According to the Bureau of National Affairs, U.S. companies lose $11 billion yearly due to employee turnover. It is not surprising that turnover can be so expensive. It might surprise you to learn how costly turnover can be. While HR departments have traditionally been responsible for calculating the turnover rate, this is not usually their responsibility.
Turnover statistics are both a strategic imperative of the business and an opportunity for HR. We are required to share the numbers and facilitate the discussion on employee retention, engagement, recruitment and engagement. These experts are considered the local experts, and our knowledge can be used to improve the bottom line. These are five ways to get our ideas heard.
Activities that demonstrate strategic HR
Get to know the business. To gain insight into the business, we often use a PESTLE analysis. PESTLE stands for political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental. Use the PESTLE information to help you build a business case.
Let’s look at the above example of turnover. Is it possible that too many technology solutions aren’t communicating with each other in organizations? The work of employees is doubled or tripled. What is the pay for this work? Paycom offers a Cost Of Multiple HRIS Systems online tool to help you put these numbers together. Employees today expect a technology experience that is similar to their personal life. Businesses need to assess whether they are providing an exceptional employee experience.
Use your company’s “love languages” Gary Chapman’s Five love languages concept states that to communicate effectively, you need to understand how other people receive and process information. Chapman’s book has a business application. Know your audience. This is linked to the first strategic objective, understanding the business. Once we understand the business, we can refer to problems or solutions in the same context as other managers and executives.
Orientation and onboarding are the best times to ensure that every employee speaks the same language. We gave all new employees a glossary when I was working at the airline. There was a lot of industry jargon. I left a company that used AP to mean accounts payable and moved to a company that used AP to refer to airframe and powerplant mechanics. Big difference!! Consider how much your onboarding program costs and how knowing the same language can add value.
Think “how”. Setting a BHAG (big, hairy, audacious goals) can only achieve high performance. Everyone agrees on the goal and then works together to achieve it. Organizations won’t achieve their goals if it’s more about what they cannot do than what they can. This reminds me of an employment attorney who would always ask me a question and then say, “What are you interested in doing?” Ninety-nine percent of the time, we could do whatever we wanted.
When you think about employee retention and recruitment, it might be a good idea to discuss whether a technology solution could lower the number of manual processes currently in use. What can we do to create an environment that encourages employees to stay?
Support customer-friendly policies. We discussed solutions in strategy number three (above). Not every problem can be solved by creating a new policy. The more time I spend in HR, the more I believe organizations should ask the first question: “Do we have a procedure or policy about that?” I am curious how many organizations would answer “no”.
If you think it through, and the answer is yes, write a policy. There is sometimes a price to comply. It is possible to be both compliant and friendly at the same time. Understanding the business is key (see number one). This is where HR professionals can help.
Find solutions to the people issues that affect the business. Metrics are a passion of mine, as readers will know. Over the years, I have come to realize that there are times when you need to use analytics to gather data and produce actionable results when you are trying to help the company find and keep the best talent.
This is our ultimate goal. The strategic role of HR is to assist the organization in solving its people’s problems. We do this because it benefits the bottom line. To solve business problems, the first rule is to get buy-in. Employees and senior management must be involved in solving business problems. We’ve been discussing technology to improve employee experience and reduce turnover. The problem won’t be solved if employees aren’t willing to accept the solution.