4. Strategies to overcome employee turnover

Hierarchy of Needs by Maslow

The hierarchy of needs of Maslow (1943, 1954) is an infamous motivational theory of human psychology made up of a pyramid hierarchy defined in the five-tier model of human needs. Employees are driven and motivated to fulfil their needs, Maslow said, and certain needs take precedence over others. He further claimed that the next level needs to be fulfilled or met when one level is reached, as the level that is met no longer motivates an employee. There are five stages that inspire workers as they exceed each, stemming from the very simple need for physical survival. The Maslow's needs principle has practical consequences for management by helping managers to recognize the employees' various needs to inspire employees to achieve the anticipated actions (Greenberg and Baron, 2003)

Figure 02:  Hierarchy of Needs by Maslow

Maslow (1943, 1954) claimed that motivation is focused on people pursuing achievement and improvement by self-development, adding that self-actualized individuals are people who have achieved the anticipated state of life. However, it was noted that among individual’s self-actualization may differ. For others, self-actualization is accomplished by their participation in arts or literature, and for others, the state of self-actualization is not universal for those in sports (Kenrick et al., 2010). A study conducted by Tay & Diener (2011) on 60,865 respondents from 123 countries during 2005-2010 revealed that human needs are universally unrelated to national and cultural differences, but the order of needs as proposed by Maslow (1954) was wrong. Diener (2011) notes that while the lack of basic needs is deeply felt, they are not necessary to fulfil other needs, as an example of Diener (2011) states that even if you don't have food or shelter, you can still have friends and family, he further adds that the needs and wants are not interdependent.

Rutledge (2012) notes that in order to accommodate human brains, Maslow's model needs rewiring. She adds that belonging, harmony, etc. are basic elements of human conduct, but they cannot be seen in a pyramid like a third pillar. She further rejects Maslow's claim saying that, man is a social animal and without belongingness and friends’ man cannot be influenced to accomplish something in life nor his behaviour can be modified. Rutledge (2012) also adds that how we communicate and collaborate with each other is related to our need for survival.

Two-factor theory by Herzberg

Herzberg (1968) pointed out two key factors affecting how employee conduct. Motivational being one factor and hygiene being the other factor, he highlighted that missing hygiene factors in an organization, will contribute to dissatisfaction, these factors prevent job dissatisfaction; though they do not contribute to staff motivation, but dissatisfaction would rise in their absence. In comparison to this, motivational factors inspire and push workers to motivate them to work affectively and to enjoy what they do. These variables are what workers perform at work. They are also incorporated into employment to produce essential employee enthusiasm (Herzberg, 1976, 1984).

Armstrong (1991) notes that two human needs are hygiene considerations and both motivators. As suggested by Maslow (1961), the motivators influence people to work better and the hygiene factors that are also the psychological requirements prevent demotivation, so it has a very little impact on employee motivation.

Lamotta (1995) agrees and notes that if the disappointments are not stopped, companies would not be able to inspire their workers. Lamotta (1995) also notes that when they are reached, the hygiene variables do not inspire workers to a specific action. Other hygiene considerations, such as work safety, also exist. Schultz (1982) advocates the same and states that as suggested by Herzberg, the motivators inspire workers to the highest degree. Yew & Manap (2012) strongly condemn the two-factor theory of Herzberg, arguing that workers are different and that the theory does not understand the disparity in individual needs involving different motivators. They also challenge the applicability of the concept to blue-collar employees or workers with lower motivational desires who do not actually require higher elements such as esteem and self-actualization, who will simply be motivated by meeting the hygiene factors. They conclude that when applying this concept, individual variables as such should always be considered, as the concept cannot be implemented as it is.

McClelland's Theory of Needs

McClelland (1961) recognizes that the motivators of an individual are acquired and the motivators vary between individuals, defining the three key motivators that are used to inspire workers of an organization. These are achievement, association and strength. He believes that according to their cultural, ethnic backgrounds and differences, these motivators can vary among individuals.

The model contains a series of research around motivational aspects of multiple staff, civilisations or diverse nations, instead of analysing individual conduct and concluding on aspects that affect at a personal level, this theory has built an experimental connection with motivational influences and how diverse cultures will absorb them (Lancaster and Massingham, 2001; Locke, 1968)

Why Is Reducing Employee Turnover Important?

Reducing employee turnover impacts company profitability. Having enough people with the right skills is obviously crucial to delivering on business plans and objectives. Additionally, finding the right people is getting more challenging (and costly).

Once businesses identify the right candidates, getting them to actually sign on can prove costly and time-consuming. It’s taking longer to hire people, and most organizations have increased pay for salaried roles while half of others have increased starting pay for hourly roles. These rising costs offer all the more incentive to cut down on turnover.

Tips to Reduce Employee Turnover

   1. Hire the right people.

Some of the blame for poor hires falls on recruiting. Recruiters must be clear about the organization’s culture upfront, telling the candidate not what they think the person wants to hear, but how the company actually operates. But a big part of hiring the right person is making sure that recruiting is looking for the right person from the beginning. Less than half of workers believe that job descriptions reflect actual job responsibilities, and nearly a third have left a job in the first 90 days because it wasn’t what they expected, a report from Jobvite states.

