I’m sure you'd agree that the last thing you want to hear from your good staff is the word ‘resign’.

Not only do you lose valuable experience when staff leave, but the cost of staff turnover can leave you breathless when you look at it in detail. For instance, add together the cost of the following:

• Decreased productivity;
• Lost investment in training and development;
• Lost sales;
• Recruitment costs;
• Induction of replacement staff;
• Management downtimes; and
• Legal fees and payout commitments.

Recruiting the right staff is a good start; you then need to do as much as possible to keep them challenged and satisfied.

This is one reason why best practice injury management is so important. When staff are injured or they fall ill, providing them with proper support until they can return to work lets them know that they are valued by the company and that you are keen for them to return to work as soon as possible. Once that sense of being valued is lost, you can expect discretionary effort and commitment to drain away.

Asking staff at the time of termination ‘why are you leaving?’ is like asking your other half ‘how to improve the marriage?’ on the day before the divorce is final! By that time, the horse has bolted.

A person's decision to quit is influenced by what is known as the push and pull factors. Push factors are the reasons that make staff decide to leave. For instance, the way which the employee has been managed can contribute to resignation. Pull factors are the opportunities available in another company or another team, which can be expected to lead to greater job satisfaction for the resigning employee.

Decisions to leave are rarely caused by pay dissatisfaction. The real reasons why staff give notice are more likely to involve:

• Work factors. The work is no longer challenging and is not using the staff member’s skills to the full or the resigning staff member has been overlooked for promotion.
• Company culture or the shared values and practices of the company's employees. Studies have shown a strong link between an individual's reason to leave and the dominant culture of the company. A feeling of not fitting in can be a strong motivation for moving on.
• Leadership style. Throughout most companies, first line managers are mostly responsible for creating the push factors, which leads to resignation. Remember that first-rate managers always deliver high retention as a by-product of their style of management.

A study by Mercer Human Resource Consulting (2003) showed that the job attributes most valued by Australians are:

• The existence of opportunities for advancement;
• Training; and
• A clear career path.

It is also important that  employees be proud of their company and have their achievements recognised.

Bearing in mind what we know about the push and full factors relevant to resignations, the following seven strategies will help you to retain your good staff.

• Ask your staff what they think. People enjoy being asked for their opinion, and your staff are no different. Cost effective online survey technology is an efficient way of collecting staff feedback. It also enables companies to implement a continuous staff feedback loop. Think about running a bunch of online surveys focused on a specific theme, or group of employees. For example:
  • A new starter feedback survey is normally sent within the first six weeks of commencement. It is a great way to gain an accurate picture of the effectiveness of your recruitment and staff induction program. The survey can also be an accurate indicator of the employee’s level of engagement.
  • The ‘stay’ survey is regularly sent to high performers, or a random snapshot of staff. The survey seeks to understand what staff like or dislike about their role, what the company can do to help improve their satisfaction, motivation and productivity at work, and what factors (if any) would be most likely to lead them to leave the company. This provides a golden opportunity to address problem issues well before good staff decide to look elsewhere for employment.
  • Exit interview survey. A growing number of companies are beginning to move their exit interview process online to minimise interviewer bias. In addition, utilising an online survey format for exit interviews can often generate good response rates and result in honest and well considered feedback.
• Reward and recognise. Create awareness amongst your staff that you value their opinion and ideas, as well as letting them know that you are watching their performance. Know when to reward your staff. This might be as straightforward as a monthly ‘Star Performer’ award, handed out in front of other staff. Something like this can have a significant impact on motivation and retention.
• Career Development. Develop and implement a staff development plan for each employee to strengthen their potential for future success in their career. Whatever effort you make to help someone’s career will be long remembered.
• Provide Challenges. Provide staff with challenging work to keep them eager and attentive. You want them to stay and they won’t want to miss out on some great opportunities.
• Work/Life Balance. Consider work and life balance as part of the equation for your staff. Strive to provide them with a reasonable mix of time at both work and home. Think about allocating a few hours each week where they can work from home. Long hours at the office can be quite demanding.
• Salary Watch. Ensure you are remunerating at an appropriate market level and let your staff know that this is important to you and the company.
• Mentors. Set up partnerships between experienced and inexperienced staff. Both can gain substantial knowledge from each other.

In order to retain good staff, you must ensure that they come first. If you can achieve this on a sustained basis, workers are likely to be happier and more motivated. In return, they will put your customers and clients first.

Strive for an easy-going and calm organisational culture and you will be halfway there to reasonable staff retention.

Making retention the foundation of your human resource strategy will not only reduce your turnover, but also strengthen your capacity to attract the best staff available. It also helps ensure that a good percentage of staff losses that do occur are genuinely beyond your control.

Considering both the costs of inaction, and the growing skills shortage, it’s not really a question of whether you will do something to improve your retention practices – but when?