the door. But the remaining group is better prepared to stick around.

New-Hire Retention Idea #2

Advise them to accept your offer only if they can see themselves working with you for at least one full year. The counter is they might have plans to take your job short-term till they get a better one, or return to school, or move away to another town. Stress how much actual job training and coaching you will provide such that two-way trust is required to move forward.

While a few might lie, some will refuse your job based on their personal integrity…and those who take your job will recall their commitment during a bad day in their fourth month. These are both good outcomes and will improve your productivity and reduce workforce errors.

New-Hire Retention Idea #3

Hold first-line supervisors accountable to new-hire retention goals. Calculate the percentage of new hires who reach 30/60/90/180 days to determine the targeted retention period, and then establish a goal to improve it. Tell supervisors they are accountable for that goal and how you will report it…and then tell them 1-1 if they are making their goal and what they need to do better.

New-Hire Retention Idea #4

Hold your in-house recruiters accountable to the same new-hire retention goal, knowing they represent the first gate to employment with your company. And if you have multiple recruiters, horse-race them against each other to see who advances the highest percentage of new hires who stay through the goal period.

And if you want to ensure early retention success, invite us to train those first-line supervisors to conduct Stay Interviews in the ways I invented that concept way back in 2012. Open their minds to the precise reasons why each newly-hired employee joins, stays, and might leave, along with what that supervisor can address in order to retain that treasured worker.

Getting an “A-ha!” to Tackle Turnover

You can use our free turnover calculator to see what even just one open job is costing your organization. Costing turnover is the beginning for gaining vigorous support from your c-suite to then establish retention goals for leaders, implement Stay Interviews, and all other solutions that are part of Finnegan’s Arrow®.