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As an employer, you must maintain satisfying the
needs of your employees. Remember, you need them just as much as
they need you. If your employees are leaving you left and right, and
you always feel like you are training someone new, then something is
wrong. You are experiencing turnover. And, it is costing you money.
Before we discuss how to prevent turnover, let’s examine the costs.
You may think that turnover is natural, and just overlook the costs.
Think about the costs of advertising for help in papers, temp
agencies and other employment publications.
What about the time of meeting with them for interviews and then the
hiring process which could include extra paperwork and costs (tax
forms, drug tests, etc).
Then, you have to train, watch, evaluate. That extra training is
costing you labor, and labor that may not even be pertaining to the
tasks at hand. And, we did not even take into consideration costly
mistakes a newbie could make.
There are several ways to prevent turnover. One can be to look at
your current staff, especially those in supervisory roles. You
probably have some great, talented, technical wizards- but are the
also the mentoring kind? You’d be surprised how many people, rather
than help out and encourage, will actually get satisfaction (and
bigger egos) out of pointing out the mistakes of others. This is
discouraging, and could be causing turnover.
You may not be able to afford getting rid of the talents of these
people for the sake of new employees, but perhaps speaking with them
to change their demeanor on the job and interaction with others will
improve working conditions.
Another method would be to simply show your employees that you are
appreciative of the work they do. Sometimes, it is the little things
that really matter. So, maybe you can periodically reward them with
small things. Company logoed sweatshirts or thermoses can boost
morale.
Also, maybe treating them to lunch or a coffee break once in a
while, especially during a job that requires extra hard work. These
little things will add up over the year, and beats having a company
picnic or dinner once a year. Think about it. They work for you year
round, so if you give a little year round, mutual respect will grow.
If you treat them once a year, you may get the
“But-we-do-everything-for-them-all-year” attitude.
Still a few more methods are promoting from within, giving a little
more control to your employees, keeping an organized and
well-maintained jobsite and making sure breaks are given, and days
off aren’t considered the end of the world are ways to keep people
happy.
Additionally, being understanding of their families needs works well
too. Remember, you may have parents who have plays to go to,
teacher-conferences, etc. These are important to them. If you
discount that and give folks a hard time, you may lose someone
important to you.
These small additions and changes to your company will give you some
ideas on how to combat turnover. If your employees are happy, you
are happy. And if you are happy, you are easier to work for, making
employees happy. It’s like one big circle, and like Peter, Paul and
Mary sang, “May the circle be unbroken!”
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