A high turnover rate in your company is a clear indication that your employees are not coping with the existing working environment in your company. In this blog article, I will discuss how you can actively investigate trouble spots in your company and, above all, identify the underlying triggers for unrest in the company. Because only if you know the real reasons for a high fluctuation rate can you actively take countermeasures.

As a company manager, you are responsible for creating a working environment in which employees can work productively and effectively. However, trouble spots in the company can affect the work performance and well-being of employees. As a result, employees leave your company.

The younger your workforce is, the quicker and easier it is for them to leave the company. You can no longer afford this. Recruiting new employees is increasingly difficult, takes much longer than before and the existing team is allowed to fill the gaps in the system – despite the high workload. The sources of unrest are therefore becoming more rather than less.

So you need to do something about a high fluctuation rate quickly.

I often hear from companies that they have an average fluctuation rate in line with the industry average. Everyone has the “black sheep” at the ready, who have even worse fluctuation rates in their companies or are constantly and desperately or already loudly looking for employees. “We’re still doing comparatively well,” is the common statement.

Astonished, I ask: “Why do you focus on the laggards in your industry instead of looking at the pioneers?” What happens next never ceases to amaze me. An embarrassed silence.

There are certainly areas of work in which the work is more challenging than in others because the working conditions are comparatively tough, the working hours are long or the pay is comparatively low.

However, a high fluctuation rate is not simply synonymous with difficult working conditions; a look beyond the boundaries of the industry often shows that things can be different.

The work pressure is now high in all areas, so it is not a “unique selling point” for a high fluctuation rate

So it’s better to look for the causes of the unrest in your company

I will show you how you can do this in your company using specific steps.

If performance indicators such as the staff turnover rate are high, this often has an impact on the performance of the employees themselves. In most cases, the first point of contact for investigating the causes is your HR department or the HR manager. As the HR designer, they have an important responsibility to create a positive atmosphere in the company. She/he must therefore also know what is lacking.

Unfortunately, I often find that there is little knowledge about the actual concerns of employees (https://betterlinked.eu/expertinnenbefragung/ ). General explanations, or rather attempts at explanations, do not help here. In order to make a lasting change to the fluctuation rate in the company, you need knowledge that lies deep below the visible iceberg. However, this knowledge is not available from HR departments. Involving your managers often doesn’t get you anywhere either, because employees often don’t tell their managers what is really bothering them.

Your feedback surveys or feedback meetings don’t really pick up on your employees either, so you only get preconceived opinions here too.

To reduce the turnover rate, you really need to open up

What if you really openly communicate that you are concerned about the high turnover rate in the company? What if you could credibly convey to your employees that you are interested in their feedback and cooperation in order to reduce the high turnover rate together.

Your employees would really be heard and actively involved. Your employees feel understood and listened to. They have a genuine interest in initiating changes and looking at working conditions or work pressure.

Actively listen to the opinions and concerns of the employees.

It is difficult to talk to every single employee now. However, you can provide your employees with an anonymous space to openly share their stressors, burdens and everyday challenges. Here, you and your employees can anonymously ask questions and share information that they believe could lead to unrest in the company.

An open grievance box does not reduce staff turnover, do you think?

I think you will be amazed at how much the willingness to openly discuss current challenges will change in your company. For the first time, you can really see what is on your employees’ minds, completely anonymously, so that privacy and trust are maintained. Everyone has the same interest, namely the creation of a better working environment and the elimination of stressors such as unclear communication, high workloads, unclear work distribution, unequal work distribution or interpersonal conflicts.

You can draw appropriate conclusions from the anonymous communication data in your own company and eliminate problems at the actual root. It is highly likely that you will come across trouble spots that were previously not on your radar.

Conclusion:

You will only discover the underlying causes of unrest in the company if you are prepared to look beneath the surface and not just use the feedback from general surveys or your managers to implement measures. No longer be satisfied with general explanations as the cause of a high fluctuation rate. Companies that really want to retain their employees in the long term must involve them and set up an open communication channel so that they can talk anonymously about challenges and stresses without expecting any disadvantages. Your employees will only trust you if you communicate openly yourself and your employees see that conclusions are drawn from their comments and that these are followed up with action.

Perhaps we at Better linked have a good solution for you