Many enterprises calculate employee turnover in the same way. Typically, it is the number of employees who left divided by the average number of employees, multiplied by 100.

However, not every large-scale organization uses the same strategies to reduce their annual turnover rate, boost workforce retention, and replace high-performing employees who left their business.

The key to lowering your employee turnover rate is twofold:

1. Your human resources team must dig into its HR data set to learn why previous employees resigned and uncover which roles, teams, and locations see the highest and lowest voluntary attrition.
2. These insights must then be shared with your C-suite and managers across the business who have seen employees leave at a high rate to address likely causes of turnover.

Regardless of the exact reasons behind your company’s turnover rate, your HR and talent teams must use turnover-related analytics to make data-backed changes to your talent planning strategy.

Only when your leadership knows the average number of employees who exit your organization over a given period and which roles and teams are impacted can they work with your people managers and HR leaders to find and train new employees who can help drive the business forward.

The impact of high employee turnover on enterprises

The main reason your company should prevent employee turnover is simple.

“Retaining current employees typically costs significantly less than recruiting and training new employees and can be accomplished by building a workplace that aligns with workers’ preferences,” HR expert Corey Berkey recently shared with StrategicCHRO360.

Gallup found one in two professionals are willing to walk away from their current jobs and employers today. The reasons vary. Some cited weak pay and benefits. Others said poor managers and culture.

Failing to enact changes workers want means large-scale companies are likely to see their employee turnover rate continually rise and workforce productivity and satisfaction decline.

“Although employees are slightly less likely to leave their jobs now than during the Great Resignation, there is and will continue to be an increase in demands from employees,” Payscale CPO Lexi Clarke recently shared with HR Executive. “And employers must directly address and understand what they can do to meet those requests in order to retain their workforce.”

Corey noted executive leaders shouldn’t automatically backfill positions caused by voluntary attrition. That’s because there could more pressing hiring needs elsewhere in the business.

“Stop and evaluate your organization in its current state and ask yourself if a replacement in the same position is the solution,” Corey wrote for Forbes. “Should you hold off and reduce expenses elsewhere? Should you repurpose dollars to hire a role that will have a greater impact? Should you up-level? Down-level? Taking the time to be reflective at each headcount change event is critical.”

How leading companies reduce employee turnover

There are many problems that can arise when attrition swells and retention dwindles. But, there are two key initiatives your enterprise can undertake to lower high turnover rates today and prevent your talent team from having to find lots of qualified candidates to replace employees who left.

1) Closely analyze and act on employee experience insights

Examining your people analytics in your human capital management software can help your HR team and business leaders determine why your employee turnover rate is high. Here are some of the common reasons workers resign today that could help your organization reduce turnover:

• Low levels of employee engagement. Identifying employees who don’t partake in company events and team gatherings or simply don’t connect proactively communicate and collaborate with colleagues can help you discover who may be checked out and likely to quit soon.
• An unwelcoming work environment. “A safe and inclusive work environment is vital for fundamental employee well-being,” HR expert Cara Brennan Allamano wrote for Forbes. If data shows your workplace environment contributes to high turnover, changes are needed.
• An un-inclusive company culture. Do some workers feel like outsiders at your organization, based on recent engagement survey results? Then you likely have culture issues that need to be rectified to ensure all employees have a voice and a sense of belonging at your business.
• Little or no progress with DEI efforts. Programs focused on hiring more individuals from underrepresented groups and ensuring equal pay for equal work impact your workforce’s views on the business — and whether employees want to remain at your company long term.
• Poor work-life balance/high burnout. Stress levels are at an all-time high for many workers — even those in talent acquisition, the 2023 Employ Recruiter Nation Report found. Find ways to make work less burdensome and more enjoyable, and retention will rise.
• Limited training program access. Learning and development empowers employees to work their way into more meaningful and often higher-paying roles. Learn if your job mobility programs are helping workers level-up internally. If they aren’t, your staff may not stick around.
• Unhelpful feedback from managers. Just as your TA team needs a structured interview approach to evaluate candidates effectively, your people managers need a structured feedback approach to help employees grow professionally. See if managers’ feedback is constructive and supports workers in their efforts to advance their careers within the organization.

