Q. Danny writes, 

I’m an HR manager and an issue that consumes a great deal of my time is dealing with staff turnovers. I hire staff thoughtfully and check references every time.  What should I be doing differently? 

A. Dear Danny, 

High staff turnover definitely depletes resources in an organization. In my experience, such issues stem from three major elements: a faulty recruiting process, poor workplace environment, and a compensation system that could use some improvement.

Recruiting; many organizations, particularly the large ones, have a standard recruiting system in place where a guideline is to be adhered to throughout the hiring process. In most cases, this guideline is a one size-fits-all solution regardless of position type or level. This is problematic and most experts in the field frown upon this approach and call for more personalized recruitment campaigns.  Talking to your head office about taking more of the recruitment process into your own hands is worth doing in my opinion.  While it will certainly mean more work at the outset, you’ll surely save a great deal of time given the reduction in turnovers. Further, these general guidelines do not address important candidate information like how prepared the person is physically and mentally for the interview. Too often, especially for entry-level positions, job seekers arrive for an interview dressed inappropriately, late and/or without a copy of their resume or cover letter. A person who comes to an interview ill prepared is likely not looking for ‘the’ job you have advertised for but rather is simply looking for ‘a’ job.  It is unlikely a wise investment of your time to hire these people. Those who arrive for an interview without purpose and are hired will likely leave your company without purpose as well and will have wasted much of your time and training resources in the process.

Workplace environment; in order for organizations to maintain consistency and avoid turnover-related interruption to their operational flow, they need to provide their good employees with reasons to stay. By that I mean such things as tools for success (including good management and exciting learning opportunities), a health and safety framework and employee-centric policies and procedures. Most employees choose not to speak up about the lack of these elements for fear of retaliation, making it difficult for you to gauge the well-being of your workplace from an employee perspective.   To combat this, I suggest that you implement a feedback system that enables employees to express their opinion about your company’s workplace anonymously.  Also consider introducing a voluntary exit interview (if you haven’t already).  Very importantly, ensure that feedback from these feedback tools are presented to head office on a regular basis so that employee opinion can inform the company’s going forward where appropriate.

Compensation; depending on the size of the retailer you work for, your hands are quite likely tied where compensating employees is concerned and you are likely restricted to the use of a framework or grid as set out by the head office.  If this is the case, you have to become more creative about what compensation could mean to your employees.  Flexible work hours, achievement incentives, team building activities, career development, empowerment and personalized coaching could all be worked into an atypical compensation plan for staff where the financial element is nonnegotiable.  Finding out what matters to your staff the most is the key element here.  Your staff is in relationship with the company you all work for, and like one must do for our personal relationships, energy and time must be invested in our employees to ensure our relationship remains healthy and productive for the long term.

Also just a general comment, where your advertising is concerned. I would encourage you to make sure the duties and the expectations of the position are very clearly stated in the job description. This drastically reduces the potential for misunderstanding once a candidate is in place.

Lastly, as you well know, people spend more of their awake time each day at work than at home.  Therefore, any lengths you go to in order to make your workplace more inviting for your staff will pay off unequivocally. The Fun Factor concept will most certainly provide you with some further guidance on making this happen.