Staff Turnover is probably any manager’s greatest fear. You may have put all the time and effort into training an employee, for them to hand in their notice and move onto the next best opportunity. Not only does it feel like a failed investment, but many bosses just hate seeing a well-known face leave the business.
While it’s typically an inevitable consequence, what is causing staff turnover in 2022? What can we do as a manager to help prevent it? And can technology act as a helping tool to prevent your employees from leaving?
In this RekkBlog post, we will uncover the current trends of 2022 staff turnover, while also providing you with the knowledge of how to prevent it. Let’s start off with the facts…
What is the Great Resignation?
The Great Resignation is a phenomenon which has occurred particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic, where a record number of people have left their jobs since early-2021.
Source: ONS Labour Force Survey (LFS)
Figure 1 shows staff turnover numbers in the UK, where we reached an all-time high of 391,000 resignations in Q3 of 2021.
Not only can we see a surge in resignations recently, but a PwC survey highlights that almost a fifth of UK workers are expected to leave their current job, where 18% of employees state that they are “very likely” to leave their current role. A further 32% stated that they were “moderately likely” to leave their current employment.
Now we know the figures, what are the causes for the increase in staff turnover?
What are the causes of staff turnover?
Higher pay required – In the PwC survey, it was discovered that 72% of employees were looking for a higher salary. As expected, money is a huge motivation for most people. Any opportunity to get more money should be seized!
Wanting a more fulfilling job – It was also discovered that employees were looking for a more fulfilling job, where 68% of staff said they would leave for this reason. It appears that current employers aren’t providing an enriching experience for their staff.
Wanting to truly be themselves at work – Unfortunately, it appears many people don’t feel like themselves at work, where 63% of employees struggle to feel like their true selves.
Flexibility – 46% of employees wanted to get the opportunity to choose where they work, alternative to being instructed when and where they need to work. It appears having a flexible work schedule can be a valuable offering for many employers.
Other Reasons – Poor work-life balance, lack of career development opportunities, frustration with executive leadership.
Power to the People!
In a pre-20th Century economy, the power balance in employment was heavily in favour of managers. In an authoritative society, many employees certainly did not have the power they have today.
Now the power balance has shifted, unions are thriving more than ever, and employees can switch jobs quicker than you can say the words “virtual recruitment”. While employers are on their back foot, employees are able to create competition among current or prospective employers to outbid each other on salaries offered.
This shift in power ultimately leads to staff turnover due to employees recognising their worth, and simply demanding more which an employer may not be able to offer.
What can help prevent staff turnover?
Offer competitive pay and benefits
This is an obvious one – people want to be compensated well! With energy prices and overall living costs on the rise, the responsibility is left on the employer to be the safety net. While it may be painful to increase your expenses, it will certainly pay off in the long run if you’re offering good salaries compared to your competitors.
You will most likely get the best workers in the industry, and have an exponential rate of productivity with a happily money-fed workforce.
Don’t forget added benefits! Pensions, holiday pay and sick pay is a must – but get some incentive programs up and running. Things like work trips, bonuses or half days are fantastic ways to incentivise your team.
Hybrid working/allow flexible schedules
You may have heard of 4-day working weeks recently being put in place all over the world. Ultimately, we have witnessed an increase in productivity levels, where employees are generally happier and less likely to be absent. They also seem to show increased rates of retention.
Not only this, but hybrid working is becoming more popular – where employees get the opportunity to work from home on some occasions. Hybrid working is shown to improve employee well-being through providing employees with more freedom, while also giving them more control over where they work. Not only this, but it can show an increase in income through reduced expenses on commuting to work.
Recognise and reward employees
For me, this is quite possibly the most valuable thing for any boss to do. There’s nothing better than working hard for something and then getting a “pat on the back” from your employer. Now, I’m not saying you should just do things to receive recognition, but when you are truly appreciated for your hard work, it really does make a difference. It can improve your overall welfare and motivate you to work harder.
As an employer you should be regularly congratulating your employees on their achievements. Whether they’ve just completed a hard project or have just hit a personal best in sales – show them that you recognise their hard work. Potentially even reward them financially or with company trips. You’ll certainly see an increase in productivity with incentives for your employees to strive!
Identify a clear career path
If you keep your employees in a stagnant position, they might search for another role elsewhere with more promotional opportunities. Most employees want the opportunity to grow and work their way up the career ladder. If you show your employees a clear career path within your organisation, it will give them a goal-driven mindset.
Maybe you already do this, but educate your staff on how they can make their way up the ladder in your organisation. Perhaps give presentations to your employees which shows each stage in the career ladder, which is potentially a timeline of their future with your business. Show what they must do to get to the next stage, and how long this can take to hit this target. Highlight what the benefits are of being promoted, and once each employee has hit their targets, promote them!
Create learning and development programmes
This can generally improve employee morale, where you can establish clear learning and development opportunities, so employees can pursue specific areas that interest them. The criteria of these programs must be clear, fair and widely understood by employees.
The Open University offer a partnership programme with employers, where the employer can access different plans to help their employees achieve an Undergraduate Degree alongside their work. There is an excellent case example of their partnership with Uber, where exceptional drivers can do an undergraduate course themselves, or pass it on to their family members.
Can technology help with staff turnover?
Technology can generally help employers work towards preventing staff turnover, where they can use employee satisfaction polling software to recognise how happy their employees are. This is the first step in recognising the weaknesses of your organisation, and helps you implement a plan to overcome the issues analysed in the surveys.
Additionally, there are employee recognition and reward platforms which improve morale through recognising a worker’s achievements and making them feel more appreciated. An example is Kazoo, which can act as an internal social solution to help managers praise employees via this software.
Predictive analytics in HR can also play a big role, where companies like Hewlett-Packard have used predictive models to put together “flight risk” scores. These predict which employees are most likely to leave, and can help companies make more informed decisions around their employee retention efforts.
To conclude…
We hope this RekkBlog post can help you understand the importance of implementing strategies to promote an enriching and people-focused company culture. While you may already be using many of these tactics as an employer, it may be a good idea to go above and beyond to keep your employees happy and avoid staff turnover.
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By Leon Simpson – Company Director at Rekkruut