This last focal point plays a pivotal role in helping enterprises drive down employee turnover.

“Ultimately, creating space for open and honest communication with employees will improve their experience and satisfaction at work, ideally preventing them from leaving your organization,” Progyny Sr. VP of People Cassandra Pratt recently shared with SHRM. “Managers who demonstrate genuine care and investment are more likely to have employees who do the same.”

2) Examine your hiring team’s recruiting insights and overall approach

Your HR analytics aids with workforce assessment. Meanwhile, your talent acquisition data is another valuable resource that can provide insights into the causes of your high employee turnover.

Jobvite offers built-in recruitment analytics that enables all hiring stakeholders — not just TA leaders and specialists, but also hiring managers and operations managers — to quickly and easily evaluate data tied to their daily recruiting activities.

Syncing Jobvite with UKG, ADP, and other human resources information systems helps talent teams easily transfer data for new hires stored in Jobvite’s recruitment software directly to the HRIS.

This ability for HR to efficiently track employees’ productivity means they can create custom reports for their executive team, people managers, and talent leaders that feature quality-of-hire data.

These reports can shed light on how much value both employees who remain at and left your business provide. From here, you can pinpoint patterns that can be shared with other hiring decision-makers.

Here is what these reports often tell enterprise leaders at a high level:

• Workers who quit and were deemed highly productive likely left your organization due to circumstances separate from their daily work.
• Employees who resigned and were labeled as not very productive likely left your business because they weren’t strong fits for the roles in question. 

Those who fall into the first bucket were worth hiring, given their expertise helped them contribute to their team and overall business goals. Exit-interview data for these folks can be used to learn what fixes at your company could have changed their mind and made them stay. 

As for employees with low quality-of-hire scores, you can cross-reference these former staff members with your TA team’s profiles for them to learn how they were added to their talent pool (applied or sourced) and revisit their answers during each interview. These insights can ultimately inform changes to how recruiters and hiring managers evaluate potential hires.

Here are some questions you can ask your recruiters, including sourcers, that can help your organization determine your work’s possible impact on employee turnover:

• Do job descriptions feature inclusive language and clearly relay expectations of eventual hires?
• Are postings published and promoted in places where your ICP typically looks for new work?
• What kinds of questions do sourcers ask in pre-screening questionnaires and/or screen calls?
• Are interviews highly structured with standard questions, or are they looser in format?
• Does each interview panelist take thorough notes during interviews with potential candidates?
• Is candidate feedback compiled and discussed shortly after each interview is conducted?
• Do hiring managers ensure candidates who advance in the funnel match role-based needs?

It is through this quantitative and qualitative analysis of your recruiting tactics and techniques with purpose-built recruitment technology that can lead to greater retention and lower turnover.

Using recruitment software to address high employee turnover and adjust your talent planning

Just remember that, as you regularly review your employee turnover and recruiting data, it’s vital to ensure you have a robust candidate pool ready to engage for roles you need to backfill.

“Having that bench of talent ready to come in and take your open positions can help you reduce your time to fill while also strengthening your employer brand,” Corey shared with Zenefits.

That’s where a purpose-built, enterprise talent acquisition solution can help your business.

Discover the power of Jobvite’s enterprise applicant tracking software today. Check out our product tour video or schedule a custom demo with our team today for more information.

The post Factoring Employee Turnover in Your Talent Planning first appeared on Jobvite.

In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics shared noted the number of job openings inched back up again to 11 million open roles available in the United States, with employers struggling to fill positions.

Candidates continue to put higher salaries at the top of their requirements list for new prospective positions, and continued turnover has put employers in a tough position. Recent Employ data reported that 37% of job seekers were looking to switch employers to seek higher wages.

So, what exactly is the phenomenon that’s happening to loyal employees? And, just as importantly, how is it impacting your employer brand and reputation?

What is an employee loyalty tax?

Loyalty tax occurs when current employees are penalized for staying in their existing roles by receiving less than new hires for the same position, or not receiving market adjustments to their salaries.

