Costs Of Employee Turnover

What are the costs of employee turnover, and what can you do to limit attrition? The first and most obvious cost is that you have to pay your human resources staff to find replacement employees. Not only will this take your HR people away from other, potentially more important jobs, but it can also be emotionally draining for your managers to interview and replenish your work pool.

An ancillary cost of turnover is that employee morale may be affected. Especially if you're turnover rate is high, employees may feel jittery about their future with your company. This unease, in turn, may lead to subpar job performance and political intrigue in the workplace. Even if your manager deals promptly and honestly with any issues your staff raises, it could be difficult to repair morale.

Saving Money by Reducing Employee Turnover

Finally, when you maintain a high employee turnover rate, you send bad signals both to future applicants and to competitors. Given all these negative consequences, how can you stabilize your turnover rate? One method is to encourage a culture of accomplishment by rewarding high-performance employees. This will send a very positive and hopeful message to your other workers.

A second method is to focus more diligently on employee training. Sure, you run the risk of training and then losing employees to your competitors, but if you maintain an organized educational program at your company, chances are that the vast majority of your workers will reward you with loyalty. Finally, make sure that your managers stay apprised of the emotional states of your workers, and that they report back to you if they notice any inconsistent behavior.