Job Exodus Survey: How to Encourage your Employees to Stay Put

An unsettling 47% of employees nationwide want to change jobs, so how can you encourage them to stay? Simon shares his tips.

By Simon Underwood

We’ve all seen it, a member of your team leaves their job and suddenly everyone realises what they brought to the group. Whether it’s being the only one that knows how to work a complicated piece of software or they were the only person that brought toilet rolls and biscuits in to work – they will undoubtedly be missed!

Now your business will have to shell out time and money in either replacing that person or training others up to fill the skills gap (see Becky’s recent blog)

Recently an Investors in People Job Exodus Trends survey report landed on my desk that gave me some interesting facts as to why employees leave and why they stick around.

47% of employees nationwide are looking to move jobs. Right now, take a look around your workplace – could you afford to lose half of them to competitors?  Would you have the resources to recruit and train new staff? Fear not, there are steps you can take to encourage people to stay. Here are the top 3.

Flexible working

This can include:

• Job sharing.
• Working from home.
• Part-time work.
• Compressed hours – working full-time over fewer days.
• Flexi-time.
• Annualised hours – the employee has core hours, but works more when needed.
• Staggered hours – the employee works to a different pattern to the rest of the team.
• Phased retirement –the default retirement age has been phased out, so employees who decide to retire can reduce their hours over time

A good team

Some key pointers:

• Good communication with each other
• Focus on goals and result
• Everyone contributes their fair share
• Offer each other support
• Team members are diverse
• Good leadership
• Be organised and have fun!

Enjoyable work

Enjoyable work is the third most desirable trait to encourage longevity! You can do this by helping employees to:

• Challenge themselves.
• Ask for help.
• Get work/life balance right.
• Take on projects they are passionate about.
• Perform random acts of kindness to co-workers or clients.

Surprisingly salary did not feature in the top three reasons for deciding to stay or go.

If you’re experiencing a high turnover of staff or low staff morale, the survey indicated that these were the top three reasons why:

Lack of career progression

Tips:

• Ensure that regular development and appraisal meetings are held, mapping the achievements and targets of employees.
• Be clear on which direction the employee wants their career to go.
• Be honest about available opportunities and time frames.

Poor working hours

Try to avoid the ‘always on’ culture where employees are contacted 24/7 about their job. 67% of employees are checking working emails out of work, 55% of which are suffering a severe lack of sleep because of this.

Tips:

• Ensure lunch breaks are given and fully utilised (away from work areas if possible)
• Encourage staff to make full use of their holiday leave.
• Reward staff who go the extra mile by giving them more time off.

Poor Management

To avoid poor management here are some traits that a good manager should possess:

• They love the company culture.
• Their behaviour is contagious.
• They can sustain focus.
• They can lead with their head and their heart.
• They’re honest.
• They take accountability and are effective at making decisions.

Here are some other interesting statistics from the survey:

• Most satisfied age group: 45-54 year olds
• Least satisfied age group: 55-65 year olds
• Most satisfied regions: South East, North West, London
• Least satisfied regions: East Anglia, Scotland and North East.

So, if you’re between 45-54 years old working in the South East, with flexible hours, a good team and you enjoy your job, you’re laughing!

However, if your between 55-65 years old working in East Anglia have no career progression, terrible working hours and a poor manager you’re probably on the lookout for something new! (Statistics are fun!)

Right I’m to the shop off for Chocolate Hobnobs and a packet of Andrex whilst somebody figures out how to make my spreadsheet work!

If you have any questions about anything you’ve read today please contact me on simon.underwood@hr180.co.uk or 0113 287 8150.