According to a recent LinkedIn article, new hires are often paid seven percent higher for the same role, while another study puts loyalty tax on employees even higher at 10-15%.

These are typically employees who should qualify for annual raises, but were potentially denied one for larger organizational reasons, including to avoid layoffs, to make up for poor performance, or the company has decided to stay a laggard compared to the rest of the market in its approach to pay.

Not giving out market-centric annual raises can significantly hurt both employers and employees who stick with a company for multiple years, while getting minimal (if any) raises or bonuses.

Miscommunication and poor salary budgeting can force employees to pay this tax for staying at the org. But, candidates are quickly figuring this out and finding companies who also know this.

If turnover is high and quality employees aren’t properly compensated, it could mean that executive leadership is not on the same page as HR and TA leaders.

This can create a challenge for recruiting quality candidates, and cause a vacuum of talent leaving the organization in search of higher pay, greater benefits, and greater recognition for their contributions.

How companies can avoid a loyalty tax

A loyalty tax can harm an employer’s brand during such a critical time in a highly competitive job market. But loyalty tax on your employees is not a given. Getting company leadership, HR executives, and talent acquisition teams on the same page when it comes to priorities and budgets for the year can help ensure current and new employee contributions are valued and rewarded appropriately.

Strategic HR teams analyze key metrics like employee retention and engagement and salary rates to track overall company satisfaction and find areas of improvement.

Prioritize employee support and enablement

One of the biggest ways to avoid charging employees a loyalty tax is to have executive and TA leadership consistently communicate about the state of hiring in the company.

Remember: Job seekers want to find a company that values employees, prioritizes DEI, enables workplace flexibility, and leverages automation to improve communication, feedback, and time to hire.

Implement an internal mobility program

Candidates today want to work in a place that invests in their professional and personal growth. In fact, a recent Lighthouse Research & Advisory Report shared that 83% of candidates ask about future career opportunities during the hiring process.

Many recruiting teams have pivoted their strategies this year to focus more on internal mobility and employee networking to fill positions.

The benefit of prioritizing internal mobility is giving employees the chance to expand and grow in their careers within your company, and not at a competitor.

Actionable strategies to reduce the loyalty tax

Employers that want to build a more robust employer brand, provide a strong employee value proposition, and pay competitive salaries to employees leverage strategies to ensure retention is rewarded rather than penalized.

While a loyalty tax can’t be eliminated overnight, there are ways to help reduce it and improve engagement. HR and talent teams invest in the technology to keep a pulse on employees, and to find, hire, and retain top talent for their business.

Here are some steps you can take to reduce the loyalty tax on your employees and retain top talent:

• Ensure TA leadership, HR executives, and company executives meet regularly to analyze and ensure budgets are prioritized for talent raises, merits, and incentives for current employees.
• Create and develop an employee referral program that incentivizes employees to refer their networks to open positions. Include incentives for managers to refer employees for promotions or internal developmental career moves.
• Regularly analyze the labor market and economic reports to determine fair wages for existing employees doing the jobs that they already do. Find companies that publish their salary ranges for similar roles to get an idea of the benefits offered by competitors.
• Send out quarterly company surveys to get feedback from current employees and find areas of improvement before they turn into pain points.

Start building value for employees and candidates

With top talent in short supply, it’s crucial for companies to prioritize their employer brand and employee value proposition. High turnover in the market shows that candidates know what they want and are willing to switch companies to find it.

Be sure your talent acquisition team is equipped to combat high turnover and recruit qualified employees with Employ’s Recruiting Effectiveness Planning Kit.

The post How to Ensure Employees Don’t Pay You a “Loyalty Tax” first appeared on Jobvite.

Employee retention has a direct impact on your enterprise’s business performance and success in both the short and long term. That’s why leaders across your organization — not just your CEO and CEO, but also your CHRO, talent acquisition director, and departmental leaders — need to work closely with one another to keep your high-performing team members.

