An employee is one of the most valuable assets of any organization. Good employees are a driving force for the success of any venture. Employee attrition causes a lot of turbulence for the HR department and presently are facing acute challenges in retaining employees and keeping a check on the employee attrition rate.
Here we discuss useful tips that can come in handy for your venture to prevent employee attrition and witness organizational growth.
DEFINITION
We can simply define employee attrition as a decrease in employees leaving and not being replaced. Attrition could be through illness, death, voluntary resignation, or involuntary decay.
Due to employee attrition, there is a loss of staff in an organization which further makes it weaker.
High attrition rates often pose a danger to any organization and become very expensive for employers.
A study on employee attrition by Gallup shows that it can cost twice an employee’s annual salary to replace them.
Before discussing ways to reduce employee attrition, let us look at the causes and types of attrition.
TYPES OF ATTRITIONS
1. VOLUNTARY RESIGNATION:
Lack of growth opportunities within the organization and limited scope for enhancing experience could be prominent reasons for an employee to look out for better options outside.
Low employee engagement and low salary rates also affect employee retention. If an employee is offered a better salary in different organizations, he would be inclined to make a job switch.
Here are best strategies to increase employee engagement.
One more key factor is the extra benefits or additional perks that an employee demand from their employer. If the overall well-being of an employee is hampered, they would prefer to move out for better alternatives.
2. RETIREMENT
A company should keep a fair idea about the age and health of its employees. Senior employees might have to retire from their posts, maybe due to the norms of the form or due to age-related issues.
The person retiring not only leaves the company but also takes the years of experience with him. Finding someone who could fill his shoes is difficult for the organization.
Therefore, the organization must recognize retirement beforehand, so they have time to find potential employees. Research from the Center for American Progress shows that attrition costs 16% to 213% of the lost employee’s salary.
3. INVOLUNTARY ATTRITION
While a good employee is an asset to your organization, a low-performing employee could be a chronic headache. So, terminating employees if they do not meet Key Performance Indicators works in favour of the organization.
Also, involuntary employee attrition eliminates employees with less potential and acts as a filter, creating an opening for a new potential employee.
4. INTERNAL ATTRITION
Internal attrition could happen when an employee is shifted from one department to another. In some situations, this attrition can turn out positive as employees can choose the department they want to work in and flourish.
5. DEMOGRAPHIC ATTRITION
When people of the same set of classification (same gender, similar ethnicity, same age group
professionals) leave the firms unanimously leading to demographic attrition.
Although it is very rare it can become a grave problem for the business and is also not good for the employer’s reputation.
EMPLOYEE ATTRITION RATE
There is a simple formula to calculate the employee attrition rate of an organization. Which is stated below:
According to reports by the Deccan Herald, most Indian IT SERVICES companies have faced an increase in employee attrition, which is a 20% rate in the last quarter of FY22. Infosys had a 28% employee attrition rate, whereas Wipro had a 23.8% employee attrition rate.
In a study of about 1000 employees, 31% reported quitting their job within six months.
CAUSES FOR EMPLOYEE ATTRITION
LACK OF RECOGNITION:
One of the main factors of employee attrition is a lack of recognition. Recognition has proved to be one of the biggest motivators and a pivotal force in employee satisfaction. According to a study by Gallup, 50% of employees look for new jobs after facing all this.
Nevertheless, lack of recognition often leads employees to lose interest in their jobs, eventually
showing higher attrition rates.
Here are 4 effeective ways to measure employee satisfaction
GAIN EXPERIENCE IN LESS TIME
In recent years we witness that people are never satisfied with one place they keep on jumping they stay for 1-2 years at the max, maybe for a better opportunity, career change, or higher education.
According to a study, 25% of employees leave in their first year. Research by MRI network has found that 72% of employees look towards career advancements, which is why people go for a job.
A very ruling trend in today’s corporate sector is that many employees generally take up the job for the sake of experience. After gaining experience, they leave employment for higher education, often MBA, to boost their career.
LACK OF DEVELOPMENTAL AND TRAINING PROGRAMS
Employees who join an organization expect to undergo some necessary training and development programs.
