You may be seeing a high turnover rate –-the rate in which employees leave your company and thus need to be replaced at your company. For some businesses, like fast food restaurants, which have low wages and tough jobs the turnover rates may be astronomical. For other places, such as a highly-desired company to work for, the turnover rates may be low.

If you are experiencing a high turnover rate at your business that is not necessarily something to be desired. After all, the more times you need to hire and train someone, the more it will cost your bottom line. If you have an older staff and people are simply retiring, turnover may not signal signs of problems with your business. But if you have a business that should have a low turnover rate but instead the turnover rate is high, this is something you ought to pay attention to. It could be that your staff is unhappy and are seeking other job opportunities. In essence, if you want to loyalty from your employees —you need to show loyalty.

Here are a few tips to help resolve turnover issues within your business:

• Hire the right people in the first place, and put them in the right spots: Many employers make the biggest mistakes in hiring the wrong people, choosing staff for superficial reasons instead of the most important – that they can do the job well. Or sometimes, they are so desperate to get a warm body in the position that they just throw out whatever standards they have in order to get somebody in there. In other cases, they picked good people, but they put them in the wrong positions. So spend some time on the hiring process and then make sure that people are in positions that are the best match for their skills.
• Offer opportunities for growth: Even if you pick the best people and hplace them in the right positions, you need to make sure that they can grow as employees and as people. So offer educational opportunities and training programs so they can learn more. Also give them the opportunity to move up in the company and make more money —because if you don’t someone else will.
• Make employees feel empowered and valuable: If you run your business with an iron fist, micromanaging your staff at every turn it may make you feel powerful but your staff will ultimately feel powerless. You need to let them have a say when reasonable so that they can feel like they are a part of your business and feel empowered in their jobs. Besides, it’s exhausting to have to decide everything yourself. Why not get their input?
• Have competitive benefits and salary packages: You can be the best boss in the world but that won’t make up for your employees making pitiful salaries and not having benefits like health care. So offer a competitive benefits package that your employees won’t want to leave. You may also want to consider offering more flexible work schedules. This won’t cost you any money and you could get the benefits of increased productivity as well as employee satisfaction going up.
• Ask your staff before they decide to leave: Many employers do exit interviews, to find out why employees are leaving. Well, why not ask employees how you can increase their job satisfaction before they leave the door? You may discover issues that you may not have even been aware of, and thus help lower your turnover.

If you spend some time looking into these issues you could help decrease turnover and thus help your business succeed – all while making your employees happier.

Lisa Swan writes on a variety of coaching issues at MeredithHaberfeld.com.

Related articles

• How to Resolve a High Turnover Rate in Your Business
• 4 Ways to Make Your Employees Smile
• 5 Signs That Your Recent Hire is Not Working Out
• How to Deal with Employee Apathy
• Boost Morale and Profits with an Employee Incentive Program

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