In a blog post personio.de writes about the disadvantages for a company brought by a high fluctuation of employees. Employee turnover is not a bad thing per se, but if employees leave the company faster than they even have been trained, this can become a huge cost factor for the company. This is why it is so important for HR managers to analyse the matter in order to find out possible causes and offer solutions.

Types of employee turnover

In order to analyse whether the employee turnover in one's own company is a problematic one, it is important to identify the different types of employee turnover. A distinction is made between the natural employee fluctuation (when employees leave the company due to "natural" conditions, for example retirement or parental leave), the external employee fluctuation (when an employee intends to end the work contract in order to work in another company) and the internal employee fluctuation (transfer of an employee within the company).

In this context, external staff fluctuation is what can become problematic for a company.

Types and risks of employee turnover

The reasons for fluctuation in the company can be as diverse as the employees themselves. The reasons should be detected if they come from within the company itself. Such as: poor leadership, lack of perspectives and missing work-life balance.

When many employees leave the company, especially if they have been under contract for a short time, the causes are often to be found among the managers or mismanagement within the company. The consequences of this kind of employee turnover can be enormous for the company. In addition to rising costs, there is also the loss of knowledge. The company's productivity suffers and the employees may become de-motivated. In the worst case, suitable qualified personnel can no longer be found.

5 steps to reduce staff fluctuation

Step 1: Staff talks and exit interviews

Yearly staff appraisals should always be conducted by HR management in order to capture opinions and feelings, to identify weaknesses and to be able to work out concrete actions to improve the working atmosphere. Furthermore, appraisals can reveal individual concerns and fears of employees so that they can be helped immediately.
In addition, exit interviews should be held with employees who have already indicated their intention to leave the company. This way the reasons for their decision can be understood and the company gets the chance to let the split proceed under good conditions for both sides.

Step 2: Interpreting data

Find out what causes employee fluctuation in your company. To do this, you should refer to your company's internal data and information from the interviews conducted (step 1) in order to show a causality between changes and staff turnover. If no changes have taken place at all in a longer period of time you might find the cause here.

Step 3: Address the causes

Once you have identified possible reasons for fluctuation in your company, the next step is to address those causes. Fixing these issues can be a lot of work and sometimes painful for managers and executives. After all, no one wants to be exposed to their mistakes. Nevertheless, this step is important in order to reduce costs in the long term, to work productively and to strive for real growth. The management staff does not have to be replaced; training the management can help.

Step 4: Employee retention

The key to employee loyalty is employee happiness. Those who feel accepted, understood and valued in their company will usually not be interested in jobs at other companies. In order to increase the satisfaction of your employees and thus also strengthen employee loyalty, it is worthwhile to use a motivation platform such as BluStoxx. The daily mood barometer determines the level of satisfaction among the team, rewards can be given out for the successful outcome of a project, team events can be organised and the appreciation of each individual can be expressed by giving out incentives.

Step 5: Work must be contemporary

We are living in fast-moving times, which also affects the world of work. With increasing globalisation, the growing importance of the individual and new priorities, it is also important to align work with these changes. Workers today need to be much more skilled than they used to be 50 years ago, while at the same time many want to spend more time with their families, have the flexibility to work from home or remotely, and many want to do work that actually adds value to the community. A business owner must be able to understand these changes and act accordingly in order to survive and grow in the long term.