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Why Employee Turnover Can Be Good

12th February 2020

Often we speak of employee turnover in negative terms – the costs, the upheaval, the lack of productivity. But is it always a bad thing? The simple answer is, no. Employee turnover is not always bad. In fact, many modern companies are viewing employee turnover through new eyes, turning it onto its head. Employee retention can both a good thing and a bad thing.

Good vs Bad Retention

Good retention is when a company keeps employees that competitors would want.

Bad retention is when you keep employees because they are never challenged and pushed to succeed. In simple terms, employees stay within your company out of complacency, rather than your company being a great one to work for. This is never the fault of the employee. When bad retention takes place, it is always the fault of the company for allowing the workplace to become an environment in which there is no motivation for staff to progress.

Your Retention Figures

If your retention figures are good, it might be worth looking at why employees are choosing to stay with your company. Are they staying with you because you are a great company to work for, with a challenging, but fulfilling work environment? Or, are they choosing to stay because the work is easy?

New attitudes suggest that a company’s success should be measured by the employees that they support to progress within their career… even if that means the employee leaving the company. This is hard for some people to get their heads around at first, but the ultimate goal is to create a philosophy within a company whereby it is celebrated when managers support people to move on and progress. This attitude towards the retention of staff creates an atmosphere where staff are fulfilled, challenged and are therefore productive.

Summary

This new attitude suggests that retaining the ‘wrong’ people for your company is considered to be worse than losing the ‘right’ ones. Celebrating employees moving on to other challenges is considered to be the key to this approach, by supporting employees to progress and develop, thus enabling them to move onto new pastures, is arguably a badge of honour for a company. Focusing on staff engagement promotes this atmosphere and should be a key focus of any company.

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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