3. 3
Topics
Overview: Turnover and Retention
Truths About Turnover
How Do We Find Out What Is
Causing Turnover?
Employee Burnout
Succession Planning
4. 4
Overview
What causes attrition?
How can agencies improve retention
rates?
What retention problems are unique
to the public sector?
5. 5
Truths About Turnover
Adapted from Branham, Keeping the People Who Keep You in
Business
Truth #1:
Turnover
Happens
So focus on
keeping the best.
6. 6
Truth #2: Some Turnover Is Desirable
Zero turnover is actually not desirable.
New employees bring new ideas and keep
things from becoming stagnant.
7. 7
Truth #3: Turnover is Costly
The cost of replacing a lost
employee, including productivity
cost can be between one and two
and a half times the salary of the
job in question.
8. 8
Truth #3: Turnover is Costly
Turnover Costs
Direct Costs:
Recruitment Advertising.................
Applicant Expenses........................
Selection Testing...........................
Medical Exam/Screening.................
Background Check.........................
Indirect Costs:
Employment Office Overhead..........
Orientation Time...........................
Training Time................................
Reduced Productivity......................
Actual/Estimated Costs
$______________
$______________
$______________
$______________
$______________
$______________
$______________
$______________
$______________
9. 9
Truth #4: Money is Not the Answer
In survey after survey, money ranks
far behind things like:
Meeting a Challenge
Using One’s Talents
Having a Good Manager
Opportunity for Advancement
10. 10
Truth #4:Money is Not the Answer
Agencies focused on retention will find a
way to:
Show employees that results are valued.
Recognize important contributions.
Provide a sense of ownership.
11. 11
Truth #5: Reasons Good People
Leave - Management
1. Management demands that one person
do the job of two or more.
2. Management cuts back on
administrative help, making professional
workers take on those tasks.
3. Management puts a freeze on raises and
promotions.
4. Management doesn’t give the rank and
file a sense of ownership.
12. 12
Truth #5: Reasons Good People
Leave - Management
5. Management constantly
reorganizes and shuffles things
around.
6. Management doesn’t clarify goals
or decisions.
7. Management shows favoritism for
some employees over others.
13. 13
Truth #5: Reasons Good People
Leave - Management
8. Management relocates offices to
another site forcing employees to
resituate their commute.
14. 14
Truth #5: The Top Ten
Reasons Good People Leave
9. Management promotes someone
who lacks training or necessary
experience to a supervisory
position.
10. Management creates a structure
that has internal departments
competing against each other
instead of cooperating.
15. 15
Truth #6:
Reducing Turnover Takes
Commitment
When senior management is not
committed, organizational policies,
practices, and culture can undermine
retention efforts.
20. 20
Learning to Stop Attrition
Climate and Satisfaction Surveys
offer direct feedback from current
employees.
Exit Interviews offer insight of
employees that have made the
decision to leave.
21. 21
The Art of the Exit Interview
In-depth questions reveal trouble
spots.
Avoid “top of mind” answers by
following up.
Ask if there is anything that might
be done to help a good employee
stay.
23. 23
Interviews vs. Surveys
People are less likely to give candid
answers in person than in an
anonymous environment like a
survey.
24. 24
Asking the Right Questions
Establishing Expectations:
1. What brought you to this agency?
2. What drew you to this position?
3. What were your expectations from
this job?
25. 25
Asking the Right Questions
Evaluating Management:
1. Did you get the support you
needed from your management?
2. What, if anything, could
management have done to prevent
your leaving?
27. 27
Asking the Right Questions
Job Satisfaction:
1. What is your primary reason for
leaving?
2. What are you satisfied with?
3. What are you dissatisfied with?
4. Compensation
28. 28
Asking the Right Questions
Open-ended Questions
Choice (multiple vs. single answer)
Matrix Questions
29. 29
Asking the Right Questions
Demographics:
Age
Sex
Position
Time-in-Service
Education
Next Step in the Career Plan
30. 30
Acting on Answers
Employers need to act on interview
and survey results if they are to be
effective.
If employees perceive that answers
do not lead to action, they will give
up on the process. (Why go through the
trouble to interview or survey if you’re not going
to do anything with the results?)
34. 34
Background
“Burnout” coined in 1980 by Herbert J.
Freudenberger
Academic roots in human services
Nursing/Medicine Education Eligibility Work
Law Enforcement Social work
Academia and private employers are
paying more attention to it as globalization
and technology are changing the
workplace.
35. 35
Background
Globalization
Outsourcing, mergers, layoffs – Same/more
work to do by fewer people
A service-based economy rather than a
manufacturing-based one – more work based
on building relationships with others
Technology
E-mail, instant messaging, mobile
communication devices allow for a much more
demanding and fast-paced workplace
36. 36
Myths
It is a problem and the responsibility of the
individual, not the workplace
Problems outside of work are interfering
with job performance
An attitude problem – always complaining
but not taking responsibility for one’s own
actions
A sign of weakness, instability or misfit for
the job
37. 37
Myths
An inevitable--but manageable--part of
working life
Personal problems call for personal
solutions – get rest, get help or get out
There’s not much an organization can do
to solve it
But these assumptions fail to take the
problem into context
38. 38
Why Is Burnout
Important?