One way many organizations have improved their success rate with new hires is by allowing peers in that person’s role to make the hiring decisions. Organizations should also invest time into getting to know the candidate by whatever means available. In-person visits to the office and opportunities to see how the person reacts and interacts with potential co-workers is ideal, but can sometimes be accomplished via video, as well. If possible, considering making certain roles remote to increase the pool of available candidates and boost the chances you find the ideal fit.

2. Keep up with the market rate and offer competitive salaries and total compensation.

Pay and benefits are key reasons people take jobs and show up for work every day. It’s also a top reason why professionals change jobs. It’s therefore no surprise that higher pay tops the list of what would convince workers to stay, followed by time off and benefits.

Companies should start by offering an appropriate starting salary that will attract qualified and talented candidates. They should also offer regular raises and monitor what other companies pay for similar roles, especially when it comes to hard-to-fill jobs. Organizations should expect to pay more for those with in-demand skills, and more are offering bonuses that are tied to project completion.

 3. Reward and recognize employees.

This is an easy turnover reduction strategy to tackle. Simple “thank yous” and notes of appreciation — either spoken or written — for the work employees put in every day can go a long way. Giving staff members new opportunities is another great way to recognize them.

 4. Offer flexibility

Employees are increasingly concerned with job flexibility, so giving them more latitude here is another way to boost retention. According to online job board Flexjobs, about 30% of workers reported leaving a job because it did not offer flexible work options, and another 80% said they would be more loyal to their company if they had flexible work options.

Flexible work isn’t only telework or remote work. It can include flextime (where employees are required to work a standard number of hours, but can choose when those are), a compressed workweek, part-time schedules or a job-share where workers rotate days working from the office.

 5. Prioritize work-life balance. 

Work-life balance is a struggle for many employees and can lead to burnout that leaves them looking for another role. More than half of workers say employers encourage them to work on the weekends or after hours, and 30% have found themselves working on a project past midnight, per Jobvite. That trend is more pronounced for older workers, those who are married and those who have children.

Flexible scheduling and remote work are two ways employers are trying to help workers achieve better work-life balance, which can increase retention. The number of workers who said they left a job because of the commute has increased by 400% over the last decade according to the Work Institute, something remote work can help address. Giving employees time off, and respecting that time off, is also crucial.

Key to ensuring work-life balance becomes integrated in the company’s culture is making it clear that everyone can take advantage of policies meant to keep employees happy — and feel comfortable doing so. Without that, well-meaning efforts risk breeding resentment among those who don’t take advantage of these policies and feelings of guilt and inadequacy among those who do. To avoid this issue, top leaders should stress that work-life balance is a company-wide priority.

 6. Pay attention to employee engagement. 

It’s critical to always keep an eye on employee engagement, because higher employee engagement translates to lower turnover rates. Many of the efforts businesses launched to improve engagement focused on meeting their social and emotional needs. They manifested themselves in a number of different ways — interesting physical spaces, free food, annual company trips and more. But those things have failed to move the engagement needle much. Engagement is influenced by a number of things, but a big factor is the relationship the employee has with his or her manager, which Gallup says accounts for 70% of the variance in employee engagement.

Not all companies operate in industries that inspire easily inspire a heartfelt connection to the work. But those businesses can still discover and cultivate individual employee motivations to find out how the organization can best leverage its employees to accomplish its goals. Employee engagement surveys and focus groups are excellent places to start — providing that management evaluates the results and actually acts upon them.

  7. Allow opportunities for development and continuing education. 

Employees care about training that can strengthen existing skills or build new ones.

Think creatively when it comes to training. Traditional daylong classroom or travel-intensive training sessions may not be the best use of a staff member’s time or the type of engagement they’re seeking. Organizations with outstanding training make room for it within a person’s “day job” and actively encourage it. They also constantly try new ways of delivering it (smaller sessions, new media) and measuring its effectiveness.

Organizations that clearly map upskilling to defined job roles within the organization and make it simple for workers to find internal positions that could be a fit for people with particular skills can ease this concern.

  8. Develop career paths and opportunities to grow. 

One of the major reasons people leave companies is lack of career growth. internal recruiting must be standardized and free of fear from employees that they’ll be penalized for seeking roles on other teams. One of the major barriers to internal recruiting is that managers don’t want to let go of good talent. Organizations that encourage cross-functional projects, identify skills of existing employees and connect upskilling to internal opportunities have found these strategies help with internal recruiting and can convince workers to stick around.

  9.  Soft skills. 

Creativity and the ability to problem solve are crucial skills for just about any employee. Companies should focus on finding candidates that possess creativity, persuasion, adaptability and emotional intelligence.

Certain companies excel at this. Trader Joe’s director of recruitment and development said on one of the company’s “Inside Trader Joes” podcast that training at the company is not just to create great leaders, it’s to create content and material that helps people just be the best version of themselves, regardless of their role or responsibilities.

  10. Analyze existing turnover to find issues.  

Developing and retaining your best employees. Software can break down turnover numbers by quarter and year, voluntary vs. involuntary, business unit, department and geography. It can report on termination root causes, top performer turnover trends and turnover demographics (breaking down turnover by age, ethnicity, gender, etc.) to reveal trends and insights that can positively influence an organization’s talent management strategy.

It’s becoming increasingly important for HR professionals to have data analysis skills so they can evaluate and interpret all this information in a way that can help the business. This includes skills-gap analysis and identifying flight risks.

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