What Should You Do When Employees Keep Leaving?

Having a valuable employee leave can be a hit for any company, but when it keeps on happening it can feel like you're doomed. Not only can it harm your productivity but high turnover can be a key reason why you may struggle to acquire the talent you need to fill the gap.

Employers shouldn't simply sit back and wait for it to blow over. Instead, take action and make changes to ensure employees want to stay with your business for the long term.

But what steps should you take to achieve this?

Conduct exit interviews

You may think you know the reason why people are leaving in flocks but you need to be certain if you're going to resolve the problem. Exit interviews are a key part of understanding what's driving employees out of your door. Of course, they may not all cite the same reason but it should help you get a clearer picture of what the situation is.

Make sure you give each employee time to communicate to you about issues without taking it personally. It's important that you're able to get to the heart of each problem to ensure you can take steps to resolve it.

Use Q&As

Exit interviews are a great way to understand employees' motivations for leaving but the problem is they only arise when staff have already made the decision to go. So make sure you are having regular check-ins with your employees to gauge how they feel about the company. This can be through one-to-one meetings with their managers or company-wide Q&A sessions but should be an opportunity for staff to raise concerns without consequences.

Collect morale data

If your current employees are unlikely to recommend you as an employer to others, that's probably at the heart of your turnover problem. Ensure that you are conducting employee surveys to track morale and loyalty. Use your findings to put together a list of recommended actions for your company to improve and make sure employees are regularly updated about your progress.

Create a culture of loyalty

Having a company culture that rewards employees that stay with the business for a long time, through personal development, promotion, and appreciation, will automatically encourage loyalty from staff. You should also make your policies on parental leave and pensions clear so that employees can feasibly stay at your company for decades to come. This allows new starters to picture your business as a place where they could work for a number of years, rather than as a stop gap until something better turns up.

Focus on employee wellbeing

Millennial workers are far more geared towards working for employers that respect them and fit with their own values than previous generations. This means if you're focused solely on offering competitive salaries, you may be pushing employees away from your organization in the long term.

Develop a package of employee benefits that fit with the type of employer you want to be and will be welcomed by your staff. This is a great way to encourage a cultural shift in a company, allowing people to see that you prioritize employees and what matters to them.

Be clear on prejudice

Does your company come across as one that wants to sweep things under the carpet rather than addressing them? Sexual harassment has become a massive issue for employers and one that none can choose to ignore. You need to ensure your managers are trained on how to handle sensitive matters and that there are clear policies in place to protect potential victims. Although you may not directly associate this with employee retention, few people want to work for a brand that is uncertain about such important matters.