Are You Ready to Lose Half Your Staff this Year? You Just Might...

What would you do if 75% of your staff walked out the door tomorrow? According to researchers and surveys from Monster.com, the rate of expected job turnover is even higher than that. 81% to be exact. That's the percentage of workers who told researchers they'd be looking for a new job in the next few months. Some of them are already actively looking.

Further details of the survey reveal that nearly one half (42%) of current job seekers are currently employed. What are they desiring? Why are they so dissatisfied with their current positions? As a business owner or manager, it's important (actually it's absolutely vital) to mentally place yourself in the shoes of your employees (or as many as possible) and assess their current situation, asking yourself if you'd be satisfied.

Learn to Think Like Your Employees

It's not as difficult as you may think. Let's start with your front desk receptionist and I'll take you through the steps.

• What is his or her annual salary?
• What do you know of his/her personal life situation?

Let's say the receptionist is a single parent with two children and a car payment. Without going into too much detail, do you think you could survive on the salary you are paying? If your immediate response is "Of course not; I don't know how they make ends meet" then ask yourself this next question: What does your company offer, if not pay, that would keep your receptionist from leaving?

If you are drawing a blank right now, it's pretty safe to assume he/she will be looking for a new job soon, --or possibly even now, as you're reading this article. Sure, you're fun to be around, you're lenient when employees come in late, and you've even implemented 'Casual Friday' but those things don't pay the bills.

"But, that's out of my control. I don't set the pay rates," is what you may be thinking. Or maybe you're a business owner and you just can't budget in a higher pay rate. That's fine. For the sake of argument let's say the pay rate remains the same. Now move your thoughts over to the sales manager or production manager, --or someone who holds an authoritative position in your business. What's their pay look like compared to their life situation? What benefits do they receive? Would you be satisfied with their situation?

Why am I asking you to perform this little mental exercise? Because it will force you into awareness of the fact that your business may actually be teetering on destruction. What? That's pretty dramatic of me to say, right? Well, I don't know...Is it? If so many of your employees are feeling "stuck" in their positions with no light at the end of the tunnel, they are prime candidates to move on. How many losses would it take to affect the general operations to such a degree that you'd lose money, and clients? These are things you need to be prepared for. So, what should you do?

I'm glad you asked. I'm about to tell you.

How to Keep Good Employees

My plan is two-fold, and I've been a business owner for many years. Here's the inside scoop. First, you need to learn how to keep your best employees and second, you need to prepare yourself for the employees who will leave. Let's look at keeping your shining stars first.

For the sake of argument, we'll assume you just can't pay them more than you already do, but you've done the little exercise above and realize the potential for them to be dissatisfied is very real. Here's a couple of options:

• Be creative: If they are, in fact, excellent employees you'd hate to lose, try to offer them some perks. Maybe it would be helpful if some of your staff could work from home part of the time. This saves on the cost of daycare for a lot of families. Maybe you can offer bonuses or incentives when particular goals are reached.

• Promoting from within: Why does the receptionist have to stay locked into that position? Does she/he have excellent people skills? Are they knowledgeable about your product? Maybe moving them into sales would provide a solution? If you're a fan of the TV sitcom "The Office," you'll remember that Pam started out as the receptionist, but ended up in sales.

• Talk openly with your employees: Have real conversations with them about their goals and potential future with the company. Maybe they're content where they are but why take that chance. Six month review time is perfect for these types of conversations. Often, an employee will feel anxious about approaching you with their thoughts on moving up in the company or taking on more responsibility for increased compensation. It's your job to open that door.

How to Prepare for Employees Who Jump Ship

Next, let's make sure you're prepared for the percentage of employees who will leave. What would you do if two of your top employees didn't show up next Monday? How long would it take your HR department to replace them? The ad in the paper, the gathering of resumes, the interview process, reference checking, and follow up interview? Generally this is a 2-3 week process in itself. Can you afford that?

A better solution is to partner with a temporary staffing agency. It's sort of like having an insurance policy in place. One call to HH Staffing Services and we've already completed half the work for you. We interview candidates for a wide range of professional positions on a daily basis. HH Staffing Services also conducts extensive background checks, verifies all prior employment and references, conducts intensive skill assessment tests, and has these candidates on hand, waiting for your "emergency call." We can generally fill your position within a day or two and save you thousands of dollars (and plenty of stress) that you would have spent by the time you advertised for, interviewed, and finally hired the right person. And speaking of "the right person," when you use a temporary staffing agency like HH Staffing Services, if the employee we send you isn't the right fit (which is rare), we can send another candidate the very next day! Normally, you'd have the headache of starting the process all over again. We streamline everything!

So, back to the main point. You've got a two-fold plan of action to implement as soon as possible. First, implement strategies to keep your best employees. Second, have a back-up plan for those who inevitably will leave. Always have a plan. It will save you from the headache of "putting out fires" later!

HH Staffing Services provides permanent and temporary employees to Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Bradenton, Sarasota, Clearwater and Tampa. We're here to partner with you. Give us a call today! We service a wide range of professional industries and positions. If you call us today, you'll be prepared for a better tomorrow? For our services click here

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HH Staffing Services provides Temporary, Temp to Hire and Direct Hire placements services to the follow counties in Florida:

Orlando Jobs – Serving Orange and Osceola counties call 407-401-9496

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