Keeping Costs Low and Morale Up During Employee Turnover
Employee turnover can be a difficult problem for industrial companies. Turnover presents many challenges: ensuring new employees have adequate training, maintaining safety and procedural standards in the workplace, preventing slowdown and inefficiency on the line, preventing increased costs to the company, and maintaining morale among remaining employees whose workload might fluctuate with the added responsibility of keeping up with demand and instructing new co-workers. This article will offer some tips and insights into how you can avoid or minimize many of these problems, which would otherwise be detrimental to your company’s growth.
1. Create an Encouraging Environment for New Employees
One of the most important things that a workplace can do to improve productivity is to maintain high employee morale. This goes for seasoned workers as well as new hires. Even an experienced employee who is new to your company will perform far more effectively in an environment where they feel they have room to ask questions, get help, voice concerns, and build confidence in their role. In addition to this, make sure your new employees are familiar with the policies and procedures of your company, from safety protocols to where they should submit their time sheets at the end of a pay period.
2. Listen to the Concerns of Remaining Employees
It’s vital to keep morale high during times of intense employee turnover. Remaining employees might wonder what their workload may look like or how floor efficiency could be impacted. It is important to clearly communicate your expectations to your employees. However, it is just as important to hear their concerns and work with them to find solutions. Giving your employees a voice during periods of change enables them to feel heard and keeps workforce morale from dipping, which is key for any company trying to avoid a serious drop in efficiency. If remaining workers feel respected, this can help prevent exacerbating turnover as well as encourage employees to come to you for help solving problems in the future.
3. Connect New Employees and Experienced Employees
New employees will work and learn much more effectively if they’re able to shadow experienced employees, ask them questions, and come to them for insight. This also will help experienced employees feel as if they’re a part of the growth of the company and are involved in improving the effectiveness of the workplace. It can also help reduce training costs and improve the learning curve for those new to the job, increasing profitability in the long run.
4. Make Sure There Are Enough New Workers
As soon as possible, ensure that your company is making enough new hires to pick up slack in production and relieve the workload of remaining employees. Inevitably, the more strain added to a workforce, the less efficiently it will operate. Therefore, this is a problem you will want to solve as soon as you are able; current employees will want to see that their hard work will be relieved. From the standpoint of productivity, workers who are stretched too thin will struggle with morale and efficiency, so making sure this issue is addressed as quickly as possible is important.
5. Manage Costs Without Slowing Down
Companies often shudder at the thought of employee turnover, with good reason: The associated costs can balloon up to twice the salary of a retained worker. However, there are various other ways these costs can be reduced. One of the most effective is to entrust hiring to an outside company that specializes in matching qualified employees with positions like the ones you need filled. While upfront costs might seem to make this a more expensive option, in reality, the money you will save by receiving qualified replacements quickly will be far more than the fees associated with a hiring service. These services help you replace employees quickly, allowing you to save money that would have been lost during the long period of inadequate staff, slowed productivity, and training.
There will inevitably be challenges with employee turnover, but with the proper resources and methods, you can minimize the difficulties your company will encounter in the process.