Burnout is costly to individuals and the
workplace
Reduced productivity due to poor morale
Employee sickness
Employee backlash in the form of
sabotage or theft
Potential loss of best employees – those
who care the most tend to burn out first
39. 39
Why Is Burnout
Important
Workers compensation, law suits
The spending of time and money for
recruiting & training
Public relations problems & lost
business
The future of the
company/organization and society
41. 41
Causes
Work overload
Lack of control over work
Insufficient Reward
Breakdown of Community
Absence of Fairness
Conflicting Values
42. 42
Signs
Anxiety
Sleeplessness
Sickness
Irritability toward colleagues and
family
Cynicism
Depersonalization
Thoughts of leaving the job
43. 43
Implications
Not an individual problem – it’s a
workplace problem
Employees want work that is challenging
and rewarding, but when the environment
is conducive to burnout, employees will be
able to put less and less energy into their
work.
Show appreciation for work done and
reward accomplishments
Allow employees flexibility and autonomy
over their work
44. 44
Implications
Ask for employee input about changes or
disturbances before implementing them
Mentality should be “An ounce of
prevention is a pound of cure” instead of
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Resolution will have to constantly evolve
as the workplace evolves, so effective
communication is key.
46. 46
Planning for the Future:
Succession Planning
Michael Cornwell
PA 700
Fall 2006
47. 47
Succession Planning
“The King is dead. Long live the King!”
Human resource management strategy
aimed at mitigating organizational loss
incurred by retirements and other forms
of separation through HR forecasting.
Identifying and grooming candidates for
key positions through career path
development, coaching, and mentoring.
Also refers to large number of separations
through mass retirement.
52. 52
Retirement
Social Security full retirement age ranges
from 65 to 67, depending on year of
birth.
Public Safety occupations often allow
retirement at an earlier age.
• Example: Police and firefighters in SF can retire at
age 50.
Baby Boomers currently ages 42 to 60.
U.S. life expectancy*:
• Male - 75.02 years
• Female - 80.82 years
53. 53
Impact on Public Sector
Immediate impact on Public Safety occupations (Police,
firefighters), because of earlier retirement ages.
Healthcare costs continue to rise. Massive retirements will
place strain on pension plans- which typically provide
better healthcare benefits than those found in the private
sector.
Public health professions may experience significant
increases in caseload size as Baby Boomers’ health
declines.
54. 54
Coping with Labor
Shortages
Women in the workforce
Immigration
Re-thinking immigrant labor
Delayed retirement
Incentives to remain in workforce longer
Reduced pension/benefits packages
Notas do Editor
In any healthy job market, people are going to move on to greener pastures, focus on those you can least afford to loose. Track “avoidable turnover” that occurs among your best employees and find out how you can keep those people in the future.
If all employees stay, as the agency grows, more people will be near the top of their salary range – salary expenses will become extremely high.
New employees bring new approaches, abilities, and attitudes. They can keep an organization from becoming stagnant.
Sometimes the wrong people stay while the right people leave. As one manager put it, “Some quit and leave, others quit and stay”.
Sandy will talk a little more about the costs of losing good employees, but here we see just a few of the costs associated with bad turnover. In addition, we could include: Agency/Search Fees, Referral Bonuses, Relocation Expenses, Management’s Time, Service Disruption, and Unaddressed Workload. We could go even further into Indirect Costs if we could look at changes in morale, loss of experience, and “agency memory”.
Of course, we can’t retain good employees without paying them a fair salary. Workforce Retention Surveys find that although money is important to an extent, the work environment, the individual supervisor, and the quality of the job are the most important factors in creating a productive workplace. When asked “What causes you the greatest dissatisfaction at work?” “Lack of appreciation” led the list followed by “too much paperwork”, and “problems with supervisors”. Only 20 percent responded with pay and benefits.
In the business world, the companies that achieve noticeable reductions in attrition are the companies that have committed CEOs. Making the managerial changes needed to raise retention rates requires a commitment to coaching, motivating, and developing employees.
People are less likely to give honest answers to exit interview questions if they think they may come back to work for an agency again in the future. Internet or 3rd party surveys help insure confidentiality and therefore reliable feedback.
Web based survey systems have quickly proven themselves to be convenient and effective. They are less expensive, more interactive, and easier to deploy than traditional paper based surveys. They are also easier to tabulate and analyze. They attract a higher response rate and shorter response times.
Begin a survey by targeting any emerging issues within your agency. There are some general questions that should be used in most all surveys, but surveys should also be tailored to an agency’s particular needs.
These first questions establish whether or not the employee had a good understanding of what they were getting in to and if they had realistic expectations. If expectations are unrealistic, the employee’s answers will carry that color.