They need it to improve their skills and become more capable in their respective fields. However, suppose the organization fails to do the same. In that case, the employee may feel less motivated to work and would find other organizations willing to provide them with such pieces of training.
This becomes one of the main reasons for the increase in employee attrition in a particular organization if the necessary pieces of training are not implemented.
EFFECTS OF ATTRITION
1. When employees leave, they not only leave physically but also take their years of experience with them, which further creates pressure on the whole team and thus on the entire organization. More than 50% of all firms globally have difficulty retaining some of their most valued employee groups.
2. Companies must provide intensive training to the new employees, which adds to the organization’s expenses.
3. Employee attrition also puts enormous pressure on the remaining employees as it is difficult for the firm to find a replacement on such short notice.
4. Employee attrition often leads to stress and chaos in the business, which further leads to unproductivity and degraded quality of a product or service, leading to customer attrition.
5. The remaining are often forced to work overtime without compensation, which adds to their workplace stress, and they tend to look for other companies.
HOW TO REDUCE ATTRITION
RECOGNISE AND REWARD YOUR EMPLOYEES
Studies show that rewarding and recognizing your employees motivates them and makes them want to stay longer in a business. Small rewards such as thank you notes or joyous feedback work wonders. Not being recognized and rewarded can lead to employees being stressed and feeling undervalued. A study shows that if your compensation is even 10% less than your competitors, your employees will look for voluntary resignation. Small compensations and extra benefits are also cherries on top. A few examples would be:
- Medical insurance
- Paid holidays
- Gym membership
- Paid vacations
Providing them with new opportunities could be a great way to recognize them.
PROPER WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Employees who struggle with work-life balance often burn out and look for another role. Hence, employers are using flexible scheduling and remote work to help the employees achieve a proper work-life balance.
Giving employees time off is also important. Work-life balance is feeling content about ourselves. Office stress is the 5th most significant cause of death in the United States due to stress. Studies show that a proper work-life balance also increases engagement at work hence leading to more productivity.
CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION
Employees these days care about training that can brush up their skills and build new ones; according to a survey by PwC, people in the US said they were willing to give up 12% of their salary in exchange for more training opportunities.
Organizations could find better and more creative ways for training. Instead of the traditional day-long or intense travel training, they could deliver it in smaller sessions and measure its effectiveness.
Here are a few ways to foster growth
- Find new ways to challenge employees in positive ways
- Creating new learning opportunities for each worker that are relevant to an individual development plan
- Frequently checking on employee improvement and discussing learning opportunities for professional growth.
PROVIDE MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO GROW
A common reason for employee attrition is a lack of career growth; a report on LinkedIn shows that employees stay 41% longer at companies focused on hiring internally compared to those that don’t make it a priority.
To ensure employee loyalty, you can implement a career ladder and ensure that the employees know the tasks they need to perform before getting promoted.
MAINTAIN TRANSPARENCY
Managers should communicate more openly with employees, which undoubtedly increases retention. Communication could be through town halls, one-on-one meetings between managers and employees, and employee engagement surveys.
Employees take more interest when they feel they have a say and have an accurate idea and understanding of what is happening in the business.
Here are a few ways to increase communication between managers and employees:
- Ensure that everyone understands the goal, purpose, or mission of the department
- Look for the abilities of employees and rotate leadership roles
- Motivate them to participate in discussions, and ask for their opinions.
ENHANCE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
An engaged employee will always be happy and content with the firm he is working for and shall strive to give 100% to his job. Using a good employee experience platform like QaizenX helps keep track of important employee KPIs thus helping to prevent employee attrition and enhancing overall organizational growth.
In a Nutshell
Employee attrition costs a tremendous amount of money to the business, and you are introduced to the hefty cost to train the new employee.
A company faces a huge loss when the employees leaving the company are the driving forces of the company. So it would be better if you were specific about engaging them as it is hard to replace them.
Employee attrition can be reduced; you need to keep the employees satisfied and create a motivating environment. Show your employees that you value them and focus on improving their experience with excellent employee engagement strategies.
