How to improve staff retention and reduce turnover rates

We all want to feel part of a work culture that’s positive, supportive and inspiring. Yet many employees are leaving their jobs within the first twelve months of being hired. And for many companies, high staff turnover rates are a significant issue.

There’s nothing worse than going through extensive recruitment, hiring, and onboarding processes, only to have your new team member leave within the year.

In fact, according to a survey of over 3,000 respondents across 100 countries by Deloitte, employee retention and engagement is the number one problem that companies face.

So how can you reduce turnover rates and improve staff retention? Here are some important things to know when it comes to solving this issue.

Be Aware of How Staff Turnover is Costing Your Business

High turnover rates aren’t just bad for workplace culture; they’re also bad for your company’s bottom line.

Approximately 45% of companies estimate their total turnover costs (that is, the costs necessary to replace and train a lost employee) to be more than $25,000 per person. From advertising to interviewing candidates and educating new staff, filling an empty position can quickly add up to huge amounts.

In addition to this, your company will be using up important resources – in the way of time, money and effort – to hire and train new staff, that could have been directed elsewhere.

Work on Retaining Your Employees

While a certain amount of staff turnover is inevitable, there are things you can do to reduce the amount of turnover in your company. Working to retain your employees is important – you want to hold onto good team members as best you can!

The 2017 Staff Retention Report released by the Institute of Managers and Leaders (IML) reported the top factors that drive staff turnover. The top three factors include:

• seeking new challenges (79%),
• limited career advancement/progression (58%), and
• insufficient financial rewards (46%).

As an employer, it’s really important to take note of those first two points, as both of these factors are within your power to control. It’s up to you to provide staff with effective professional development training, to help them feel continually challenged, supported and motivated.

Invest Time and Money into Employee Training

By taking the right approach to employee training, you can drastically reduce your rate of staff turnover.

We can see this clearly in the results of a survey by the Australian Human Resources Institute, where 61 per cent of companies reported that training and development was a key strategy for improving engagement and retention.

The IML report also declared that “1 in 10 staff members are voluntarily resigning from their positions after Australian organisations are failing to offer meaningful career development opportunities for employees.”

There’s no doubt that one of the key things employees value is the opportunity to enhance their careers. If they feel that you are appropriately invested in their professional development, they’ll be far more likely to stick around.

This is particularly important when it comes to your training methods for onboarding new employees, as it’s your first chance to make a good impression. An effective, well-considered onboarding process can really help to reduce staff turnover, especially in terms of those employees who are at risk of leaving within the first twelve months.

Switch to Online Learning and Onboarding

Now that you know how important employee training is for staff retention, why not review and update your learning and development?

These days, many companies are using a learning management system (LMS) to manage their employee training. With an online platform such as Go1, you can host all the professional development, compliance, and onboarding courses you need in one easy place.

Having everything online will reduce your training and onboarding costs to a fraction of your current training expenses, while saving you weeks of training time. And your employees will love being able to access their training materials anywhere, anytime.

Remember, if you want to hold onto your employees, you need to offer them a strong, positive and supportive work environment and culture. Establishing this kind of company culture, and showing you commitment to their training and development, is your best bet of retaining employees and reducing your turnover figures.

Ready to look at online training courses for your team?

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