Best Practices for Dealing with Employee Turnover

The Loss with Turnover

Each time an employee leaves an organization, it costs a business approximately 20% of that employee’s annual salary. For organizations whose nature lends itself to high turnover, this statistic can be alarming. In addition to the upfront cost of recruiting and training a replacement, employers are also burdened when an employee leaves because the knowledge they gathered during their employment often walks out the door with them. This issue of knowledge loss is especially troubling for organizations that primarily operate in the field, because many field reps use individual documentation that is separated from the back-office. If that person did not keep their information organized or they continually discarded what they considered old data, it can create difficulty for a new rep taking over the accounts of the previous rep. Additionally, the clients affected by the turnover may face frustrations during the transition if their new rep does not have the knowledge to serve them as well as the original rep.

This guide will explore the root causes of employee turnover and the industries which are most affected by it. Additionally, it will identify the different types of institutional knowledge loss that occur due to turnover and the tools available to mitigate the problem.

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Affected Industries

There is a host of literature covering the causes of high employee turnover and the ways in which employers can decrease it in their organizations. While it is important for any organization to consider the advice this literature offers, such as creating a positive working environment and promoting healthy communication, the structure of some organizations means that high turnover rates are unavoidable.

For example, businesses that run on a seasonal basis often experience high turnover rates, because employees who work one season are not guaranteed to return the next. That includes any organization that begins and ends operations in collaboration with natural seasons such as landscaping businesses or pool-cleaning services. Yet turnover is also evident in organizations that alter operations according to different “seasons” such as retail merchandising firms that often hire an influx of employees during major events like Christmas or the SuperBowl.

Typically, young people, such as college students, who do not have developed skills, hold seasonal jobs. However, economic pressures are leading to a growing number of middle-aged employees seeking out these pop-up job opportunities.

It is also important to note that though seasonal industries have historically experienced high levels of turnover, a growing number of industries may be faced with the same issue. That is due to the influx of Millennials, who are projected to make up nearly 80% of the workforce over the next ten years. Often referred to as “job hoppers,” these young employees have been shown to have more job mobility than any other generations. The penetration of this significantly large age group into the workforce will encourage a growing number of organizations to consider the after-effects of turnover, and the solutions available to address them.

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Types of Knowledge Loss

Client Data

Since organizations that operate in the field rely heavily on their reps to foster healthy client relationships, managers often do not have as intimate an understanding of clients as their reps do. Without a system of documentation, a rep leaving a job will take away all the valuable information they gained during their time with clients. Here is a list of common types of lost information caused by turnover:

 Client Personalities: includes any personal tendencies including sensitivity to timeliness, attention to detail, etc.

 Client Habits: includes behaviors like checking in with phone calls, sending confirmation emails, overseeing merchandising, etc.

 Client Expectations: includes assumptions such as, rep will offer new products; rep will offer customer service surveys, etc.

If a new rep does not have previous knowledge about the clients beforehand, they may be caught off guard with their new clients. In response, the client must take time out their day to explain what they want from the rep, which may send a message to the client that the organization does not value their clients’ time.

Future Data

Another critical part of many field reps’ jobs is gauging the future interaction clients will have with the organization. When an employee leaves the position, all the side conversations and subjective impressions they have obtained from their clients about future plans are lost. Here are three specific types of future plans that businesses stand to lose due to turnover.

 Cold Call Possibilities: includes any tips made by current clients about potential new clients that a rep keeps a list of.

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 Product Launches: includes any interest from current clients that they will be notified about new products.

 Feedback Programs: includes any expectations that current clients have about being involved in customer service feedback programs.

This type of knowledge loss can be significant, especially for industries that have high levels of employee turnover. This article points out that the knowledge loss of future plans caused by employee turnover often goes hand in hand with higher level of customer turnover.

Hard Data

Most reps must keep some form of documentation pertaining to interactions with clients. Yet, many field reps are still tracking this information on paper. Organizations must hope that when that rep leaves the job is that the he or she was carefully organized and has all that hard data in an easy-to-find location. Here are three examples of hard data that can potentially be lost during turnover.

