Organizations have opportunities to retain their workers who are eyeing an exit.
It’s impossible to stop the flow of employee turnover at your organization completely, but CEOs can cut down on voluntary exits by taking a proactive approach to retention.
By understanding what’s important to workers who may have a wandering gaze or even a foot already out the door, leaders will have a better chance of avoiding the costs associated with turnover and creating an environment that people want to be part of.
Of the employees who left their organization in the past year, 42% said that leadership could have intervened to prevent them from leaving, according a recent study by Gallup that fielded responses from 717 people.
As CEOs know, replacing outgoing workers isn’t cheap. Gallup estimates that the replacement of leaders and managers costs around 200% of their salary, while the replacement of professionals in technical roles and frontline employees is 80% and 40% of their salary, respectively.
Leadership often doesn’t know of an employee’s intention to leave, which is why CEOs need to impart on managers the importance of communication with workers. Nearly half of employees (45%) who voluntarily left report that neither a manager or leader proactively discussed their job satisfaction, performance, or future with them in the final three months before leaving.
So, what conversations should leadership have with employees to get them to reconsider departing?
Unsurprisingly, the most common answer (30%) among respondents was to provide additional compensation and benefits. It may not always be financially viable for organizations to increase pay, but having annual conversations with employees about where their compensation is trending can go a long way to making them feel valued, Gallup highlighted.
Meanwhile, 70% of exiting employees relayed that managers can take actions to address workplace issues to improve retention. These actions include more positive interpersonal interactions with manager (21%), discussing organizational issues (13%), creating opportunities for career advancement (11%), improving staffing/workload/scheduling (9%), and less negative interpersonal interactions manager (8%).
Especially for younger workers who may put greater value on relationships and culture, leaders should be quick to address problems that can result in burnout and exits.
What’s clear is that leadership can’t wait for their employees to open the dialogue, it has to be initiated from the top and it has to be consistent if CEOs want to minimize turnover.
Jay Asser is the contributing editor for strategy at HealthLeaders.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
A new study by Gallups finds that 42% of workers who left their organization in the past year report that leadership could have taken action to keep them from exiting.
Increasing compensation and benefits was the top action chosen by workers that would get them to reconsider leaving.
However, employees also place an importance on leadership actions that address workplace issues and improve relationships.