How to deal with employee's high turnover rate

Turnover rate is the ratio of employees leaving the company (or some specific industry) in a given period. A company or industry has high turnover rate when the workers of that company tend to ditch their jobs more often than the employees of other companies (in the same industry). Some industries and jobs have high turnover rates because of the nature of work, however if your company has a high turnover rate than your competitor and you are not able to sustain your employees with you, there maybe something wrong with your policies. In case you don’t pay attention, not only you will be loosing your good employees to your competitors, your business will also suffer from high costs of attracting, recruiting and training the new staff.

Atmosphere and working conditions:

At certain workplaces, you will feel the tense atmosphere as soon as you put your feet in, reason can be strict management or unrealistic targets. Being a manager, it is necessary to maintain some discipline but some managers overdo it by importing rules straight from the books of military. For many individuals (especially fresh graduates) it becomes really hard to adjust in this kind of atmosphere.

Working conditions are linked with health related issues. Light, ventilation, air conditioning, heating systems and safety measures are some of the basic requisites. Sometimes, improving your high turnover can be as simple as loosening up some rules or dealing with some unhealthy environment issues.

Salary & Growth Opportunities:

Excessive work, no incentives and low salaries, these are all grounds for a high turnover rate. Employees are here to earn, and their morale is directly related to their income. If you are expecting them to give their 100 %, you should be giving back in form of good enough salaries. Your salary packages should be competitive if not the best in market. A good salary package will make up for many other factors, but if the salaries are low from the market standards, nothing can hold the employees for long. Similarly, motivating employees by providing growth opportunities is also necessary.

Choosing the right candidate and the nature of the work:

If your recruitment and hiring process is flawed, you are destined to have a high turnover. Many small businesses, in a hurry to fill out vacant positions, hire some unskilled individuals, thinking that he/she will learn the traits with the passage of time. Such hiring is nothing but wastage of time, both for employee and employer. The interviewee should have complete knowledge of the skills required for some particular job, and the successful candidate must be having most of them, if not all.

Sometimes the reason for high turnover is the nature of work, for example the jobs that require night shifts or excessive late sittings. These types of jobs are not suitable for everyone; hence turnover rates are often high in such jobs. These are just some of reasons, apart from looking into these areas; you can communicate with your employees to get the idea if they are having any reservations.
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How to manage negotiations and conflicts at workplace

It’s good to have diversity in your workforce where different types of people can bring different advantages to your company. But this diversity often results into difference of opinions between two employees or two different departments. Conflicts are a part of working environment and as a manager you don’t need to panic in such situations. You cannot eliminate the disagreements altogether; all you can do is to manage them in a way that it won’t affect your productivity levels. The sooner you deal with them, the better it is for your business; otherwise the conflicts will give way to negative behavior and lack of team efforts, and as a result low productivity.
Possible Causes:
Whenever you get to the bottom of any conflict, you will find the same old cause lying in the roots, and that’s poor (or the lack of) communication. Different types of personality clashes and characteristics are another common problem. Unfair handlings, unmerited promotions, lack of opportunities or any other thing that results into insecurity among employees can also lead to the conflicts. If the work expectations or production targets are too hard to achieve, the workers will get frustrated, outcome might be bullying or regular exchange of harsh words between workers.
What to do:
As a manager who is looking to resolve conflict, you should start with communicating with all parties involved. Be calm, and listen to the whole thing patiently. Encourage everyone to speak their heart out, especially those who are less conversational. When thinking of a solution, try to focus on the problem and not personalities. Keep your personal prejudice away from the decision-making. Be sincere to both parties when taking corrective measures. One thing you should do even before some conflict arise is to eliminate favoritism of any type.

Precautions:
Employees and workers should be well aware of their job descriptions and what the management expects out of them. The rewarding system should be clear and well communicated. Joint decision making at all levels will reduce negative feelings to a great extent. Keep an eye at bullying types, and never let anyone get away with any kind of harassment or discrimination. Try to avoid personality clashes as much as possible, when making teams. If you have this feeling that two persons can’t work together, change the individuals if possible. Interact with all employees every now and then and never rely completely on your sources for the input.