Turnover is a fact of life, and in today’s competitive environment we need to do everything we can to retain the good people we already have. You have people on staff who you trust and who are well-trained in their jobs. They understand your organization’s culture and they do good work.
How much time and effort do you put into understanding your employees' needs? Why do they work for you and not someone else when they have so many other options available? What motivates them? Why do they want to stay?
In the interest of keeping good employees, MGMTinsight offers Stay Interviews as one of our services. A Stay Interview is a structured discussion designed to help understand why your employees stay and what might make them leave. These interviews can give you in-depth information about what changes you might want to make or what perks you might want to offer – or even get rid of, if you’re offering something to your employees that they don’t care about or want.
Here are a couple of examples of unnecessary issues we have seen at companies that didn’t dig into what is important to their employees before they made certain decisions:
One large local business stopped their annual December all-employee turkey giveaway because it cost about $2,000. This decision led to resentment and unrest among the staff, no doubt leading many to find employment elsewhere. If they had asked their staff about this proposed change beforehand, they would have understood how much goodwill the turkeys generated and how appreciated their employees felt because of them.
Another company realized they could cut costs by providing fewer beverage options of lower quality in their break room. Without discussing it with any of their staff, they stopped providing free hot chocolate and tea and started buying cheaper (poor quality) coffee for their break room. This change led to bickering and complaints because their employees felt unimportant and unappreciated. Will someone find a new job elsewhere just because they don’t get free tea anymore? Probably not, on its own. But if they’re already thinking about leaving, a change like that could push them over the edge.
Turnover is incredibly expensive and time-consuming. What would you do if one of your key employees left? Not only would you lose their expertise, but during the resulting time and resource-intensive search for a replacement, you or others would have to take on the missing person’s work. This invariably leads to dissatisfaction among your remaining staff because they already feel busy enough.
Then, while you spend extra time and energy you probably don’t have recruiting and trying to find the right person, you have to go through the unpleasant interview process. Finally, when you bring in a new person, they have to be trained, and it will be quite a while before they are up to speed and as productive as you need for them to be. The whole process is expensive and exhausting and has an impact on your daily work and attention to customers.
Stay Interviews are a good practice for retaining staff. Contact us for assistance in conducting these interviews, compiling information, and making personalized recommendations to retain your great employees.
MGMTinsight can help you identify what retains your valued employees and why employees choose to leave in order to help you avoid unnecessary turnover in your business. The help and expertise you need is an email or phone call away!
Contact us today for more information.
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