Q. I supervise a large call center for a hotel chain. We hire really eager people and take the time to train them well and after a relatively short time they leave us to go to another job. This causes the turnover rate to be very high. Management is concerned about the high turnover and my boss has asked me to do something to reduce the number of employees who leave. I don't know where to begin because these employees who resign just seem to want a different job. Do you have suggestions for how to address reducing turnover?
A. The US Department of Labor and Statistics estimates that turnover costs an organization 33 percent of an employee's total compensation, including both salary and benefits. Multiply that by, let's say, 10 employees and you can easily see how costly turnover is to a company.
But the impact of turnover is not only financial; it also affects employee morale, the guest experience at your hotel, and the company's reputation. Kudos to your manager for asking you to focus your efforts on reducing the number of employees who are leaving.
It is important to note a few things about turnover before discussing possible ways of addressing it. Turnover falls into two major categories: uncontrollable and controllable. Uncontrollable turnover means that nothing the company could have done would have changed the employee's decision to leave. It is harder to anticipate as it is usually caused by items personal in nature, such as a spouse's job relocation, illness in the family, etc. Causes of uncontrollable turnover can't be predicted from an interview. I recommend you evaluate uncontrollable turnover separately from overall turnover in order to get the best handle on the real reasons people leave your organization.
Controllable turnover is usually related to something that is happening within the workplace. Most people assume that controllable turnover is strongly associated with compensation, but only a small number of employees actually resign because of their pay. In the human resources world we say that people don't quit their job, they quit their manager.
Morreen Rukin Bayles, president of Creative Restaurant Solutions and Combined Resource Solutions, a consulting firm that assists companies in reducing turnover, says that more often than not the causes behind controllable turnover include inadequate training and development, company culture, conflict with a supervisor, or communication issues.
The good news is an organization can have an impact by adapting and making changes to improve the situation and reduce turnover. The bad news is you have to be willing to hear the reality of what is or is not happening within your organization. This reality can sometimes be hard to take and difficult for management to accept.
With that in mind, it is helpful to focus first on assessing your hiring process. By analyzing and adapting your interviewing process to accommodate what you learn from those who leave, you can more directly affect the selection of new employees. This may lead to identifying employees who will fit better into the organization's culture and your particular department.
Next, evaluate your orientation, training, and development programs. Bayles says that training and development directly affect turnover. She says development starts on day one of an employee's experience and suggests companies look closely at their orientation and employee integration programs as well as opportunities for growth and learning.
You want to avoid making assumptions about why people are leaving because you don't know until you ask. Conducting exit interviews is one of the best ways to gather insight on the real reasons employees are leaving. The information gathered in exit interviews has an impact on future turnover and in some instances current turnover as well. Exit interviews consist of asking more than just why an employee is leaving, what they liked, and what they disliked about their job. You must also ask for qualitative and quantitative information on criteria you believe may be causing the turnover. Some examples of these criteria are compensation, work environment, communication, training and development, and relationships with supervisors and peers. It is also imperative to ascertain where your employees are going to work to see if there are trends in the type of work they seek.
Bayles believes it is best to have a third party conduct the exit interviews. This approach provides more information that is more objective, better in quality, and insignificant in cost compared to the costs of employee turnover. Additionally, having a third party conduct the exit interviews enables you to focus your time and energy on implementing the resolutions to the trends identified by the interviews.
Confidentiality can be key to obtaining accurate information on the real reasons an employee leaves; having someone outside the company conduct that exit interview may give you better data.
Once you have gathered some consistent data, evaluate it by asking the following questions:
How does our turnover compare to the industry we're are in?
What attracts our employees to their new employers?
What do we have to offer as strengths and how can we incorporate these into our recruiting efforts?
What are the consistent issues and how can we most effectively remedy them?
Is there a particular position or department that is experiencing the highest turnover? Why?
Are there any employees worth keeping in touch with to consider for rehiring once they realize the grass may not be greener at their new job?
Making the reduction of turnover a high priority in your job will be challenging and informative. What you learn as a result of this assignment will enhance your career as a manager and inform your concerned management about alternative ways to approach turnover in your company.
Q. My job now includes writing and delivering performance evaluations for the employees in my group. The challenge is that I have to write the reviews and give them to people who have very different levels of performance. Two of these employees will get poor performance ratings for the second time in a row this year due to continual lateness, and they are my biggest challenge. Over the years of working, I have received performance reviews myself but they did not teach me a lot about how to do them well. Is there a formula for getting through these reviews easily?
A. There are two times performance reviews are easy. The first is when the employee is an excellent performer. We are all masters at giving a great employee his performance appraisal, but somehow we get tongue tied when the employee's performance needs to change.
The second is when we are honest and clear in our remarks. Our fear of conflict or confrontation with the employee is so great that we dance around the issue to the point where it lacks clarity and ease.
The best way to begin a performance review is with the facts. In my experience, too many managers try hard to explain possible causes of the problem, describe feelings, suggest motives, and even suggest excuses the employee might have for not doing the job well. What we need to do instead is look at the facts we have and the resulting problem that occurs due to the deficiency in performance.
These facts are best stated as observations. For example, when speaking to the employee say, "I saw you come into the office at 9:35 yesterday and at 10 today," instead of saying, "you were late again today." On a review you might list the dates and times of the lateness instead of the statement, "you're frequently late to work." Then answer the question, "what problems does this cause for you, co-workers, customers, or the department."
I question why someone who is frequently late after a year of warnings is still with your company. Negative reviews need to have consequences or they become meaningless.
Also when managers use general terms such as, "your work needs to improve" or "the customer service you provide is lacking," it does not help the employee know exactly what you think should be done differently. To confirm that your explanation is clear, always ask the employee what they will do differently now that they have been informed of the problem or of an area for needed growth in their job.
The Massachusetts company I work for closes every year during the week between Christmas and New Year's. It also insists that all employees use one week of their annual vacation amount during this time. Is it legal for a company to tell all employees when they must use part of their accrued vacation time? This company has done this since it opened in 1980, but I am a new employee and I did not think companies are allowed to dictate when you use your own paid time off.
It is helpful to know that vacations are a benefit that a company chooses to grant its employees and that employers have no legal obligation to provide employees with paid vacations. When an employer does choose to have a policy of giving paid vacation time to employees, it has the right to determine when that time will be taken.
Massachusetts labor-related laws state that accrued vacation time must be paid to the employee as prescribed by the company's policy or practice. The law does not address the timing of the vacation.
Although you are clearly unhappy with your loss of choice in the selection of your vacation time, it appears that your employer is behaving consistent with its practice or policy of many years.
Linda J. Lerner is an executive coach and a human resources consultant to small businesses and individuals. She can be reached at linda@lernerconsulting.com.
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