How Do You Address High Turnover Rates in a Particular Department?

How Do You Address High Turnover Rates in a Particular Department?

In the face of high turnover rates, it's crucial for human resources managers to innovate and adapt. We've gathered unique strategies from top professionals, including CEOs and VPs, to tackle this challenge. From conducting proactive stay interviews to fostering open communication, here are five distinctive approaches shared by industry leaders.

• Conduct Proactive Stay Interviews
• Implement Tailored Team Interventions
• Develop Comprehensive Mentorship Programs
• Foster Open-Communication Culture
• Understand Root Causes

Conduct Proactive Stay Interviews

One approach to address high turnover rates is conducting 'stay interviews.' These interviews are pivotal in proactively addressing engagement challenges before they escalate. Rather than waiting until issues become critical, stay interviews allow us to connect with our team members early on, gaining valuable insights into their concerns and motivations. Ask team members: What are the aspects of your role that you appreciate the most? Are there any factors or changes that would make you more likely to consider leaving your current role? Is there anything about the company culture or work environment that you think we should consider improving? Are there any specific puzzles that you are currently facing in your role that we can help address? These insights can help you implement tailored measures to enhance employee engagement and satisfaction, ultimately fostering a more positive and supportive work environment.

Implement Tailored Team Interventions

To address high turnover in a particular department, we implemented regular surveys to gather detailed insights into each team's specific needs and challenges. Based on the feedback, we executed targeted, team-specific interventions. For example, in one team where a lack of recognition was a significant issue, we introduced a peer-to-peer recognition program. In another, where career growth was a concern, we focused on personalized development plans. This tailored approach led to a noticeable reduction in turnover, as employees felt their unique concerns were being directly addressed.

Develop Comprehensive Mentorship Programs

In our firm, we noticed that junior legal staff were leaving at a higher rate than expected, which was affecting our overall productivity and team dynamics. Instead of opting for the usual solutions like salary increases or additional perks, I decided to tackle the problem from a different angle. I developed a comprehensive mentorship program specifically designed to address the unique challenges and career concerns of our junior staff. This program was more than just pairing new hires with experienced colleagues; it was about creating a structured environment where personal and professional growth could be actively pursued.

Each junior attorney was paired with a senior mentor who shared their professional interests and career goals. These mentors were not only guiding their mentees through legal tasks but also assisting them in navigating their long-term career paths within the firm. To further enhance their skills, we introduced bi-monthly workshops covering broader areas such as leadership, project management, and strategies for achieving work-life balance. These workshops were customized to meet the specific needs and interests of the junior staff, informed by feedback and individual discussions.

The impact of this approach was quite profound. The junior attorneys felt a deeper connection to their work and the firm, recognizing a clear path for their growth and development. This personal investment from the firm led to a notable reduction in turnover. Employee satisfaction surveys and retention metrics reflected marked improvements over the subsequent months. The mentorship program not only retained talent but also cultivated a more collaborative and engaged workplace culture. This experience highlighted the importance of investing in tailored career development as a strategic solution to reducing turnover.

Foster Open-Communication Culture

As the CEO of an agency, I've worked to establish an open-communication culture where employees feel heard and valued. When turnover spikes in a department, I make it a priority to meet with each team member to understand their perspectives.

Recently, our account management team was struggling, with three departures in two months. In conversations, I learned workload and work-life balance were major pain points. To address this, I restructured responsibilities to ease pressures and implemented flexible working hours. Within three months, the churn stopped, and two former employees asked to return.

Investing in employees' well-being is key. At my agency, we offer generous benefits like healthcare, retirement plans, and unlimited PTO. While costly, these show we care—and it works. Our agency has had single-digit turnover for five straight years, well below industry averages. Keeping great people means keeping clients and fuels sustainable growth. When leaders make employees' lives better, it comes back to benefit the business.

Understand Root Causes

You have to understand what's causing it and address it. The engineers I work with coordinate to provide 24/7 coverage, and we were seeing high turnover on the third shift. As positions would open on the first or second shift, individuals with more tenure would take them because it provided better work-life balance. It meant that when we had the least support across the organization, we also had the least experienced employees working to solve problems. Because we needed the coverage, removing the shift wasn't an option, but we worked to make it more attractive by filling another need that we knew was a priority to our employees: higher compensation. We offered a generous shift differential to third shift to encourage interest and, in very little time, third shift became a preferred shift that has a balanced pool of skilled talent.

We had another team of six where we saw four individuals leave in a three-month period. Some left the company altogether, and others moved to other roles. In having conversations with them to understand the moves, we continued to receive feedback about the leader. While initially we approached coaching the leader, we eventually had to remove him from his leadership position back into an individual contributor role. There's no use having the title if no one is willing to let you lead them because you're still a work in progress. We got a more skilled leader in position and were able to rebuild the team. I'm happy to share that they are one of the most productive and high-performing teams in their department. I don't think that these solutions are unique, but they were suitable for the challenges we faced at the time.