It is consistent, relentless, wearing you out and taking the same big bite out of your profits every day. Too many people think it is just a cost of doing business. They can’t do anything about it. They have tried without any luck. The converse of Peter Drucker’s quote is also correct. If you can measure it, you can manage it.
The many facets of employee turnover are infinitely measurable
The initial information which I request from a client are standard payroll reports which will begin the analysis of their employee turnover. The vast majority of organizations have these reports already in their payroll systems and are readily available. With these reports, the first order of business is to determine the annual cost of the organizations employee turnover. The amount is always a surprise to the Owner or CEO. They knew it was bad but NOT THAT BAD.
Now we know how big of a problem we have and we can move on to analyze how the problem is being created and is continuing. Your payroll system also has other standard reports which provide much insight into the employee turnover for the last few years. Additional analysis will provide answers as to the WHAT, WHEN and WHO questions. They will also point us in the direction of WHY. The WHY will only come into focus with additional discussion with managers, employees and even ex-employees if they are willing to cooperate.
The point is for most of my clients they don’t have to put together reports or information because they are already measuring their turnover - whether they realize it or not. Many times I have clients who are not even aware of the reports which are available from their own systems. Now it takes someone who understands the reports and knows how to use them to correctly diagnose the problems. Then we can move onto building solutions, strategies and plans to eliminate the root causes.
A particular client had all of the standard payroll reports which I needed. He had no idea his employee turnover was costing him over $1 million a year. He was aware that certain departments had issues. But he was not aware of other departments which also had problems. More importantly he did not know all the options which were available to solve the problem. When the overall plan was presented he stated “This makes perfect sense.”
All of this because of reports which were already available. What can we do with your reports?