All you have to do is regularly evaluate of your work environment (e.g., workers’ career growth aspirations and job satisfaction, general employee morale, etc.), and you’ll put your business in the best possible position to retain employees for the long haul.

5 ways to improve employee retention (and prevent top talent from leaving your org)

There isn’t just one area you and your C-suite should hone in one to build highly effective employee retention strategies. Rather, to develop a strong employee retention program, your company must account for workforce sentiment, wants/needs, and career development goals.

Consider recent research from laptop and accessories brand Targus.

That represents an 11-point rise from the year before.

Beyond prioritizing flexible/work-from-home policies, there are facets of your business like employee engagement levels and whether your staff members have a healthy work-life balance that ultimately impact your retention (and, thereby, your employee turnover) efforts.

So, that begs the question: Where can you and your executive team get started? Here’s some expert advice and insights that can help your enterprise optimize your employee retention strategy today.

1) Define what exactly employee retention means

This may sound odd. Everyone at your org understands why employee retention matters.

That being said, not all members of your workforce (or even your leadership team) may know how retention is defined at your business, as there are nuanced versions of it from one org to the next.

• Does employee retention mean keeping everyone who works at the business for at least one year, or is the ideal target retention date much longer?
• Are only certain types of employees (e.g., full-time/permanent workers vs. entry-level/temporary staff members) accounted for in your retention rate?
• Is there “segmentation” with your particular employee retention rate (e.g., executive-level vs. mid-level vs. entry-level and/or by business unit)?

Before you can start to create an action plan to rectify your retention issues and encourage your employees to stick around for the foreseeable future, discuss these (and any other relevant) questions to ensure all business stakeholders involved in improving retention are on the same page.

2) Make sure your recruitment process is solid

Your recruitment process is the first opportunity you have to engage potential new employees and express what it’s like to work for your company. Thus, it needs to be a well-oiled machine.

If your recruitment process is disorganized, dysfunctional, inefficient, or otherwise off-putting to prospective hires, it will be difficult to convince candidates that your company is any different.

Of course, it’s not just on talent acquisition to impart how great it is to work at your business and answer all questions posed by candidates so they feel comfortable accepting an offer.

Hiring managers play a pivotal role in setting the table, so to speak, to define what they’re looking for in new hires, how their team typically operates, and what they do to empower their direct reports to thrive in the near and long term (e.g., regular 1:1 checkins, career-pathing discussions).

3) Onboard new employees efficiently and effectively

The onboarding process is crucial for employee retention. This is the time when new employees are learning how to operate in your organization, being trained and finding footing in their roles, taking on new responsibilities, and getting their first experiences as an employee with your company culture.

If they have a positive onboarding experience, they’re more likely to stay with the company long-term.

The most successful HR teams have clear and comprehensive onboarding objectives. They include:

• Easy access to new hire paperwork (eSignature capabilities are table stakes for orgs today)
• Onboarding checklists for new hires to refer to as they move through the onboarding process
• An intro to the company’s mission, vision, and values as an extension of employer branding
• Facilitating intros to departmental colleagues to begin team-building and spur collaboration
• Offering resource centers for “everything you need to know” starting on Day 1 and beyond
• Beginning the learning development process and making training available to interested workers
• Providing a resource center for all questions a new hire may have (co-owned by HR and managers)
• A clear roadmap of a 30-60-90 day plan for all new employees so they can hit the ground running

Ensuring that new workers who join your business catch on to how things are done and assimilate with your company culture is paramount to their success in your org.

4) Communicate with your workforce regularly

Open communication with your internal team, as well as the candidate, is essential for employee retention. Employees who feel unsure of what they’ll be walking into within their new company or have uncertainties about what’s expected of them are more likely to look for opportunities elsewhere.

When seeking to create both positive candidate and new-employee experiences, communication is key. No prospective or recent hire likes to be kept in the dark.

Unfortunately, many recruiters and employers treat hiring and onboarding as a one-way street, requiring prompt answers and updates from candidates without offering the same thing in return.

Make sure you communicate early and often with late-stage job candidates, those you extend offers to, and those you ultimately hire to keep them in the loop on company news, changes, and developments and ensure they understand what their people manager and your C-suite expect from them.

