What is Employee turnover

Employee turnover is the number of employees that leave the organization and are replaced by new employees. A high attrition rate means that the Employee turnover calculation will produce a larger number.

It is essential for an organization to timely calculate the Employee turnover to understand its attrition rate and create and implement corrective measures.

Read Also: 15 Tips For HR Managers To Create A Sustainable Company Culture

Higher Employee turnover is a great concern to organizations since there is a cost involved in hiring, training, and retaining an employee.

This money is washed down the drain when the employee decides to let go of the organization.

Types of Employee turnover

There are different reasons why an employee would leave an organization. The kind of Employee turnover depends on the reason why the employee was let go.

1. Involuntary Employee Turnover

Involuntary termination of an employee for reasons such as poor performance, not adhering to company policies, extensive absence from work, etc.,

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2. Voluntary Employee Turnover

When an employee voluntarily releases themselves from the organization for reasons such as joining a different company, relocating to a different city, higher studies, etc.,

3. Desirable Turnover

This is one of those instances where Turnover is not considered as a negative factor. In occasions where an underperforming employee is replaced with an employee that exceeds the expectation of the organization, it is regarded asa Desirable Turnover.

4. Undesirable Turnover

When a company is losing employees, who have always exceeded the company expectation and have shown potential work throughout their career.

How is Employee turnover calculated?

There are different calculations to derive the Employee turnover percentage. The simplest and widely used options are mentioned below. All we need are 3 data points:

  1. The number of employees in the beginning (B)
  2. The number of employees in the end (E)
  3. The number of employees that left during this period (L)

Number of employees who left the organization

Employee turnover % = —————————————————————   X 100

(Number of employees in Beginning + Ending) / 2

Tips to reduce the Employee turnover percentage

1. Hiring

Select the right candidate for the right role. All’s well that begins well. Choosing a candidate that is not the perfect fit for the role will obviously make it harder for the employee and employer to function appropriately.

2. Recognizing candidate potential during interviews

Stressing, on the first point, does not mean that makes the hiring process so narrow that you miss out hiring talented candidates. Remember, if not for the programme you are currently hiring, you may use the candidate for a different programme in your organization.

It is also possible that you may train the candidate to suit the requirements of the programme. As long as this works, well and good. It is a call you as a recruiter need to take during the hiring process.

3. Compensation

One of the main reasons for Employee turnover is compensation. It is important to provide the right compensation to the right employee.

Compensation does not necessarily mean only the basic salary. There could be options such as Incentives, Bonus, Health benefits, etc., that can work as both compensation and motivation towards working better.

Read Also: 15 Things HR Manager Must Consider When Dealing With Family Leave

There are also surveys that show that many Millennials refrain from taking up jobs that do not pay them well. They seem to have learnt the lesson from their parent’s careers. Decent remuneration quals reduced Employee turnover.

4. Buddy system

Every organization has a training programme and dedicated trainers to perform these pieces of training. While this is a definite winner, it will also help if employees can share knowledge with their peers through the training session or buddy system.

This will help employees improve their knowledge through discussions and mutual help.

Buddy system or assigning older employees to monitor newbies will also instil a sense of satisfaction in their minds since monitoring over the new-hires is more like a progression within the organization and employees think that they are being recognized for their talents.

5. Respect employees

It is vital for the managers to show their respect towards their subordinates. Realize their potential and include them in the decision-making process.

Employees are not a fan of the idea of conclusions being made for them. They are the most integral part of the programme and hence will have more ideas and feedback about the programme. As a manager, it is crucial that you implement their feedback and suggestions.

It is also easier to create proactive processes to ensure that negative customer impacts, such as customer dissatisfaction and complains, does not arise.

Employees tend to stick around longer when they know that their voice is heard.

6. Positive feedback

Everyone is all about giving constructive criticism and feedback when something isn’t going right. However, it is also important to share feedback when the employee is doing it right.

Positive feedback works as praise and appreciation. A 2-minute casual talk with an employee on how they are doing it right will go a long way.

Recognition is one of the significant ways to retain an employee and reduce Employee turnover.

7. Fun at work

A great way to retain employees is having fun at work. It is often seen that the Employee turnover percentage is lower in organizations that have regular fun activities at work when compared to those who don’t.

Considering that they spend most of their time in the office, it is ideal for the organization to invest time and effort in conducting programme / individual-centric fun activities.

Some employees state that compensation takes a back seat in companies that takes time and effort to improve the employee’s happy quotient.

