How to Use Employee Turnover to Innovate Your Business
Depending on what industry your company operates in, the size of your organization, and what your core activities are, employee turnover rates will vary significantly.
High turnover rates can potentially be harmful to a company’s productivity if skilled workers leave often and the organization has a significant percentage of new recruits, who are likely to be less proficient due to less training and experience.
If your business is experiencing an unusually high employee turnover rate, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing the wrong thing. In fact, high employee turnover rates can be beneficial for some as they enable certain positive outcomes to be realized.
Read on to find out about the common causes of turnover and how to overcome its adverse effects.
Common Causes of Turnover in the Philippines
There could be a range of reasons that a company experiences high employee turnover. The following is a list of possible explanations for employees leaving their companies:
- Motivated by higher pay
- Motivated by increased career progression opportunities
- Dysfunctional working environment due to conflict with staff or others
- Boredom from lack of self-actualization
- Poor management (supervision or training)
- Bad skill match (job is too difficult or not a good fit)
- High levels of stress
There could be a number of other reasons employees leave their jobs, but addressing these main points and giving incentives for employees will help you improve the nature of the workplace and create a conducive environment for long-term, mutually beneficial employer-employee relationships.
How to Use High Employee Turnover to Your Advantage
Willingness to “try people out” seems to be a scarce mentality in most workplaces because it leads to higher turnover rates than most businesses would like. What employers need to keep in mind is that the more employees you “try out,” the higher the chances of discovering talent and fielding the best team possible.
A good mindset to have is that once employees develop their skills up to a certain point, many of them will likely leave and apply their skills to their own projects; such is the nature of learning. A great boss should prize talent, creativity, and productivity over the stability of their staff.
These days, companies are being faced with a new generation of workers that value learning and engagement much more than job security. In this case, trying to optimize your business around retaining talent can potentially do more harm than good.
The reality is that no matter what people do as employers, they cannot force employees to stay. Great bosses have already realized this and have come up with ways to manage their talent outflow.
Former CEO of the Hospital Corporation of America, Tommy Frist, used to create derivative businesses and offer the associated CEO positions to his best workers. An important thing to know is that the talent you help produce can still provide opportunities to be leveraged after they leave the company.
Support the Employee as a Person, Not just a Worker
There are two main benefits aside from avoiding the complacency that can be realized by detracting from the traditional employee retention mindset. Firstly, your company can gain a reputation as a talent magnet—building a name for itself as a great place to work for ambitious and talented workers thriving on growth and opportunity.
Secondly, in drawing away from the traditional notion of retention, employers can actually end up retaining talent for longer than they would have otherwise. This occurs because of the strong loyalty that is fostered by supporting workers in circumstances that may not directly benefit the business, even if it means supporting their decision to leave the company.
So, now is about time to ditch the old-fashioned outlook on talent retention and embrace the modern attitude that supports learning, creativity, and most importantly, the acquisition of new talent. Don’t be afraid of change because for all you know, it might turn out to be the best business decision you’ve ever made.