Writing for Fast Company, Ragan Communications CEO Diane Schwartz said many leading enterprises are hiring for the role of “communicator” to listen to the wants, needs, complaints, and questions of their workforce and be proactive in sharing organizational info to these employees.

A communicator is the “heart and soul of the workplace” and “secret ingredient to employee retention.”

“There has never been a time quite like this for communicators to leverage their unique position as chief storyteller and brand protector to co-create a better workplace experience that makes quiet quitting and the great resignation lowercase words with lower impact,” said Diane.

5) Offer competitive pay and perks to employees

Employees who feel they’re being paid fairly, have good benefits, and can easily access career development options (e.g., your L&D programs, internal mobility paths) are likely to stick around.

Simply put, many employees today are no longer accepting lagging wages and weak benefits packages from companies — and they’re still in a strong position to get what they want.

To ensure the salary, bonuses, benefits, and perks you offer to employees are seen as strong and, thus, will help keep them around — have your HR team conduct regular “retention interviews.”

Let’s say your retention interviews reveal a strong desire to upskill and reskill. The BCG quartet noted that, if you “show current employees that you value them even more than potential new hires by providing them with new opportunities to grow and advance,” they’re much more likely to stay.

Senior-level changes like these to your business have a trickle-down effect. For instance, the introduction of new L&D programs gives your talent acquisition team the ability to relay said programs in job postings on your career site and published to job boards like LinkedIn and Indeed.

At the end of the day, if you want to retain the top talent at your org, make sure you’re offering competitive salaries and benefits — something you can ensure you do by comparing your pay and perks offerings to other companies looking to hire high-performing talent.

Enhance your talent attraction and retention efforts with Jobvite. Schedule a demo today to learn all about Evolve, our unified Talent Acquisition Suite for enterprises like yours.

The post Employee Retention: How to Better Retain Your Workforce first appeared on Jobvite.

Today’s young professionals feel more empowered than ever to find a job they love. That means they won’t hesitate to hop from one job to the next until they find the best fit.

Technology has enabled a nonstop job search. According to the 2022 Jobvite Job Seeker Nation Report, 45% of employees surveyed are actively looking for a new job or plan to within the next year.

Because of this, HR professionals are always looking for ways to keep employees engaged and curb wandering eyes looking out for better opportunities in the peripheral.

5 tips to keep employees from leaving

Here are five P’s you can use to prevent current employees from searching for a new job:

1) Provide new growth opportunities

“Career growth” is a vital concern for today’s top talent. But 54% of those that said they’re searching have not looked internally at their current company for a new position.

Check-in with employees regularly to find out what about their job they enjoy the most. Ask what else they’d like to learn. Allow them to shadow you or others in the company from whom they could learn desired skills.

Trumpet opportunities for promotions and leadership roles into their ears. Provide a visible path with tactical steps they can take to earn those roles.

2) Pay employees what they’re worth

When workers feel underpaid, they will leave. According to the Jobvite Job Seeker Nation Survey, 27%% of job seekers are actively looking for higher compensation.

Start with a fair base salary for everyone. Give monthly bonuses to top performers so everyone is paid according to the work they do. Even a small amount, like $100 or $200, makes a difference.

3) Prioritize employees’ health and well-being

If your employee is happy and healthy, they’ll perform well for your organization. That might be why 30% of workers expect mental health benefits from their employers.

That percentage isn’t a surprise after the pandemic of 2020. Nearly two-third (63%) said the pandemic has caused them to focus more on their mental health.

Aside from offering therapy and medication coverage in your benefits package, there are several ways you can encourage healthy lifestyles among employees.

Offer a gym membership as part of a benefits package. Allow employees to come into work late or leave early once a week for a yoga or group exercise class. Work with employees’ schedules to balance their personal health initiatives with office hours.

4) Put yourself in your employees’ shoes

People are quick to make judgments about how “easy” someone’s role is or compare what they do to what others do. Clear up any misconceptions by giving employees first-hand experience in leadership roles, and vice versa.

