Staff retention "need not be a problem"
Staff retention "need not be a problem"
Holding on to key staff is a major problem in many companies, but according to human-resource management consultant and the former HR director for Orange,Jonathan Evans, the reason for people leaving an organisation is rarely down to them finding better jobs or bigger salaries.
Speaking at a seminar, organised by recruiting and resourcing specialists Resource Management, Evans claimed that high levels of resignations were more likely to be because of bad line managers, rather than uncompetitive pay packets.
"People don't leave companies, they leave managers", he said. "Bad management is the single biggest root cause of high staff turnover. Companies have a habit of taking the best operator and making them the worst managers. People are put in roles they are not trained for and resignations are the result.
"A global survey of what employees value shows that pay is well down the list. Job satisfaction, the relationship with their immediate boss and individual career prospects all rate much higher, and all are affected by poor line management."
While the average staff-turnover level runs at 16 per cent, in some organisations it can be as high as 80 per cent. While Evans admits some staff turnover is healthy, if the figure is too high it has an adverse effect on the company's bottom line.
"When an employee leaves an organisation, the employer must pay for the recruitment of a replacement and their training and development, as well as bear the loss of their skills and experience – quite possibly to a competitor. That cost is estimated to be as much as two and a half times the annual salary of the resigning employee. When turnover is high, that is a lot of money."
The cost of retention problems is borne not only by the company, but by a country as a whole, according to Evans.
"There have been increasing reports of call centres, for example, closing down and moving their entire operation to India and the sub-continent because they cannot recruit and retain enough staff in the UK. That is a problem for everyone in Britain, not only the employer."
Retention starts with the recruitment process, according to Evans, who believes that new staff make decisions about their job within the first few days of their employment.
"Quite often, staff join an organisation based on the 'promise' offered by the public face of a company, but their employment experience contradicts that. Relationships break down quickly when this 'promise' gets broken. A good induction process into a new company is more important than raising salaries,which will only increase an employer's costs and still have them see their best people leave."
Evans recommends that HR personnel conduct exit interviews with staff who resign, but suggests waiting until three months after they have left to ensure that they discover the real reasons for someone's resignation. At this point, he said, not only do they feel free to be totally honest with you, but they may be feeling disillusioned with their new job and could be persuaded to return.
Jonathan Evans is the founder and managing director of Evans Roche, a strategic HR consultancy which includes the Royal Mail, Mars, Carillion,Business in the Community, Inquam, Hargreaves Lansdown and Tomorrow's People among its clients.
