Every manager knows that turnover comes with high costs. But how high are they?
The truth is it’s hard to know. Certainly there are quantifiable expenses, like the price of posting positions on a job board and the cost of the time a manager spends sifting through resumes or interviewing potential candidates.
For the most part, however, the true costs of turnover don’t appear as line items in the budget. Instead, they eat at your company’s bottom line in more insidious ways. Here are some of the “hidden” costs of turnover:
- Reduced productivity. You hire staff to perform specific job duties. When a staff member leaves, those duties either sit neglected, or other staff must fill in. When other staff members fill in, they leave some of their own work neglected. The most important tasks might get finished, but other tasks that contribute to the company’s future growth get left in the dust.
- Stress, burnout, and overwork. Employees who need to “cover” for an empty staff position stretch themselves thinner. When a big project is at stake, they may work longer hours or suffer from more sleepless nights. The quality of their work decreases, and their satisfaction and engagement suffer as well. The longer remaining employees are overworked, the more likely it is they will start shopping for a new job as well – further increasing turnover costs.
- Lost knowledge. Even the best new staff member needs time to get “up to speed” on how the job is done at your Your former staff member, by contrast, knew not only how to do the job, but also the people, the company traditions, where to find the answers to questions, and how the boss prefers the work be done. This cost skyrockets in a company that doesn’t have cross-trained staff members, that neglects to ask staff to create written workflow descriptions, or that fails to manage passwords in a single central location.
At ExecuTeam Staffing, we’re dedicated to helping our clients reduce turnover by finding the best candidates available for their needs and workplace culture. Contact us today to learn more.