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What Causes Employee Turnover and How Can You Lower It?

12th February 2020

High employee turnover rates can be caused by a variety of different things, many of which are entirely fixable. Once you have acknowledged that your employee turnover rates are high, it can be useful to decipher why this might be. There are a few common reasons for employee turnover…

  1. Lack of recognition. Employees like to feel that they are valued and that their hard work is recognised. When employees feel they are not getting the recognition they deserve, they might decide to leave a company. There are many simple ways to make employees feel that their contributions are valuable. Whether this is through a bonus scheme or simply developing the employee feedback structure, this can be easily rectified.
  2. Lack of opportunities for growth. If a company does not have opportunities for growth or progression, it is understandable that employees might not wish to stay there in the long term. Companies might choose to implement more learning opportunities for their employees, or provide opportunities for staff to progress within the company and take on more responsibilities. There are plenty of ways to ensure staff feel as though they have the opportunity to grow and develop.
  3. Management. This is arguably the most common reason people choose to leave a company. Poor management can cost companies significant amounts of money and dramatically increase employee turnover. It has been found that the qualities employees hope to find in a manager are: knowledgeable, respectful, organised, reliable and supportive.[1] These should all be taken into account when hiring for managerial positions or developing the leadership skills of current managers.
  4. Workplace culture. This simply boils down to the atmosphere of the workplace. Nobody wants to work somewhere where the atmosphere is uncomfortable, unsupportive or just plain difficult. Employees spend a lot of their lives at work, often around co-workers, and fostering a positive workplace environment can dramatically decrease employee turnover. A recent study found that the work environment is the biggest influence on job satisfaction and therefore ensuring a conducive workplace decreases turnover.[2]

Summary

Just because you have high rates of employee turnover does not mean that you need to panic. There are various ways you can decrease employee turnover and by finding the root of the problem, it can soon be rectified. Having regular contact with employees and incorporating exit interviews into your company can be a simple way of finding out what changes you can make in your company and therefore improve your retention figures.


[1] https://www.ccu.edu/blogs/cags/2017/06/10-characteristics-of-an-effective-manager/

[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212567115005249

Filed in: Employee Turnover

About the Author:

Nikky van Bommel is the Marketing Director for Big 5 Assessments and has worked in the Psychometric Testing industry for over 10 years. Nikky is responsible for all marketing and social media for the organisation.

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