No business wants to see their best people leave. Great talent, company and market knowledge can be difficult to replace, and a culture which sees a string of top performers leave for greener pastures hints at underlying issues beyond better pay and loftier job titles elsewhere.

High employee turnover is a costly business. SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) estimates it can cost anywhere between six and nine month’s salary to properly replace a salaried employee. So, for a top plant manager or creative director earning £40,000, that’s a £20,000 to £30,000 cost to the organisation to find, recruit and train their replacement.

But beyond the expense, losing people can have a big impact on morale for the rest of the team. Losing grafters, top contributors and leaders can cause delays in projects and if it goes on for too long, it will leave other good employees thinking it may be time for them to move on as well.

So what can businesses do? Here are three ways to reduce employee turnover:

1. Does your business offer career progression opportunities?

One of the big reasons that top performers leave an organisation is because they’re highly attractive to other organisations and will likely have numerous offers on the table and the chance to join a new business in a higher position.

In fact, two-thirds of employees in a study from Penna say that a lack of career development opportunities at their current employer would see them looking for a new role.

2. Does your organisation have a purpose beyond making a profit?

With the boundaries between work and life becoming more blurred, work for younger generations including millennials and Gen Z is less about paying bills and more of a lifestyle choice.

And a large part of that shift in thinking is the values of the employer, what their purpose is and how they contribute towards society.

Extensive research from Deloitte examining the behaviours and beliefs of millennials discovered that 74% said businesses have the potential to make a positive impact, from social progress to the environment, but less than 60% are doing everything they could to do so.

And with 75% of millennials saying they’d happily take a pay cut to work for a socially responsible company, can your business afford not to think about its’ impact on the wider world and a single purpose which can focus the vision and goals of the entire organisation?

3. Do you recognise your employees?

Do your staff feel appreciated for the work they do? If not, this could be one of the key contributing factors behind a high voluntary turnover rate.

Research from Office Team found that 76% of millennials would resign from a job if they felt their organisation didn’t appreciate the work they put in on a regular basis.

For businesses that rely on managers to drive teams forward and recognise great work, this can be a challenge. Recognition is often the last job on the to-do list, and many daily behaviours that contribute positively to the overall success of the company can go unnoticed, and unappreciated.

A solution to this problem is implementing a peer-to-peer recognition program, empowering the people within your organisation to freely recognise each other for all the good behaviours and great work they see – as and when they happen.

Summary

The benefit of employee recognition is that there is a clear link between profit and employee engagement that has been proven again and again. Companies that have more engaged employees and higher morale are often leading in customer experience – which can generate higher ROI. In fact, companies that use peer to peer recognition have seen increases in customer satisfaction of up to 41%.

The benefits of employee recognition are hugely cost effective; from staff retention to employee satisfaction.  As experts in driving employee recognition, Fanclub Recognition Ltd can provide the tools to help organisations drive recognition behaviours.

psd has had a longstanding relationship with Fanclub Recognition and will be holding a series of round-table events focussing on employee engagement and recognition and how to use this to drive customer experience in 2020.  The first of these will be held in our Manchester office on Wednesday 12th February 2020. For more information on these sessions please email customer.contact@psdgroup.com