8. Work-Life balance

Spending most of their time at work is not some anyone enjoys. It is vital for any organization to understand and act on it.

Flexible hours, Work from Home options,etc., are some of the policies an organization could have. Remember, their child’s fancy dress competition is just as important as work.

9. Rewards and Recognition

Employee turnover is higher in organizations that do not follow a regular Rewards and Recognition Plan. It is vital for employees to know that the organization recognizethem.

It is also vital to ensure that undeserving employees do not receive rewards from upper management. This will impact employees more negatively than not receiving any rewards at all.

10. Bonus according to corporate bonus

There is no harm in following a limitless bonus programme. As a matter of fact, this opens up various opportunities to the employees. They also understand that you, as an organization, trust them.

When there is a business profit, a part of it can be paid to the employees. This will only motivate them better to work towards the organization’s vision; meaning, more business profits.

It will also help to celebrate achieving such organizational milestones with the employees. This does not have to be a costly affair; buying breakfast for your employees would do too.

11. Forecasting

Overtime is one of the significant issues employees face in an organization. Forecasting and staffing accordingly will ensure such situations does not come up. Even if it does, you can explain it to the employees so that they are prepared.

If it is absolutely required for the programme to get employees to work overtime, ensure that you compensate them well for the work overload. Nobody wants to work for free, let alone work extra for free. You are sure to lose employees in this case.

12. Career growth

Employee turnover is linked with a lack of carrier growth more often than you think. Internal Job Postings is vital for the employee’s growth, and each organization need to have an ongoing plan to move employees internally according to their skills.

An organization can either train employees for the movement or ask the employees to train themselves. It is, however, held at high praise if employees receive help from organizations to improve their skill sets.

We understand that this is a time and money consuming process for any company, however, it is essential to understand that the money spent on these training these employees are invested in the company itself when the employee implements the training in their new role.

Also, it is easier to hire and train entry-level employee than to hire a management level employee and educate them on the company policies and procedures.

13. Work culture

Having a tight-knight, and casual work culture will enable employees to build friendships within the organization. Employee turnover may not seem much of a problem when friends work with friends.

Read Also: 6 Ways How Poor Leave Management Impacts Business

These are some of the top tips and tricks that we curated for you to bring down the Employee turnover numbers. Following even one of these processes will make huge differences. Don’t believe us? Try it for yourself; thank us later.

Feedback can’t ever be negative if you know how to present it in the right way. Each employee achieves something, while facing troubles in some areas of his or her work.

Feedback should help employees positively acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses. That is what positive feedback means.

With a few efforts, you can give positive and meaningful feedback to your employees.

Read Also: 35 Leadership Skills Every Manager Needs To Master

1. Go beyond “Great Job”

When an employee spends hours and hours working on a presentation, you can’t motivate just by saying a Great Job. 

It does convey that you liked the work. But you need more words to encourage that same employee to keep working with the same determination.

Adding details to your feedback and becoming specific increase the value of your feedback. You can say-

Your competitor evaluation in the presentation was exactly what we wanted to clarify our point. Amazing work!

If you see, detailing your feedback it not about saying more stuff. It is about becoming specific with what you want to convey. This clarifies the confusions in the mind of your employee. He or she will know what you expect in the future as well.

Simply saying “You did a great job” won’t tell an employee what he or she has done right. You need to clarify what you liked and which areas require more work.

2. Create a comfortable environment

Positive feedback can have some point, in which, an employee has to work on. To positively represent your feedback, you need to create a comfortable environment first.

No need to publicly advertise a feedback ever. Feedback should be a private, one-on-one conversation between you and your employee.

A one-on-one conversation gives more meaning to your praises and criticism. You create a calm and relaxed environment where your employee can think about everything you say right at that moment.

This conveys your support to employees in growing their skills and abilities.

Even praising in private is better than advertising it. Many people don’t want to stand in the spotlight. They simply want to do their work right.

Such people want you to give your feedbacks personally in a one-on-one communication setting. However, you can judge the needs of your employee and praise some of them in front of others.

3. Merge three strengths with three concerns

You or your managers can work on creating balanced feedback with three strengths and three concerns. The strengths should contain the accomplishments of an employee, while the concerns should include areas where that employee can grow.

The strengths motivate and encourage an employee to work on the concerns and improve consistently. At the same time, the strengths also tell how to do things correctly in future. It is as if you offer a list of “what to do” and “what not to do” with your feedback.

This way, you offer positive feedback to each employee without putting too much pressure on them. Your praise makes them value your suggestions regarding the scope of improvement. So, they put more effort into improving their capabilities.