 Purchase Orders: the average amount of product purchased per client.

 Visit Schedules: a detailed calendar with an optimized client visit schedule.

 Audits: checkups on rep activity like merchandising or repair work with specifications that are important to the client.

The new rep will need this type of information to be fully informed going into client visits. For example, a client may become frustrated with having to deal with a parade of new reps and go from ordering 100 cases of product to 20 cases of product. A rep who had insight into that clients’ behavior could have foreseen that red flag and engaged with the client about the change. Without this advantage, an organization’s disappointing service may go undetected.

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Solving the Problem

Developing solutions to limit turnover is important for any organization, whether high levels of turnover are expected or not. While there are tools and solutions available to help ease the pain of turnover, it is always better to have a team full of knowledgeable and personable reps delivering product or services to clients that return to the job season after season. Check out a few ways to keep seasonal employees coming back, and how best to handle turnover when it happens.

Attracting return workers

A number of employees in high-turnover industries will leave for practical reasons, such as a higher job placement or a post-college move. For this reason and the short-term nature of seasonal work, some managers in these industries have adopted a hands-off approach to employee retention because they believe the exercise to be a waste of time. Yet, a more concentrated approach to retention could create healthier client relationships and a more efficient organization overall. Here’s a few ideas for seasonal managers looking to keep around a great team of employees:

 Keep in Touch: Sending your current or even previous employees holiday cards or offering invites to company events can help develop a community to which workers will want to return.

 Offer Perks: For seasonal employee veterans, who often are not offered insurance or retirement plans, it is important for managers in these industries to offer perks. Small things like a game room in the office can promote you to being a “fun” employer.

 Value Employees: This may seem like an obvious tip, but many managers of seasonal teams do not take the time to thank or recognize employees for great work. A “thank you” can go a long way.

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Hiring Practices

By keeping in contact with employees, offering a fun working environment, and recognizing quality work managers of seasonal teams can address the avoidable causes of turnover. Yet, the nature of these short-term employment situations means that organizations will have to continue to tweak their reaction to inevitable levels of turnover in order to maintain the quality of their customer service. Here are three traits managers of seasonal teams should look for during the hiring process.

 Excellent Communicator: Employees who are naturally communicative will be more willing to relay the customer information they know and are more likely to be thorough with the new rep.

 Organized: An organized employee will keep detailed records of client interactions and purchase orders, so a new rep will be able to quickly get a better picture of the client accounts they will be taking over.

 Accountable: Hire someone who is highly accountable for his or her work. These are the type of reps that motivate themselves without managers having to constantly check up on them.

Better Data Capture Tools

Some organizational leaders in seasonal or Millennial-heavy industries may feel that since employee turnover is inevitable its consequences must also be unavoidable. Yet, through the management and hiring practices mentioned above, the knowledge loss caused by turnover can be remedied. Another great way to solve the issue of inevitable turnover is through adopting a Field Activity Management solution.

There is a variety of Field Activity Management software tools that help organizations not only collect the critical knowledge mentioned above, but also maintain it in-house after an employee is gone. Many of these tools are powered by Cloud storage structures, which systematically allow reps to gather field data

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via their mobile phones that can be shared in real time with back-office managers.

These tools have benefits for both reps and managers. For reps, many tools offer features to help them perform daily duties like merchandising audits or product orders. For managers, any and all data that reps collect is retained within Cloud storage. That way, when a rep leaves the job all of that valuable information does not leave with them. Finding the Best Solution

By attracting return workers and improving hiring methods, organizations can minimize the costs of turnover. And with the right tools, newly hired reps will have access to an arsenal of client history that allows managers to save time trying to gather vital training information and also pleasantly surprise clients by knowing exactly where they left off with the previous rep. Employee turnover may be a common occurrence in some industries, but the knowledge loss that some organizations suffer does not have to be.