Can Stay Interviews Cut Turnover for Temporary Help, Too?

October 31, 2023
Richard Finnegan
Articles

First the facts. Stay Interviews helped cut temporary help turnover by 39% at an average savings for each employee of $7,300, saving their company $810,300 in 2019. The company is United Facilities which manages many of the massive distribution centers you see on the sides of interstates, wherein forklift drivers are essential employees who can be difficult to find and retain.

Is Temporary Help Even Still a “Thing” During “The Great Resignation”?

One must pause to ask who wants to be a temporary worker in today’s economy when high pay and good benefits abound? That answer is, “many.” Many workers, now more than ever, value their independence to such a level that retaining them…and helping them reduce their absences so they don’t fire themselves…is a top-flight challenge.

“The Great Resignation” is About More than Pay

The Wall Street Journal reported on an Upwork study telling us more about freelance workers.[i] That group is rapidly expanding with the carrots being more money, flexible hours, and control of the type and amount of work they perform.

What are the greatest motivators? Eighty percent said control over schedule while 73% indicated location flexibility.

Initially C-Suite Analytics’ work with United Facilities covered three locations in three different areas of the U.S. We initially targeted full-time United Facilities’ employees where we helped cut turnover by a range of 39% to 58%, cutting costs and improving production metrics.

Then savvy topside leadership driven by HR Director Renna Bliss elected to take on turnover for their temporary workforce who are most interested in control and independence of their schedules. Could Stay Interviews be as effective for retaining them?

Stay Interviews are just Part of the Solution

Stay Interviews were and continue to be a crucial part of our solution, but they are joined by asking leaders to achieve two retention goals, one for all turnover and the other for 60-day new-hire turnover, and also to forecast how long employees will stay. It is these two metrics, goals and forecasts, that drive each individual supervisor’s attention and commitment to conducting Stay Interviews with their teams, and therefore learning each employee’s needs and then solving them.

For all employees…full-time, part-time, temporary, or on the c-suite level…the number one reason they stay or leave, or engage or disengage, is how much they trust their immediate supervisors. With United Facilities smart help, we’ve proven temporary employees are just the same and can be retained, even during these times.