Tip of the Week: Managing Turnover

A lot of people have wanted to do their jobs from home for a very long time. It took a global pandemic to make it happen, but over the past year, millions of people have successfully navigated remote work from the comfort of their homes. The reality of it was a lot different than what most of them expected, however. Some organizations are simply better at managing their remote workers and this, and other factors, have led to some significant turnover at some companies. Let’s take a look at the reasons for this and give you a couple of tips that will help you retain your remote workers.

Why Are You Dealing with Employee Turnover?

First, we have to say that with so many businesses offering remote work capabilities, it’s going to be difficult to keep employees in the fold if they get more money or the promise that their new position will be completely remote. Some people just like working remotely and if another company can outbid for your worker’s services, it’s not on you. 

There are some other factors other than compensation, of course. Let’s unpack some of them:

The first thing you might not realize is that a lot of people don’t like working from home. Sure there are some benefits, but by and large, there are more distractions at home than there ever could be in the office. Kids, pets, household chores, not having a dedicated workspace; you name it, it can be a problem for some people.  As crazy as this sounds, some people will jump ship just to find an opportunity where they can be away from home and around people daily. 

In order for a worker to want to be productive for a company, they want to know that they are important to the team. Working remotely doesn’t provide that as much, and even the situations where teamwork is initiated, video conferences just aren’t intimate enough for some people. Some people just want to be constantly considered integral and that just isn’t always possible with a whole remote team to manage. 

Sometimes, it’s the way that they’re managed that is the problem. Many businesses have been trying to fill the deficit of day-to-day interaction with more correspondence. There aren’t many people that enjoy reading more emails or instant messages or taking more phone calls. If your business has succumbed to adding to the stream of correspondence a worker has to go through, you need to know that it is one of the most cited reasons that workers look for new jobs. 

All is not lost, however. Let’s look into some ways you can manage your employee turnover during this extraordinarily confusing time. 

Let People Know You Appreciate Their Efforts

Hiring people is extremely difficult and expensive, that’s no secret. If you could mitigate this cost and loss of talent with a few kind words, wouldn’t you? Lots of workers want to please the boss, and many of them will never admit it. If you are seeing higher than normal turnover rates, consider just reaching out to your staff and interacting with them. See how things are going. We know that sometimes it’s not possible to get in touch with everyone (and some people won’t appreciate it), but you know the ones that need those extra words of encouragement. 

When People Do Leave, Don’t Beat Yourself Up

It’s always good practice to conduct an exit interview with soon-to-be-former employees. This way you understand what you did well and what you did wrong from the perspective of someone that you didn’t really want to lose. This information can be useful in changing strategies and policies that they deemed to not be constructive and find out what their opinions were of the business before leaving. 

Remote work can be beneficial and has obviously helped keep many millions of people employed and millions of businesses in business during the pandemic. As life normalizes somewhat over the next year, you will have to make a determination where remote work fits into your business’ strategy. If you would like some insight about the technology aspect of the relationship with employees, give us a ring at (703) 821-8200. Our knowledgeable experts can help you ascertain what changes you can make to keep your staff together and avoid expensive employee turnover.