Good rates of employee retention can be hard to come by, but often involve maintaining high levels of employee satisfaction and engagement.
Companies with successful rates of retention often utilise things like incentives, an employee satisfaction survey, and a culture of recognition to keep top quality staff on hand.
According to a report from The Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI), a survey of 561 HR practitioners revealed that the top reasons for workers leaving a company are lack of promotional opportunity, a bad relationship with a manager and insufficient pay.
Conversely, the top three reasons that workers end up staying at an organisation included better induction processes, improved employee communication and better selection techniques.
But what's really happening all across the nation in terms of staff turnover?
According to the AHRI report, the staff turnover rate for the last 12 months averaged 13 per cent. In 2008, this rate was 18.5 – showing significant improvement.
However, the rate varied considerably across organisations of different sizes. The turnover rate was highest at 17 per cent with medium sized businesses of 250-499 employees, while small businesses with fewer than 99 employees were at 11 per cent. Finally, large businesses with 1,000 or more employees came in with the lowest turnover at 10 per cent.
"The figures suggest that perhaps more businesses are getting recruitment and retention right. On the other hand, the relatively low rate might indicate that employees are showing a reluctance to move, with confidence low and wages flattening out in a prevailing mood of business uncertainty, and significant risks of lower growth and higher unemployment next year," said AHRI Chairman Peter Wilson.
Interestingly, while these turnover rates are relatively low, 47 per cent believed that the turnover in their business was still too high. If your company is experiencing higher than desirable levels of turnover, take this as an opportunity to spruce up your practises and become a more valued workplace.
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