Two chess pawns with arrows on a board.

Every company experiences employee turnover. It can be voluntary, where the employee leaves on their own terms for their own reasons, or involuntary, where the company or business may be going in a different direction than their team members and have to cut ties. The main goal, though, should be to reduce or prevent that turnover rate from getting too high. The best way to do that is to focus on employee retention methods. Examples below are top ways to keep the employee turnover rate low. 

Employee Engagement 

Keep your team engaged with not only the company on a business level, but also the company’s culture. A good method to prevent turnover is by creating an environment where employees feel like they are truly part of a successful business and team. Enjoying comradery with co-workers on all levels keeps more employees engaged than creating total separations in departments, job titles, and hierarchy. A positive employee experience and company culture can retain talent as well as help you to gain more new hires. 

Career Development

Just as investments in business ventures are taken to increase profitability, investments in your employees can increase profits, too. This will likely take shape in the training and development of the team. A good mentoring or training program to build career paths and options for employees will lower staff turnover. Better development also improves the employees’ productivity and can allow for more business goals to be met. 

Work/Life Balance

One of the most common reason for high turnover rates is the lack of emphasis on a balance between work and personal life. Employees are constantly searching for the opportunity of solid career growth as well as their own personal well-being. Avoid turnover by understanding how one affects the other and encourage employees to find that balance in their own roles. The best way to achieve this is in the form of increased schedule flexibility. 

Good Management Skills

Another reason employees leave is due to poor management. Bad management can decrease productivity in the workplace and increase stress. Avoid this by continually training managers in empathy, delegation, communication, and what it means to be a strong leader. Even in small businesses, having a good management structure on a smaller scale will decrease employee turnover. 

Businesses generally focus on the “Three P’s”: People, Passion, Product. In this case, if you don’t have the right kind of passion for your people then the product won’t be profitable. The goal is to cultivate good business leaders across the board and in all aspects of the company. Though turnover is inevitable, keeping the number of employees leaving due to unhappiness or underdevelopment to a minimum can boost the strength and reputation of the business overall. 

For more management insights, please browse our advice section. If you’d like help bringing new talent into your business, please reach out to one of our expert recruitment consultants today.

Join over 80,000 readers!

Receive free advice to help give you a competitive edge in your career.