High employee turnover and retention rates can be a costly process for some businesses. When you put a lot of time and resources into the hiring of an executive level employee and they do not stick around for long, the process was wasted. How can you reduce high executive employee turnover rates? To begin, always take care of your employees. The following methods are important in keeping your staff satisfied and challenged in a successful economy that encourages high turnover rates.
Put more effort in the hiring process
Hiring too quickly can leave you with poorly matched and unqualified executive candidates. A recent survey by Robert Half showed that one third (36%) of 1,400 executives surveyed felt the top factor leading to a failed hire, aside from performance issues, is a poor skills match. The second most common reason (30%) was unclear performance objectives. Longer and more detailed of hiring processes can find executive candidates that are better matched to the specific job opening. When they are a good fit, they are more likely to stick around with the company. You can improve your hiring process with the services of an outplacement consulting company or executive HR search firms.
Offer advanced and refresher training courses
One of the biggest mistakes that you can make regarding employee satisfaction is undervaluing your executive team members. Executive leaders want to achieve the skills that are necessary to meet goals and lead employees. Creating an on boarding training class can be especially helpful in polishing the needed skills for the specific job. Every year, offer refresher training courses to current employees. Your executive team members will appreciate the opportunity to advance their leadership skills. In turn, these skills will be used to increase the success of your business. You can easily prepare advanced training programs by working with your in house human resources department or outsourcing the task to executive search firms.
Praise employee achievements
Every constructive criticism should lead with or be followed by something positive. If you are constantly telling your employees how they can improve, but never recognizing them for their accomplishments and achievements, they are likely to be unhappy. Make it a point to praise employee achievements regularly. Include this information in company newsletters, on the break room bulletin board, or simply by praising them for it. Approximately 86% of companies with employee recognition programs cite an increase in worker happiness. Employee recognition programs work in a unique way. They often encourage employees to work harder to be acknowledged in the recognition program.
Keep an open door policy
Larger businesses usually have human resource departments to handle work related complaints. However, filing with the HR department often requires submitting official paperwork and making formal complaints. Many employees will not go through with the process and will simply keep their dissatisfaction to themselves. That is, until they find a better work opportunity. Keeping an open door policy gives unhappy employees another option to discuss their complaints. Even if there is nothing you can do to help the situation, showing your empathy and concern can be helpful.
It is also important to have some type of a human resource department set up, in the event that they do want to file a formal complaint. You can have in in house HR department or use the services of executive HR search firms. Outsourced executive HR search firms act both as HR executive search consultants and as a HR department. It can actually be helpful to have outsourced executive HR search firms, as some employees will find it more comfortable to talk to someone that is not directly within the company.
Almost 2.7 million workers voluntarily left their jobs at the end of June 2015, a 25% increase compared to two years ago. Employee turnover rates are only expected to increase, especially as the economy continues to rise. There are more job opportunities and employees can easily move around. To reduce high turnover rates, make employee satisfaction a priority. You can do this by increasing your hiring efforts, offering advanced training programs, praise employees regularly, and always keep an open door policy.
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