Once a year, schedule leaders to switch roles with each type of employee so each can get a feel for the other’s job. Employees will experience how challenging it is to lead people, and leaders will gain a new perspective working with challenges employees face everyday

It will create empathy and understanding between the two roles.

5) Praise employees regularly for great work

Employees need to know what they do for your organization matters. If you don’t communicate to them how they make a difference, they’ll go somewhere that will.

Make time throughout your day to say “thank you” to employees for their work, remind them of what a great job they’re doing, and explain how they’re a valuable part of the team.

With technology providing us access to tons of information, employees will only become more elusive to retain. Your employer brand is on the front line against other companies that threaten to take better care of your talent than you. So, don’t let them.

Mind these “5 Ps,” and you’ll prevent your talent from going elsewhere.

Interested in what else Jobvite’s Evolve Talent Acquisition Suite can do for your TA team? Watch the on-demand Jobvite product tour or request a live demo today.

The post How to Keep Employees from Leaving Your Organization first appeared on Jobvite.

International Women’s Day (IWD) celebrates the achievement of women in a variety of arenas today:

• Socially: Women who make an effort to fix longstanding issues (e.g., gender pay gap)
• Economically: Female leaders at businesses of all kinds (not just Fortune 500 brands)
• Culturally: For instance, women of color who break through barriers in film, music, and TV
• Politically: Local, regional, and state leaders who positively impact their communities

And yet, it’s important attention is (rightfully) paid to women throughout the year — not just a single day of the year. To do so requires a commitment of people and organizations working together to promote the advancement of women every day.

As a woman, a mother, wife, and member of the labor force, I am thrilled to be part of this celebration, and would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the challenges we face collectively, and the steps we can take to support women and advance their outlook across orgs today.

Let’s first look at the state of women in the workplace — particularly those in the U.S. labor market.

Recent setbacks for women in the workplace

Since the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the participation of women in the workforce has dropped drastically. The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the labor force participation rate of women is at just 56.8% as of January 2022 — markedly lower than before the pandemic began.

And the rate of women in the workplace has not rebounded since. That means women’s advances over the last 30 years have been fully erased, without promises for potential gains in the future.

This data is alarming. No business leaders wants to see so many women leave their companies. But, it does represent an opportunity for employers and for employees alike.

3 ways to support women in the workplace

In the spirit of IWD, execs must move toward greater support and inclusion of women in the workplace (and global workforce at large). With that in mind, let’s examine how C-suites can better recognize and support women of all races, gender identities, orientations, abilities, and backgrounds.

1) Acknowledge the burden of care falls to women

A friend of mine once said women today are expected to work like they have no caregiving responsibilities, and to serve as caregivers like they have no work.

This paradox represents the reality many women are facing today. As a woman in the workforce, I have experienced first-hand the challenges associated with being a caregiver to children, once being forced to reduce my own work from full-time to part-time to keep up with the demands of both roles.

Further, 59% of women were forced to leave their jobs when caring for children versus 39% of men, 45% reduced their work hours, and 11% left the workforce for six or more months.

The same is true in caregiving for adults. Women are the predominate caregivers for the elderly, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, accounting globally for between 57% to upwards of 80% of all caregiving for the elderly.

And, according to the same Fidelity Investments Study, this had great impact to women as workers.

Understanding that the burden of caring for others is real to women and has a tangible impact on them is the first step toward greater recognition of their contributions not only within companies today, but in overall society.

2) Establish programs that support all women

Addressing the burden that falls to women starts by creating a culture of inclusivity, flexibility, and accommodation.

First, in relation to the caregiver burden, organizations can actively establish — and promote — flexible work hours, supportive leave policies, remote and hybrid work options, mental health services, counseling, and other employee assistance programs that directly affirm women in their roles.

Interestingly enough, the Fidelity research shows that “64% of working caregivers said they had not asked their employer whether specific benefits or flexible work options were available,” but of those 36% who did ask, “61% reported their employer was willing to work to accommodate their needs.”

Second, ensure that your company takes an active role in developing and focusing on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Create a welcoming environment for all people that is inclusive of all walks of life.

