Dealing with high staff turn-over? What do you lose each time an employee resigns?

As a business owner or manager, we plan to hire. We plan to hire teams that will work towards reaching the business objectives therefore ensuring success.

For as long as those teams remain intact, efficient, and effective, we, as business owners and managers will provide training and manage performance. The benefit for the employee is that they gain experience and knowledge.

What is the plan for when those we’ve hired decide to leave? We don’t like to think of divorce before we’re married, and it’s far less romantic to discuss it after the wedding where we’ve just signed the papers that confirm the union. The reality is divorce is costly. Resignations are just as costly. If we plan for the resignation, we can minimize the impact thereof.

With every resignation means:

– Loss of Knowledge and Experience
An employee that has resigned walks away with the know-how. Their knowledge and experience of your business makes them more effective and efficient;

– Loss of productivity
while the resigned employee has left with their efficiency, the new recruit is not as productive while they learn how to perform the tasks correctly;

– An increase in Expenses
Pay the salary of the resigned employee. Pay for recruitment of the new employee – recruitment fees, advertising costs, finder’s fees etc. Then the cost of the new employee’s salary – typically a new employee’s salary is higher than the previous employee.

A documented business process guide reduces the impact of the resignation. A documented business process guide ensures:

– A more efficient on-boarding process – the new recruit is able to perform a task correctly irrespective of the experience, just by following the steps in the guide;

– Standards are not compromised as the new recruit can reference the guide to ensure tasks are complete and correct;

– Effective recruitment – business owner or manager can recruit based on the need to address the areas of improvements e.g. the retired Marketing Manager did not use social media as a marketing tool, which is a potential loss of new sales. The job description used to advertise can include a requirement for social media knowledge or experience so the new recruit will address the gap;

– Training is consistent.

Business In Theory documents business processes for business owners and business managers to reduce the impact of resignations. The value of documented business processes is worth the business.