How to Define Turnover

Employee turnover is a subject that business managers and corporate executives must deal with continually. Simply speaking, employee turnover is the percentage of a company's total number of employees that must be replaced at any given moment. Most managers will say that the higher the rate of employee turnover, the higher the cost to the company itself. All companies keep an eye on their employee turnover rate because it is a major cost of doing business. When an employee is to be replaced, the company will incur the cost of advertising the job, possible headhunting fees, costs accrued by the human resource department, lost productivity and training, just to name a few. These costs can amount to as much as the worker's salary, or more, depending on the industry and the level of employee being replaced. High employee turnover is a reflection of the way the company views employees. Here are a few things to consider.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Prepare a company-wide questionnaire in which you ask all employees, anonymously, what represents the company's most important asset and if the company can be considered the Employer of Choice. You might be very surprised by the results.
2. Act on the results of the questionnaire, if you want to maintain credibility as a manager. Failure to do so will only increase your company's employee turnover.
3. Recognize that employee relations is not just a job for the folks in the personnel department. The company's culture and environment is in the hands of senior management.
4. While you might succeed in reducing your company's employee turnover rate, you will always find yourself in the position of recruiting and retaining good people. That responsibility becomes easier if you are successful in making your company the employer of choice, although that will take both time and money.
5. Always be on the lookout for good people to work at your company. In most cases, the best candidates already have a job and are reasonably satisfied. Making contact with them for the future will make your job easier when the time becomes appropriate.
6. Recognize that companies with the highest job satisfaction ratings are not necessarily those with the highest salaries. Recognition, praise for work well done, a sense of belonging are all more important to most people.
7. If all your efforts fail to stem the outward flow of employees, look for outside help to create to create the kind of company culture and environment that will result in improved employee turnover.