Employee turnover can be highly detrimental to manufacturing organizations. The negative effects of high staff turnover include productivity losses, increased talent acquisition costs, and a significant impact on financial performance. Consequently, staff turnover can be a major problem for manufacturers, putting their business at risk.
For manufacturers aiming to decrease employee turnover for the benefit of both employees and their organization, here are some tactics to implement that can help tackle the issue.
Provide Feedback
A main factor in employee turnover, regardless of industry or type of profession, is a lack of open, transparent communication. People like to know how they are performing, what they are doing well, and what they can improve on. This helps to increase job satisfaction, as employees aren’t constantly left wondering where they stand.
Thus, it’s important for your organization to develop and encourage better communication between employees and supervisors/managers. With regular feedback – not just to employees, but also from them – you can help increase job satisfaction and make workers feel more involved in the progress of the business.
Provide the Right Training
There are a few implications of not providing adequate employee training. First, employees aren’t equipped with the tools necessary for success or career development. Particularly with entry level or early career workers, you’ll find that they have very little faith that they can grow within the company if they are not provided the support and training they need. This, in turn, can result in decreased job satisfaction, with employees feeling as if they are dispensable or have to leave your company in order to develop professionally.
Providing regular training that helps your workers acquire new skills that they need to further their careers can help to increase job satisfaction, and thus reduce employee turnover.
Improve Workforce Management
When companies in manufacturing don’t have a handle on their workforce management, the consequences extend beyond ballooning labour costs, affecting employee morale and lowering retention. Too much overtime, overworked employees, understaffing, etc. can lead to burnout and can affect customer service as well as production quality.
With the right workforce management system, you can mitigate these issues by collecting and acting on related data. This helps you identify trends and specific issues affecting your workforce – for example, understaffing – and take corrective action as necessary. The result is a happier, more engaged workforce, which ultimately can increase employee retention.
In the end, decreasing employee turnover is a win-win, both for employees and for organizations. Long-standing employees bring much needed knowledge and experience to the manufacturing process, and employers are able to reduce costs associated with talent leaving their company.