That means ensuring your business is accepting of and builds a culture around workers of different ages, races, sex, gender identities, religious affiliations, orientations, parental status, disability status, military status, and neurodivergence.

Top talent teams are familiar with creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace.

According to Jobvite research, 49% of recruiters reported that candidates inquire about a company’s DEI programs during the interview process, and 44% consider the commitment to expanding DEI in their organization an important factor in accepting a job offer.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, become a leader in relation to the disparity of women in the workforce. Work to actively change the tangible pay gap that exists, per Bureau of Labor Statistics data, where women earn just 82 cents for every dollar a man earns.

Focus on hiring women in underrepresented sectors, like technology.

Deloitte reports that large technology companies are making “slow, but steady progress” with an increasing proportion of females in technical roles. In fact, over the past three years, the average number of women in these types of roles has risen nearly three percent to 25% overall.

Creating an environment where women feel welcome, supported, and recognized for their contributions both within the organization — and outside of work — will pay dividends for employee engagement, loyalty, productivity, and innovation.

3) Stop the bias of employment history gaps 

One inherent bias that exists for employers today is generalizing employment history gaps for those individuals seeking work. Long gaps in work service are seen as negative to orgs and may blind them to potential talent who were fulfilling home or familial obligations in a system that does not support caregivers.

The Fidelity Investments Study found that 53% of workers who were required to step away from their careers reported their time away was longer than anticipated, and 37% indicated they earned less money once they were able to return to work.

This is the point at which the gap in work history becomes much harder to overcome.

In fact, as two years turn into three, one study suggests the chances of getting an interview fall by more than 50%.” For women wanting to re-enter the workforce, particularly after a long pause due to the pandemic, organizations must proactively support hiring women despite longer career breaks.

They must awaken to the realization that caregiving should not stunt women’s careers.

Instead, they should advocate for systems and structures that support the demands placed on women and demonstrate their commitment to the value women add in the workforce.

Using IWD as a “launchpad” for better supporting women in the workplace today

The IWD celebration is the moment orgs need to rally together, showcase the achievements of women, and support them in their efforts to create a more accepting, welcoming, progressive workplace.

Let’s dig in and do the work together where the workforce becomes a representation of our society and values the holistic contributions of women in their jobs and in their lives.

Learn how you can implement a more equitable recruiting and hiring strategy with our advanced ATS. Speak with a Jobvite rep to learn more about our Talent Acquisition Suite.

The post How to Recognize and Support Women in the Workplace first appeared on Jobvite.

The true cost of employee turnover involves much more than just recruiting-related expenses. In fact, when an employee leaves, it can cost from one-half to two times that worker’s annual salary to replace them. That’s because losing a team member includes added costs like:

• Advertising the position your company now must backfill
• Onboarding the eventual person who accepts the offer
• Lost productivity during the time the role remains open

When you consider that voluntary attrition ranges from 12% to a whopping 60% annually (depending on your industry), it’s clear that the cost of employee turnover can quickly get out of hand.

With Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing business professionals who work across sectors and at companies of all sizes continue to exit their orgs — for reasons ranging from a lack of career development, to a poor opinion on their company culture, to insufficient pay — it’s more important than ever for large-scale companies like yours to drive down turnover and boost retention.

Calculating the cost of employee turnover 

Before exploring ways you can reduce employee turnover at your org in the months and years ahead, let’s first examine what goes into the actual cost of replacing an employee for most companies today.

Unfortunately, the real cost of turnover is difficult to measure, because most businesses lack the cohesive systems needed to track relevant metrics across various departments like HR, finance, and operations. That said, there are several tangible numbers that you should keep in mind: 

1. Hiring costs: Recent research from SHRM shows the average cost of hiring a new, full-time employee is around $4,700. If you offer signing bonuses and relocation packages, be sure to include them in your calculation. 
2. Temporary employees and overtime: You may need to allocate additional budget to hiring temporary workers or paying overtime to fill the gap left by departing employees.  
3. Training costs: New employees often require specialized training to learn their job. TrainingMag research puts the average cost per learner at $986. But, don’t forget hidden costs, like shipping materials to remote employees. 
4. Time to full productivity: This is a pretty simple calculation based on average ramp-up time. If it takes the average new employee three months to fully onboard, the cost is 25% of their annual pay, six months is 50% of annual pay, and so on. 

