Reduce Turnover With These Strategies

Companies can track employee turnover as a way to gauge how well firms keep employees and for how long. Many employers have experienced a higher-than-normal turnover rate due to the improving economy as workers leave for better-paying jobs. Hiring just one person may cost employers a few thousand dollars in time spent on the project alone.

Vacancies cost firms billions of dollars each year, and high employee turnover prevents human resources departments from focusing on other ways to help employees on the job. Statistics show as many as 91 percent of millennials, or workers born from 1980 to 2000, expect to stay at their jobs three years or less. Average worker tenure is 4.4 years. A company that can retain employees for longer periods may even prevent the firm's future demise.

Try some of these strategies to find employees who want to work for you. When you surround yourself with workers who love their jobs, you spend more time on making money and less time on worrying who may quit today. Reduce your turnover rate with some preventive measures to save time and effort now.

Assess someone's fit with your company culture. An employee who loves to meet people, make customers happy and tout your firm's products or services may make a perfect salesperson. A worker who lives and breathes your company culture and mission becomes more satisfied and productive for your team. Use pre-employment assessment tools that measure a person's background, work ethic, employment history, integrity and personal reliability. These tools reduce employee turnover before you even hire someone.

Consider using probationary or trial periods to test an employee's adaptability to your company. The new hire understands that if certain criteria aren't met within 90 days, the person's employment may end. Withhold benefits such as health insurance or wellness programs until an employee finds the motivation to work hard for three full months. This may reduce employee turnover, paperwork and manpower if the new hire decides to look for other opportunities in the interim period, and human resources staff can turn to the pool of candidates for more possibilities to fill the position. Probationary periods may reveal someone's true character beyond the interview process.

Offer flexibility for work-life balance benefits such as telecommuting, parenting leave and extra days off for meeting various incentives. Implement an employee onboarding program that eases the transition into a new position. This program introduces new staffers to the rest of the company.

Referrals reduce employee turnover. When a new hire comes from someone's recommendation within the company, the employee may already be familiar with aspects of the company that make the person a natural fit. Plus, the new worker has at least one friend at the company before he shows up for his first day.

Industries with high turnover include food service, entertainment and retail. Human resources professionals should always know how often someone leaves the company. When your industry has lower turnover averages, figure out how to keep employees or your competition may gain more market share.

Employee turnover doesn't have to become a burden. Instead of having a defeatist attitude where you feel you can do nothing about it, identify the problem and hire better talent through several proven strategies.

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