You might have read the title to this post and thought, “How can employees reduce turnover?!” Truth is, you have a bigger impact than you may realize. We recently published an article on ways managers can improve retention, but employees can also help reduce turnover. Employees impact turnover two ways:
- Themselves. Employees can impact turnover through the number of times they change jobs.
- Co-workers. Employees can impact the amount of turnover that happens with other members of the team.
And it’s in your best interest to want to keep turnover low. Not only does it benefit your own career growth, it helps make the work environment more pleasant. Here are five ways you can have a positive impact on employee retention and turnover.
- Interview the company. It’s easy to justify accepting a job offer when you need a job. The question becomes is the offer for the “right” job. Employees often fail to do their homework when looking for new opportunities. The result? Taking a job that isn’t a good fit and later resigning.
When looking for a new job, do your research about the company. Come to interviews prepared with a list of questions. And network with colleagues to get good information about the job and the organization.
- Ask questions. When employees don’t understand something, they get frustrated. Too much frustration and employees will look for new opportunities where they’re less frustrated.
Reduce the amount of frustration by asking good questions. It doesn’t have to be a mean or blunt conversation. Finding out how a process is supposed to work or the goal of a procedure can be helpful and reduce confusion. And if you’re wondering about it, chances are there’s another employee who is, too.
- Have learning goals. Don’t wait for the company to tell you what your career goals should be. The company may have career plans for you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a few for yourself.
Employees want to perform at a high level. It makes them feel valuable. And on a personal level, excellent performance translates into promotional opportunities and better compensation.
- Come to meetings prepared. According to The Muse, we can spend up to 50% of our time in meetings. Even if we only spend a fraction of that, our time in meetings is huge, so we want that time to be well-spent. Especially one-to-one meetings with our manager.
Employees who spend a significant amount of time doing boring, unproductive activities aren’t going to feel very engaged with their work. At some point, they’ll be open to exploring career opportunities where they can be more productive. You don’t have to be the meeting leader to bring good ideas to meetings.
- Build a relationship with your manager. Employees often resign because they don’t have anyone who will support them. Traditionally, in the work environment, employees look to their manager for support.
But in the managers’ defense, they can’t read minds. Managers can support employees when they know what an employee wants. This means coming to meetings prepared to talk with managers about goals and being open to coaching and mentoring.
Employees can also help others by speaking up, setting a good example, and building relationships around the organization. If every employee did these five things, think how great the workplace would be.
