Keeping staff turnover low and retaining your best workers is always important but particularly when you are a small business. This can also be a huge challenge for SMEs because they often struggle to match the salaries that the best workers could command at a much larger company.

Why You Need to Keep Turnover Low

Keeping staff turnover low at a small business is important for a few different reasons.

Cost: When an employee leaves the business it means that you will need to find and possibly train a recruit. The recruitment process can be costly as well as disruptive because you need to post job adverts, lose work time interviewing candidates and then training the new recruit. It is reported that replacing someone on an average salary will cost a business £26,595 based on the cost of hiring and reduced output.

Productivity: Productivity can drop drastically when staff leave because there will be a major disruption and it can take many weeks to bring in somebody new and to get them trained and working to the same level as the previous employee.

Morale: It is always important to keep morale high and to build a team-based mentality especially in a small business where there are less staff. When a staff member leaves it can bring the entire team down and take a long time for someone new to integrate with the group. Keeping staff turnover low creates a positive working atmosphere in an SME which everyone can enjoy.

Retaining Staff

It is clear that keeping staff turnover low is important for small businesses, but how can you go about doing this?

Career progression: The best workers will always be the motivated ones so you need to be able to offer chances to progress within the company and the ability for them to develop their skills.

Competitive salary: A competitive salary is vital for staff retention. You may not be able to match the much larger’s companies wages but you must be competitive.

Flexible working: In today’s day and age, people expect some flexibility when it comes to their work schedule so offering remote working and flexible hours will be key.

Positive atmosphere: People spend most of their day at work so there needs to be a positive atmosphere. You can achieve this with a nice office, team building and having a relaxed approach (although not at the expense of work).

Positive feedback: Leading on from this, you also need to make sure that you provide regular positive feedback so that employees feel valued and an important part of the team.

Every small business owner needs to consider the importance of keeping staff turnover low and take steps to encourage employee loyalty. This can be challenging when you may not have the salaries or allure that larger companies have but it is possible to retain your staff and create an attractive working environment for workers.