4. Give it a positive ending

The key to positive feedback is to encourage employees. For that, each employee should leave your office with a smile on his or her face.

You should end every feedback with a positive comment. Present all the scope of improvements in the beginning. Use your second half of the conversation to describe how an employee has impressed you.

Your closing comments should convey that you appreciate your employee’s contribution to the growth of the organization. Put positive thoughts into words and let each employee know how much you appreciate his or her presence in the company.

Your employee will leave your office with a positive thought and motivated mindset. This feeling will stay fresh in their mind even if the words get blurred after a few months.

Read Also: How to Improve Policy Implementation at Workplace

5. Talk about performance, not someone’s personality

When constructing statements of your feedback, make sure you don’t judge the personality of an employee. You need to comment on how they perform instead of attacking their personality characteristics.

So, instead of saying- “Your arrogance has become a problem.”

Try saying- “When you oppose my ideas during client meetings, it sends a wrong message.”

Remember that you are not there to attack your employees. You want to help them improve their capabilities in a positive way. So, don’t target their hearts, try to appeal to their minds with your feedback.

6. Give a purpose to your employee

Your feedbacks should have a forward-moving tone. It should inspire an employee to work better and improve regularly.

Which is why you need to outline your feedback with clear objectives. Sit with your managers to describe a few objectives for each employee. Then, shape those objectives in positive statements.

Convey your feedback as an outline for the future. This saves employees from regretting about what they have done wrong in the past. Their minds immediately go into an action mode. They feel they have a chance to make things right.

At the same time, you should clearly convey that all the possible support is available at the expense of the employee. Make sure each employee knows that you are there to guide and support in the process.

7. Link your feedback to an organizational impact

The strength of your feedback increases a thousand times when you align it with an organizational impact. Suppose an employee has delivered his end of work on-time for the last 6 months.

This surely has helped other departments performing better, which has increased the growth rate of the whole organization.

Simply saying that an employee is punctual with his deadlines is not effective enough. But when you describe the organizational impact of his support, it motivates him to keep working with the same determination.

To give such in-depth feedback, you first need to recognize organizational impacts of the behaviors and efforts of your employees.

Then, you can outline each individual characteristic in connection with a large organizational impact. It conveys to each employee how their small actions decide the fate of the company. So, they become more responsible.

8. Document and prepare your feedback approach in advance

The preparation of feedback should be an ongoing process for managers and higher authorities. It would be wise to keep developing performance reports consistently for each employee.

Create a list of positive assets each employee brings to the table. This way, you will know what to say when the time of giving feedback comes. Also, you can use the same reports to decide on appraisals and promotions.

Using the prepared reports, you can practice your feedback in advance. If you want, make a list of bullet points for each employee.

These bullet points can have every factor you want to talk about such as performance, achievements, job behavior, and others. This helps you choose the right words and cover everything to offer comprehensive feedback to each employee.

9. Choose the right time to give feedback

When you have some positive and constructive things to convey, find the right time. Giving positive feedback right after finishing a project or before the beginning of a project seems logical.

Your positive words further motivate your employees to improve their efforts.

Just after finishing a project successfully, you can offer your positive feedback to appreciate employees’ contributions. This allows each employee to know that their hard work has been noticed.

If you choose to give your feedbacks right before a project, your appreciative words can trigger the sense of improvement in employees. This allows each employee to use your feedback right away on a new project.

You can choose a time that suits the mindset of your employees.

Read Also: 20 Skills Required For Effective Team Management

10. Make your feedback session interactive

Your feedback session should be as interactive as possible. It will allow employees to convey their work approach, performance capabilities and the challenges they face.

At the same time, you can learn more about the reasons why some employees succeed while others struggle to perform optimally. The interactive approach also leads to some ground level ideas and plans, which helps in improving the work system as a whole.

The interactive approach becomes easier to achieve when you outline your feedback in a positive tone. Even the concerns are presented as a scope of work, which allows employees to express their conflicts.

Along with all the mentioned tips, you should also try to be as direct as possible. Give your feedbacks personally without using a messenger or a communication channel.

Also, include observations instead of interpretations. If you can accomplish all of that, it will create a growth mindset in your whole organization.

Positive feedback to your employees is fuel to perform better in the coming future. Genuine praise and genuine concern are taken positively by everyone. You just need to choose the right words without judging an employee.

You can accomplish a lot with positive feedback. So, use the mentioned ideas to improve your ability to convey them.