Turnover and Customer Service

Employees resign for many reasons, even just quitting without notice. Training new employees to replace them is expensive, time consuming and affects your customer service. Keeping your employees happy to continue to keep your company running smoothly is a priority. Here are some ideas to prevent unhappy employees and excessive turnover.

The Employee

Any employee can feel unappreciated. Perhaps it’s an employee who has been with you from the beginning when you first started building your business. The employee has enjoyed the professional and personal connection you have shared and knows that you relied on her. Knowing that what she contributes still matters is important to her. She doesn't want to feel like a cog in a wheel.

Don’t impose too many constraints without your key employees' input; it can make employees think about moving on. Keeping bright, hardworking employees challenged is also important. If employees feel as if there is nothing left to challenge them, they can become bored and begin to look elsewhere for more challenging work.

A Change in Management

The lack of support, lack of leadership and failure to realize the impact of how changes in management can affect employees can cause serious issues. One of the key issues is to make sure you speak personally with the employees who will be most affected by the changes. Employees, who once only reported to you, may now have to report to someone else. You need to keep the connection you have with your longest-serving employees without undermining their new boss.

Another big issue can be lack of management support. If a manager won’t right a legitimate wrong, or listen to grievances, it will be difficult to maintain a cohesive working staff. Also, if unrealistic goals are set without taking into consideration what it will take to actually reach those goals, it will cause a breakdown in morale and the desire to complete the task at hand.

Other Causes

Some other reasons that may cause employees to jump ship are lack of proper compensation, insufficient time off and lack of advancement. Paying employees what they are worth will help keep them happy and contented. Companies who are generous in this area are the ones most likely to keep their employees. Another cause for turnover is lack of direction. If management doesn’t supply a working model for success and nurture the employees who have vision, the employees will find another company who does. Employees are not robots who can work tirelessly day in and day out without a break. If you give your employees additional workloads without corresponding time off, workers will begin to revolt against this rigorous schedule. This will lead to higher turnover cost and lower production output as workers begin to tire and call off work.

By working hard at keeping employee rapport, excellent working conditions and compensation for additional workloads or harder working conditions, you can keep your employee turnover at a minimum which, in turn, will help keep your customer service running smoothly.

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