How to forecast when workers might quit

As a business owner with great employees, the potential of you losing one to a competitor is similar to what people experience when heavy precipitation is expected: You know it's coming eventually, but you're not exactly sure when, or to what degree. However, when you've got a forecast to work from, the flooding fallout can make it seem more like the storm was more of a light drizzle than a torrential downpour.

Given the degree to which businesses have been adding jobs to the economy – well over 500,000 so far in 2018 based on the most recent statistics available from the Department of Labor – job turnover is on the rise. According to the ADP Research Institute, an estimated 5 percent of workers leave their current places of employment each month, with between 60 and 70 percent of employees doing so voluntarily. 

People decide to leave their posts for a wide variety of reasons, such as higher pay, reduced stress, better work-life balance or a shorter commute. Personal and professional circumstances often dictate when workers decide to see if the grass grows greener on the other side, which can be hard to telegraph as a business owner with plenty of other tasks to monitor and plans to implement. However, you can look for certain behavioral patterns in your daily dealings to get a head's up as to whether your workers are intending on calling it quits. Here are a few ways to get a pulse of your workers' satisfaction:

Be actively engaged in your employees' professional well-being
Talking to each one of your staffers in a one-and-one setting may be impossible, but getting a sense of how they're feeling about their jobs doesn't have to be, according to Anne Loehr, executive vice president of the Center for Human Capital Innovation. Writing in Fast Company, Loehr noted pulse surveys, focus groups and customizable polls can help you get a feel for your workers' sentiment and where they see themselves with the company moving forward. Major organizations that have the financial means have been known to use "sentiment buttons" that hotels and airports take advantage of to gauge customer satisfaction.

"Whatever method you use to gather sentiment data, aim for something easy and anonymous, and watch for trends, not absolute values," Loehr advised.

Take stock of output, hours worked
All employees can have a bad day now and then, where they're just not feeling it, and it shows in their performance. But when productivity is continuously not up to par, something bigger may be at work. Loehr noted that one of the avenues that provides insight into performance are log sheets which show when workers clock in or out and how long of lunch breaks they're taking. They may also ask for more time off than is typical for them.

"Sick days can be requested to attend interviews or to burn up unused leave balances—or maybe that person is just feeling burned out and needs to take some mental health days to deal with on-the-job stress," Loehr said.

Implement corrective measures quickly
All the data and analytics on employee sentiment in the world won't do much good if you don't take the necessary steps that workers want. From more flexible work schedules to a pat on the back, Loehr noted improvements don't have to be monetary so long as they're meaningful and built to last.

"Once you've determined a solution, measure its effectiveness to make sure it continues to produce the outcome you're hoping for," Loehr recommended.

At Hudspeth Law Firm, we recognize our namesake suggests our services are exclusive to the legal realm. But as we like to say, our firm's business is business, working in tandem with managers and startups to set up the framework they can be proud of and their workers want. For a free, no-obligation case intake and evaluation, please contact us by filling out our form.

Categorised in: Starting a Business in Arizona

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