5 Tips for Lowering Your Employee Attrition Rate

by Shannon Smith

High employee turnover can have significant negative impacts on an organization; it can decrease morale, disrupt the culture, and ultimately hurt the company’s bottom line. Lowering your employee attrition rate is important and can be achieved by following a few simple guidelines.

1. Focus on Employee Development

For many workers, having an opportunity for professional growth is a very crucial component of their job. When employees start to feel stagnant and bored, issues will arise. Developing a concrete plan for employee development will help keep things on track. This plan should include monthly or quarterly goals, different groups or outside resources he/she should be involved with (Associations, Networking Groups, Boards, etc.), and a clear outline of a challenging career path. Cross-training employees will also keep them interested in the company as a whole and help them better understand how their role contributes to the overall success of the company.

2. Recognize High-Quality Performance

When an employee performs well or exceeds expectations; make sure you acknowledge their work. Feeling appreciated and noticed can make all the difference in how an employee feels overall about their job. A few ways to recognize an employee can include: a companywide email to recognize the employee’s hard work, publicly recognizing them at the weekly/monthly company meeting, incentives or bonuses paid out randomly for excellent performance, or even just personally walking over to their desk to say Thank You.

3. Coach Low Performers

On the flip side, if an employee is not performing well, start off with a conversation with them to see what is going on. Is something in their personal life affecting their work? Is there something going on in the office that is rubbing them the wrong way? Opening the line of communication and getting to the bottom of the issue will help you make an informed decision about what steps to take next. If it's a lack of knowledge, perhaps a refresher training course might be beneficial. If it’s something personal, perhaps giving them a day or two off to handle it will help them regroup and come back to work feeling refreshed and ready to perform.

4. Provide Competitive Compensation

In order to keep your employees from taking off and joining your competitor for higher pay, you’ll have to do your research and understand what rates are being offered to people in similar positions in similar organizations. Depending on your company, you will have to decide if you will develop a strategy around market-based pay or an internal equity study, or a mix of both. Either way, be sure to develop a compensation strategy that’s both enticing and competitive. Also, consider yearly salary reviews to make sure you remain competitive.

5. Drive a Positive Culture

Keeping morale up and encouraging a positive culture is very important! Some ways to achieve this include: office outings, celebrating birthdays, having a dress-down day, embracing down-time and time-off, opening the seating areas so colleagues are not completely closed off from each other, and fostering creativity by giving serious consideration to employee’s ideas. Employees spend a significant amount of time at work; if they are happy while they’re there and immersed in a positive culture, they will want to stick around for the long-term.

The bottom line is, if an employee is being offered a friendly culture, competitive pay and opportunities to grow professionally, they won’t want to leave! Keep employees satisfied and lower your employee attrition rate by reviewing current practices and implementing changes where necessary. Grow your people, grow your business!

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