There is undoubtedly a high cost attached to both employee turnover and poor employee performance. Although employers look for candidates who are both loyal and productive, various scenarios lead to failure.
From the employee standpoint, a position which seems dead-end, where there is not adequate training, and neither a clear advancement path, nor recognition of a contribution, will merely be a stop gap job – despite this person’s original good intentions.
The 2011-2012 turnover rate for full time employees in Canadian companies was 7.2 per cent, about 1 per cent higher than the rates seen during the economic downturn. (Conference Board of Canada). The retail sector is experiencing the greatest challenge with an average of 14.0 per cent.
Imagine the scenario of a retail company with 1000 employees, where there is 14% turnover amongst full time people. That would mean that 140 people would have to be hired each year – interviewed, trained, and so on.
You need extra HR people to handle this kind of employee activity with all the work associated with closing current employee files and contracts and hiring the new employees to take their place. For a 1000 employee company, this can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars of costs.
For other employees in retail, the turnover of temp workers on the floor is over 67%. So we are talking about over 4 times the number of employees that have to be hired and trained, that is at least $1 million dollars. In actual fact, with other costs, it would be more.
This is just a scenario of course. It important to identify and retain high, and develop earned loyalty amongst your workers.