Staff turnover can be costly to your business. The exact costs can depend on the type of employment, the value of the employee to the business, recruitment costs, how long roles remain unfilled, induction/training costs and the time taken for a new employee to become proficient.

Statistics show that on average it can take 10-16 weeks to recruit a new employee when someone exits the business. This can of course depend on the skill level required to perform the role and the size of the candidate pool (for example a retail sales assistant role could be assumed to take less time to fill than an highly skilled engineering role).

Use our staff turnover calculator for an indication of the cost to your business.

Employing good policies and practices to help reduce employee stress and improve employee satisfaction is a great way to reduce turnover.

Here are some areas you can address to increase employee retention and reduce costs to your business.

Choose good managers

At times, good employees are promoted to managers because of their technical skills, not because of their people skills – but a good manager usually has a combination of both.

When a manager lacks the requisite people skills, there's often disengagement with staff which can lead to a number of issues – one of the biggest being skilled staff leaving the organisation.

Even managers with good people skills may find they only engage with staff when there's a difficult conversation to be had. This is often justified by time constraints, but waiting for an uncomfortable situation to sit down with your staff can make these scenarios more challenging than necessary.

Use our workforce information template to map out what skills your existing staff have.

Provide recognition – let employees use their skills

Encourage staff to work on areas they're passionate about and interested in developing.

Frustration and boredom are counterproductive, so you need to match jobs and people with the right skills. Conduct a skill assessment to discover special skills in your employees, and then experiment with projects and roles to get the right fit.

Recognise and reward a job well done. If a person is recruited for a role – and not given the opportunity to use their skills – they may not deliver the best work, and could leave.

Set up regular meetings for you to review staff performance, and for staff to provide feedback about their goals and achievements.

Provide support where needed

Seems obvious – but there are managers who really don't care about their staff and make no effort to show interest.

Get to know your staff. Find out what's happening in their lives, what motivates them, and offer your assistance and support when they need it.

Be people-proud and committed

You want staff to take ownership and feel proud of what they do. What actions do you take to ensure they feel important and passionate about the product or service your business provides?

Some businesses have a community commitment, which creates a shared pride in what's being achieved.