Insights into the hidden costs of turnover and tips on how to retain employees this year
The past couple of years have really challenged business owners. Some industries, like video conferencing, delivery services, and cannabis experienced an unprecedented wave of expansion, generating a whole new workforce demand. Many others found themselves scrambling for PPP loans, letting go of office space, and cutting personnel to keep the company afloat. Whether your staff is booming or bare bones, retaining employees is vital to ensuring your continued success and growth.
Turnover has always been a paramount hurdle for employers, and this pandemic has also taught us meaningful investments to combat it: better benefits, higher pay, more flexibility, a better company culture, and team building are all proven methods for keeping a robust and productive workforce. You’ve put a lot of time and energy into cultivating your staff; now it’s important to retain and develop them. All the reasons retention is important are interconnected, and if you fall short in one category, employees may compound that loss across many. Here are just a few ways turnover can be incredibly detrimental:
- Cost
The price of finding a replacement can be upwards of 2 times an existing employee’s annual salary. Simply put, it’s much more prudent, financially, to invest in current employees than to hire new ones. - Time
The time associated with sifting through candidates, interviewing, making offers, onboarding, and training new employees is one of the most significant contributors to that financial burden (not to mention when that investment results in a candidate’s declining the offer). - Morale
Employees who feel they are watching a revolving door can develop a very negative subculture, leading to a contagious atmosphere of turnover, which leads to more negative subculture, which… you get the picture. - Productivity
Loss of staff increases the burden on your team to cover the workload and responsibilities left by a vacancy, leading to greater stress loads, lower job satisfaction, lower morale, and ultimately more turnover. The drop in overall productivity is profound and can be crippling for some organizations. - Employee Experience
When you lose employees, you also lose their experience and expertise. Tenured employees exhibit fewer errors, higher productivity, more institutional knowledge, and greater potential for cultivated leadership. Newer employees can feel the effects of this loss directly when turnover is high, as those experienced employees have a great influence on the rest of the team. - Customer Experience
High turnover and employee dejection can tragically decrease the quality of the experience and service your customers and clients receive. This translates across all levels of your business, from the products or services you offer, to the daily interactions between your team members, to your customers’ and clients’ satisfaction. - The Bottom Line
When compiled together, these elements lead to a loss of vital revenue, from lack of productivity, depreciation of quality, or customer dissatisfaction.
It’s easy to see the intermingled web of limitations these issues can create for your business. Fortunately, the inverse is just as striking: return on investment for team building and employee engagement pays dividends for every aspect of your organization. Creating and maintaining an effective employee retention and engagement program is complicated and requires a significant amount of planning, oversight, and investment, but you’ll be able to see the returns from team building almost immediately. Through continued engagement, you’ll be able to measure an even more profound impact. Employees who are engaged, empowered, and feel motivated care more about their teammates and the impact of the work they are doing. This increases loyalty, productivity, and morale, and leads to better performance, higher customer satisfaction, and ultimately, increased revenue for the company.
Our team is motivated by these principles, and we’ve spent over 30 years crafting programs designed to maximize teamwork, increase collaboration, improve communication, elevate productivity, and provide long-lasting benefits for your team. We know that shared fun experiences help build stronger relationships, so our in-person, hybrid, and virtual experiences are built around the simple concept of gamification. You can further motivate your team and increase their feelings of goodwill and community by adding a charitable CSR component to your program. And to fully reap the benefits of your custom-designed retention activities, it’s best to keep continued engagement throughout the year.
Celebrate your team with a fun investment that has a lasting impact on your business: reach out to us today to see how we can customize a program that is tailored to your team’s needs!