How to Put a Halt on Attrition?

Employee attrition is the process through which a company's manpower/workforce gradually decreases over time as a result of unavoidable circumstances like employees leaving for personal or professional reasons.

In many cases, the employer has no influence over why workers are making an exit from the job at a much faster rate than they are being hired. Let's use the example of opening a new office that will serve as your company's marketing agency and its departments. Every salesman is required to work from the company location, although a few staff members are unable to do so and opt to leave the business. This is an extremely common cause of employee turnover.

However, there are many additional factors that contribute to attrition, including the absence of opportunities for professional advancement, a hostile work atmosphere, or eroding faith in the company's market worth. Another grave issue that very often adds to employee churn is poor leadership and management.

The attrition rate of a corporation is determined by dividing the number of employees leaving the organization by the number of people employed throughout the year. Recent hires are taken into account as well. A simple method you can use to calculate attrition is as shown below

Attrition Rate = Number of Attritions/Average Number of Employees x 100

Types of Attrition

A person needs to know the following five types of employee attrition −

Voluntary

The most common form of attrition involves workers who willingly leave their jobs. There are numerous causes of voluntary attrition, the majority of which are within our management (more on that later).

Companies should actively prevent high-value employees from leaving on their own, as doing so can eventually lower production. For instance, if a company observes that the company’s marketing specialists are leaving from various business units, this is certainly causing for concern.

Involuntary

In this situation, the firm, not the individual, starts the departure process. The employee must have been a part of unprofessional behavior, which is a general reason for involuntary attrition, as one rationale. Attrition may also result from structural issues. An increase in the number of involuntary attrition most often leads to mergers and acquisitions.

Retirement

If only a few employees left the organization this year, attrition would not be included in the statistics since the employee team is too tiny. However, attrition may occur if an impactful portion of the company’s workforce leaves the organization at the same time. Senior professionals may decide to retire early or transition to a private consulting career for reasons unrelated to age, thus retirement-related turnover shouldn't be ignored.

Internal

Employees go from one division to another in this scenario. Attrition taking place internally can occasionally be advantageous since it allows talented and skilled employees to go into more lucrative areas. Additionally, it guarantees a better match between the individual and the job.

Finding out whether a specific department experienced a high rate of turnover in a previous year is crucial, though. Is there still something needed to do the job? Are there talent gaps in the management? HR must investigate the answers to these queries.

Demographic-based

This is a substantial barrier for forward-thinking organizations trying to create an environment that values equal opportunity. Demographic-specific attrition is the term used to describe when a particular group of employees, such as women, members of minority racial or ethnic groups, veterans, or seasoned experts, leave the organization in large numbers. Before it has a negative impact on workplace culture, a company needs to undertake staff surveys quickly to determine the main reason for demographic-based turnover. The scourge of quitting could be stopped by fostering a positive society.

Reasons of Attrition

Just like each thing comes with a reason attached when it is not liked, in the same way, the top reasons for attrition are as below −

Professional motivation

HR has a big impact on attrition reduction in this situation. A worker may have left your company because they believed there weren't enough prospects for career advancement. In many modern businesses, technical talent is compelled to compete for managerial jobs as they go up the organizational ladder. Take a cue from Microsoft, which established an outcomes track to reduce employee churn and brought on ambitious career goals.

Personal motivation

The personal circumstances of a worker have changed, requiring a change of the line of employment. A professional in the middle of their career may want to go back to school for a variety of reasons, much as young parents may want to relocate to an area with superior schools. One may maintain in touch with each of these employees and make sure they will think of your organization whenever an opportunity arises by conducting in-depth departure interviews.

Poor employee-to-job fit

Individuals who eagerly join a company but leave after a short time. This can indicate that the applicant wasn't a suitable fit for the job in the first place. Businesses can decrease turnover brought on by this problem by strengthening the onboarding process and job descriptions. Since employees would know exactly what to expect, businesses are less likely to have new recruit churn.

Workplace challenges faced by an employee

This is indeed another very common cause of attrition. The issues which take place at the organizations can go from poor administration to a lack of the appropriate tools and resources for the job. It's really simple to stop this kind of attrition. Ask for staff members' opinions frequently, pay heed to what they have to convey, and fill in any deficiencies in their job experience. If the majority of the employee’s employment criteria are satisfied, a person who enjoys their job is likely to remain there.

Tips to Put a Halt on Attrition

Attrition has a clear disadvantage: the workforce gets smaller, the business loses critical product or subject knowledge, and you run the danger of harming your employer’s brand. Therefore, businesses ought to −

• Examine work and culture fit as soon as possible after hiring.

• To hasten professional progress, provide learning and staff development opportunities.

• Ask for input on questions about employee happiness on a regular basis.

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• Make sure your compensation is competitive with that of competing companies.

• Conduct in-depth interviews when a worker leaves to identify attrition tendencies.

The reasons why employees leave their jobs are not universally understood by a single paradigm. The greatest approaches to remaining ahead of the retention curve involve segmenting the workforce into distinct groups, applying people analytics, and tracking changes year over year.