The start of a new year is often a popular time for employees to actively look for new jobs, leaving some employers asking why. Frequently, staff leave due to a number of factors, not just one issue.
Let’s consider first what a high turnover really means for your business before looking at innovative approaches to increase employee satisfaction.
Why staff turnover rates matter
High turnover rates affect a business’ productivity levels as well as the continuity of services to both internal and external stakeholders. Moreover, losing an employee can cost the company both time and money as new talent needs to be attracted, trained and retained.
As a flow-on effect from this, team dynamics are likely suffer, which could affect the culture negatively and only further encourage individuals to leave as they become less satisfied.
Organisations that are reluctant to change have always been prone to higher turnover rates. And, as the workforce becomes dominated by the millennial generation and its expectations for better work-life balance, businesses might be forced to adapt sooner rather than later if they want to remain successful.
How you can improve employee satisfaction
In 2016, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) published a report which concluded that the three leading satisfaction contributors are respectful treatment of all employees, remuneration and benefits and overall job security.
From this, leaders can deduce how important it is to:
1. Cultivate a positive culture.
According to the SHRM, millennials value trust, equality, community and purpose in the workplace. As such, organisations who want to retain this younger generation of employees need to emphasise building emotional connections that enable open communication.
2. Provide development and training opportunities.
The best talent has always thrived off a challenge and meaningful projects. Businesses that nurture this side of high-performers and provide staff with possibilities to develop their skills further are likely to not only gain the respect but also loyalty of their workforce.
3. Prioritise health.
Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, suggests one of the biggest opportunities for organisations to improve their turnover rate is to encourage employees to prioritise their health. Stress-related illnesses, unhealthy eating habits and inactive lifestyles all contribute to overall dissatisfaction, which inevitably affects the work environment negatively as well. At Strategic Pay, our experience in remuneration, rewards and performance management enables us to help even the most complex organisations improve their employee satisfaction levels. So, if you would like some expert advice, don’t hesitate to contact us today.