For budgeting purposes, you can either calculate this cost for each position or role, or determine the average cost across your org. Either way, the number will likely surprise you. However, it should also provide strong motivation to ensure valued employees want to stay with your company long term.

In other words? With greater insight into the actual cost of losing members of your workforce — whether they’re FTEs, contractors, or hourly employees — you will have a strong incentive to work with your HR and talent teams as well as people managers to develop a game plan.

Specifically, a plan to a) address team morale and dissatisfaction issues with your staff, and b) craft a recruiting and training strategy to find and onboard new hires who fill vacancies quickly and efficiently.

Reasons for employee turnover

Conventional wisdom says that employees change jobs to increase their pay. That’s not always the case.

While compensation (e.g., low salary, few employee benefits and perks, no stock options or 401(k) match) does often play a part in the decision to leave a job, research continues to show that pay is not the most important driver. Other factors — including communication, leadership, workplace environment, and a lack of appreciation for their work — are cited far more often.

Compensation is also an important consideration (54%), followed by benefits (49%) and flexible schedules (33%). An overarching theme of turnover in recent years is also workers’ desire for employee development programs to reskill and upskill and take on new roles.

All of these stats lead to one clear conclusion: employee turnover is largely preventable. In fact, a study by the Work Institute found that more than three-quarters of professionals who left a job voluntarily could have been retained by employers.

The keys to doing so are clear: Provide career opportunities, create a great workplace, and make employees feel valued. You may have to invest some money, but you’ll end up saving in the long run.

How to reduce employee turnover 

Depending on the size of your org, employee turnover may be costing you tens of thousands of dollars each year. Sure, you could simply divert this cash into employees’ bank accounts.

However, your business would be far better off investing your collective time, resources, and energy to make your employees want to be part of your business for years to come.  

With that in mind, here are five areas to focus on as you work to limit employee turnover.

1) Employer brand

Your employer brand refers to the way your company is perceived by both prospective customers and job candidates. In terms of your TA efforts, it’s the way you differentiate yourself to potential hires.

It’s important to establish an authentic and consistent employer brand in the marketplace, to ensure that job seekers understand who you are as a company, how you treat your employees, and whether your values align with their own — leading to fewer surprises once they’ve been hired.  

2) Onboarding

It’s no secret that a significant percentage of new hires leave within the first year, or even the first six months. If you want employees to stick with your company, you need to set them up for success.

An effective onboarding program will help new employees acclimate to the company, their team, and their responsibilities — ultimately leading to a better experience. You may have to get creative with onboarding in today’s remote environment, but that doesn’t make it any less important.

3) Internal mobility

Giving employees an opportunity to grow within your company is a win-win. For employers, it turns your workforce into a robust talent pipeline. And for employees, it increases job satisfaction and creates an incentive to stay with your company for the long term.

But, building a dedicated internal mobility program takes more than good intentions.

4) Employee engagement and culture

As we mentioned earlier, workplace environment is one of the top drivers of employee turnover. Creating a culture that keeps employees engaged takes some effort, but it doesn’t have to be expensive. Even little changes can make a big difference.

Keep in mind, your company’s values have just as much impact on culture as free snacks and ping-pong tables. A recent LinkedIn study revealed that 86% of millennials would take a pay cut to work for an employer who shares their values. 

5) Technology

Employees expect a simple, intuitive, and seamless experience at work that fosters creativity, enhances productivity, and encourages collaboration. Using top tools at your org leads to increased job satisfaction for employees. (Extra points if you seek their preference of work computer.)

While your C-suite and HR team focus on reducing turnover, your talent team needs leading tech to attract, engage, and convert qualified candidates. Learn how Jobvite can help.

The post The Real Cost of Employee Turnover (And How to Prevent It) first appeared on Jobvite.