The Staff Turnover Rate Crisis In The UK And How To Avoid It

There's a crisis in the UK and in the States. And actually, between me and you, pretty much in most of the world.

This is not a statement I’m using to demand your attention, in fact, I’m dead serious about this.

Some time ago I contacted an MD from a recruitment company in London offering to help them solve a pretty fatal problem that they were facing.

Now, don’t get me wrong, not fatal in sense of getting injured, but in the sense of damaging their business.

However, the MD of the company didn’t recognise it as being a serious problem that is damaging the business. He said that that’s the recruitment business and… that’s the way it is

Anyway, to make it more clearly, I want you to think of something. Imagine that you are in a huge stadium, along with a couple thousands of other people. You’re the only one holding a lit candle and you are doing your best to keep the flame burning and then share it with others.

Now, in the darkest moment, you share your flame with a person standing next to you and there already are two lit candles and you can see the burning flame reflected in the eyes of people around you.

A couple of moments later, there are already ten people holding lit candles. And all of this thanks to you.

You made it possible to lighten the entire stadium.

Now there’s an entire team of people working together to lit the rest of the candles. But in the middle of that out-of-this-world beauty, something weird happens.

People decide that they no longer want to hold the lit candles. Some of them are blowing their candles, some are putting out the flame with their fingers. What happens next? They decide to leave. For different reasons. Some are really important life-changing reasons, and some simply leave because there’s a bigger stadium with cooler candles waiting for them.

Now imagine that this is never going to stop. There is a constant flow of half of the stadium who you’re sharing your flame with but then they blow their candles and leave. Then new people are coming and so on and so forth.

So it begins to look like there is a serious problem…

At this moment I assume that you already know of what crisis I am talking about. But what you don’t know is that things are worse than you imagine.

As you are reading this, companies around the world are struggling to retain their staff for longer than two years. That’s because on an average people stay about 18 months with a company.

And if you look at this in a bigger picture, what does that mean?

It means that companies are spending more money to hire the same people.

And more often than not, these people are leaving for small reasons that can easily be justified and adjusted in-house to save the company money, time and stress. But also, keep the right people in the right place.

Firstly, when I say staff retention crisis, what do I mean by that? What I mean by that is that there are a high flow-in and flow-out of employees, the staff is leaving, and you have to replace those staff in the same roles.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not including here situations when staff was being promoted, and you haven't filled those roles.

Alright, enough of this stuff. But hear this: how can you as an employer, avoid this crisis? Or if you perhaps are in this situation, how can you retain your employees and actually keep them happy and fulfilled?

Wait, wait, I almost forgot to tell you something really important. Something that you already know, but from time to time, everybody needs a small reminder.

You know, your employees, people in your business actually want to do a good job. They want to have a meaningful job that will make them feel proud, appreciated and they actually want to bring as much value to the business as they can.

And listen, your employees quit for many different reasons, but changing a job that you’re truly enjoying to something new is just as uncomfortable as telling your kid that Santa’s not real.

Staff turnover is expensive, but there’s a better and cheaper alternative to saying that “that’s how business is.”

So today I’m going to share with you three ways that you can use to lower your staff turnover rate. And worry not my friend, it’s going to be less scary and more pleasant than telling to a bunch of kids that Santa’s not real.

1. Flexibility

It is no secret that times have changed from when companies used to be very rigid. Oh, good old times when companies would invest in their future employees since they were in school. The old times when working for the same factory for 50 years was the most normal thing to do.

Employees who are the lifeline of any business, are nowadays craving more freedom and flexible benefits. It can be flexible working hours, flexible working locations, flexible returns and so on.

Now, you’re not going to like this. Well at least some of you, my readers may not like this, and it is going to make you perhaps feel a little uncomfortable but even so, I’m going to say this:

The times when employees’ motivation was money is long gone. That’s why I recommend you to implement some one-to-ones with your employees and ask them some specific questions regarding what motivates them to stay in the business but also grow with the business.

Allow me to explain my idea: some time ago I worked with a company that had a very high staff turnover rate. I am talking about more than half of their employees were leaving every year.

Can you imagine how expensive it was to bring new people, train them simply to lose them in a couple of months?

Anyway, what we did was developing a whole new flexibility package effectively, that suits the employees rather than their employers. But of course, they suit the employees as well (because you wouldn't be offering if it doesn't suit you.)

But what this meant was the employees within this businesses started feeling more valued, more cherished. They started to feel like they wanted to be in this company and wanted to grow with this company.

Which means they put more energy into their job, and therefore they were more interested in what they were doing.

And from here the sales increased as there was a better communication with the customers.

All of this emerged simply from being more flexible and understanding their employees.

Simple fixes, this what I mean by simple fixes.

2. Communication

It is no secret that people trust honest people. But also, people get intimidated by cold, imposing people. Now, if this is what you want in your business, then good for you.

But if you truly want to know what is going on within your business, then open up to your employees, be honest with them and help them trust you.

When the curtain of intimidation goes down, a lot of unneeded office politics will decrease.

If you let your people see your true self, without pretending to be too serious and bossy, you’ll get an immediate positive reaction from your employees. And do you know what this means? It means that they won’t be afraid to talk to you and they will have more clarity within the business.

And guess what, your sales will increase.

What’s that? You’re saying that your people won’t see you as an authority anymore if you “humanize” yourself in front of them? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t take yourself seriously. And I’m also not saying that you should act like someone who begs for approval.

I’m just saying that people trust and ask for help from people who are warm and non-threatening.

No communication causes too many issues. And guys, this is major, because lack of honest communication is literally causing businesses to fail, causing people to leave their jobs and it helps your competitors to get already trained and skilled employees.

3. Be Competitive

How important being competitive is? I’m glad you asked. I remember someone told me this some time ago:

“We’ve got a pool table, so people are going to come to us.”

That’s a true story, I swear, but please, don’t be so naïve thinking that this will actually make people come to you or even stay within your business. That doesn’t work.

Listen, you've got to be competitive in terms of what you’re offering to your employees, otherwise, they’re not going to stay with you, right? Because we’re talking about employee retention.

You know the old saying “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”, well, I’m going to allow myself to paraphrase it:

“Keep your employees close and your competitors closer”

Sounds neat, isn’t it? Following this principle allows you to know exactly what’s going on in the market but also figure out what you want to offer to your employees so they feel valued.

Now, I’ll tell you something else. No matter how much you follow the market, don’t sell your business in terms of bribing people with free beer fridge, ping pong table and even, unlimited holiday. Because let’s be honest, that’s not viable and perhaps, you’ll attract the wrong people.

Anyway, I want to warn you that there is a very fine line between all these ways (Flexibility, communication, competitivity). If you aren’t doing one of these or even all three of them, then your business will struggle.

Your business will struggle to retain stuff and in turn, your business will struggle to reach the turnover it deserves.

Such is life.

And do you know how a company with high staff turnover looks like? It looks like a huge dark stadium with a couple of people who are struggling to keep their candles lit

So out of these three, what are you struggling with? Are you flexible enough? Are you honest with your employees? Are you competitive enough to keep your employees happy?

Let me know in the comments below because I'm really interested to find out what's going on in your business.

And listen, if I can help in any way I am here for you so we can have that conversation because I want to see your businesses thrive and truly succeed and retain an amazing culture and people within.