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Turnover is one of the most widespread and damaging challenges in business.
If you’re like most companies, it may feel like you’ve tried everything.
Maybe you’ve even thrown up your hands and decided it can’t be fixed.
Maybe you don’t have the time and resources to deal with it right now.
We’ve all been there.
But let’s take a step back and make sure we understand how bad the problem really is…
In the early stages of 2019, the Predictive Index ran a survey asking a variety of businesses about their talent challenges.
These businesses reported that 47% of their high-performers quit in 2018.
While the market has obviously changed since then, the problem persists.
While many employees are more hesitant to switch jobs now, high-performers still have an abundance of available opportunities.
Demand is still incredibly high for strong sales professionals, software developers, and other key positions.
As the economy continues to recover, it will only get more challenging to retain these individuals.
If you’re reading this, you already know that turnover is harmful to your organization.
But let’s take a deep dive into all the ways turnover damages your bottom line and your ability to reach your goals.
Top Performers Deliver 90% of Your Value.
Did you know that Google and Netflix will pay one great software engineer as much as 10 times what they pay someone else in the same role?
Whether you agree with their thought process or not, it brings up a great point.
A truly high-performing team member can add as much as 10 or 100 times as much value as a mediocre team member in the same position.
So how much value are you losing when half of your best people quit?
You’re Losing Your Leaders (or Your Future Leaders).
If your high-performers are not leaders already, there’s a strong chance they are the future leaders of your organization. It’s hard to overestimate the value of an experienced, effective leader at your organization.
Unfortunately, turnover with high-performers sabotages your leadership pipeline.
They’re Joining Your Competitors.
If you haven’t already, scope out some former employees on LinkedIn – there is a strong chance they now work for one of your competitors.
Your rockstar salesperson is bringing in business for a competitor.
Meanwhile, other former team members are sharing best practices, knowledge and expertise to improve their new employer’s services, delivery, etc.
There’s a Cascading Effect.
People are social creatures. Our best team members usually form strong relationships with others in the workplace.
When they leave, others will start to think about leaving as well. There’s always a morale hit when a strong performer leaves.
It Could Have Been Prevented.
Leaders often make the mistake of assuming that because turnover is common, it’s inevitable.
But over 77% of voluntary turnover is preventable!
Studies and surveys typically point to career development, work-life balance and manager behavior as key reasons why team members quit. It may not be easy to address these issues, but they ARE preventable.
Their Replacements Are Rarely as Valuable.
If it was easy to recruit top performers, we wouldn’t be in business.
Even with an all-star recruiting team, today’s competitive talent market can make it difficult to find someone who will perform at the same level.
The top performer that quit had experience and was acclimated to your culture and processes. It’s always going to be difficult to replace that.
3 Keys to Stopping Turnover in Its Tracks
Addressing turnover can be incredibly daunting. If you’re like most teams, you’ve already tried different solutions with little to show for it.
Furthermore, it can be very difficult to understand why exactly people are leaving – and how to address the different causes.
To tell you the truth, our team struggled with turnover for most of our 20-year history.
Historically, our voluntary turnover rate was somewhere around 40% year over year. It sucked.
But in 2019, we made some changes and were able to slash that number to just 3%.
And the impact on our bottom line, customer satisfaction, team morale and more has been tremendous.
That may seem too good to be true, but let’s walk through how we did it and how you can achieve the same at your organization.
Underline the Cost to Your Bottom Line
Turnover is almost like “the silent killer.”
At the c-suite, it’s VERY easy to underestimate the damage it does to your business.
If you’re serious about addressing turnover, your first step needs to be getting the buy-in from the entire executive team.
They need a crystal-clear understanding of how harmful turnover is to your business and why it must be addressed ASAP.
Get with your CFO and put some dollar signs to your turnover costs. This will sound the alarm loud and clear about the scope and severity of turnover.
This is a crucial step because it allows you to get the resources needed to properly address the situation.
Free lunches or a foosball table in the break room won’t cut it – you need a budget to invest in talent optimization solutions.
Leverage People Data
If you take one thing from this blog, make it this point.
You need people data to truly understand your teams and why they may decide to quit.
We used the talent optimization platform from the Predictive Index to gain insight into what drives each of our team members.
Rather than inconsistent surveys or unscientific approaches to understanding our people, we used their validated assessments to understand the root causes of dissatisfaction.
With this data in hand, we were able to build teams of individuals who truly clicked together.
We were also able to give leaders a better understanding of what their team members needed to thrive and excel in the workplace.
It was about understanding why one high-performer loves working with a specific leader and another is always clashing.
Before we made guesses, had awkward conversations that gave little insight, and hoped for the best.
Now, before we even hire a candidate, we know whether they’ll click or clash with a leader – and why.
You can’t fix a problem if you don’t understand it.
And if you don’t have a validated process to gather data on your teams, then you don’t understand your turnover problems.
We guarantee it.
You might think you understand the situation.
But trust us when we say the Predictive Index will give you deeper insights and a stronger plan of attack.
Focus on Personalized Solutions
One of the biggest mistakes companies make with turnover is broad, company-wide solutions. But we know that people are different and quit for different reasons!
For example, say you suspect work-life balance is a problem for your team.
You can spend loads of money on trying to improve that balance for everyone…
But then you might drive away the top performer who is happy to spend 60 hours at the office because they’re passionate about advancing their career.
Broad solutions to turnover are a money pit. It’s far more effective to focus your efforts on the people you really need to retain.
Use data to understand their top priorities and possible frustrations in the workplace. Lastly, implement personalized solutions to keep them on board.
At Qualigence, this meant working with some individuals to develop a career advancement plan and learning opportunities.
For other individuals, this meant giving them the flexibility to work on their own time so long as they were delivering results.
If we had tried to apply the same solutions to both groups, both would have gotten frustrated and quit.
Forget about one-size-fits all solutions. You will get far better results by creating personalized solutions.
Putting a Tourniquet on Turnover
No matter who you are, what industry you work in, or how successful you were this year, your company deals with turnover.
It’s frustrating as all get out. We get it.
But the good news is that means you have an opportunity.
This is your chance to DRAMATICALLY improve every. single. part of your business.
From your recruiting budget to customer experience and revenue, reducing turnover will radically strengthen your organization.
It’s not easy, but the rewards are incredible and well worth the investment.
If you’re interested in learning more about making better hires, reducing turnover, and optimizing your talent, click the banner below to subscribe to our YouTube channel!
