Gather Organizational Baseline Information Quick Tool [2.1.1]
By completing this Quick Tool, you will be completing
Step 1: Gather Organizational Baseline Information [2.1.0.e] identifying retention, turnover, and vacancy rates for your organization and gathering data on effective/ineffective recruitment and retention practices.
Introduction
What is the cost of staff turnover? Studies estimate that the cost of replacing employees ranges from 50 to 150 percent of the position’s salary.
[1] Costs include separation processing, recruitment, hiring, orientation for the new hire, training to bring skills in line with job performance, and loss of revenue. However, turnover has non-monetary consequences as well. Hidden costs include the disruption of customer relationships, lost job-specific or organizational knowledge, stress on remaining staff, decreased staff morale, and a general lowering of productivity among those who remain.
The
Employment Turnover Trends survey of March 2008,
[2] of addictions treatment managers have difficulty attracting new employees and 58 percent experience difficulty keeping them. The turnover rate for addiction treatment professionals is estimated to be between 18 and 20 percent.
[3] According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. voluntary turnover rate was 23.4 percent in 2006. conducted by TalentKeepers Inc., found that 81 percent of executives consider employee retention an important business priority, a huge jump from 41 percent in 2007. Retention of workers is a major concern for all industries, including behavioral health care. It is reported that 86 percent of addictions treatment managers have difficulty attracting new employees and 58 percent experience difficulty keeping them. The turnover rate for addiction treatment professionals is estimated to be between 18 and 20 percent. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. voluntary turnover rate was 23.4 percent in 2006.
An effective assessment of workplace recruitment and retention practices is based on facts evidenced by data and information, not an educated guess or perception. The first step in building a recruitment and retention plan is to gather baseline information on the turnover, vacancies, retention, and other rates within your organization.
Task 1: Identify Turnover, Vacancies, Retention, and Other Rates
The following resources will help you complete this task:
- How to Determine Your Retention, Turnover, and Vacancy Rates [2.1.1.a.2]. This link provides calculation formulas to determine retention rates, turnover rates, voluntary turnover rates, average tenure of employees, average tenure of employees who have left, a method to analyze special characteristics of turnover, and vacancy rates. It also provides an example of each.
- An Example of Retention, Turnover, and Vacancy Rate Calculations and Implications for Intervention [2.1.1.a.3]. This link provides a table sample to capture tenure rates, the results of the scenario, and implications for intervention strategies.
- Calculate Your Turnover Cost Rates [2.1.1.a.1]. This interactive link automatically calculates turnover costs for specific positions in your organization including nonexempt employees, exempt employees, and executives.
- South Carolina’s Prevention Turnover Costs [2.1.1.a 4]. This link gives a breakdown on the estimated $20,000 in costs each time a prevention specialist job is vacated and filled.
Prior to developing a plan for recruitment and retention, some background information on the organization’s past efforts in recruitment and retention is needed. Gathering organizational history can help identify what recruitment and retention methods were used in the past, what was effective or ineffective, and why.
Assumptions made about effective or ineffective recruitment or retention methods can lead to poor use of organizational resources. To help establish assumptions as facts, you can review organizational history by interviewing organizational stakeholders who have a deliberate view, utilizing information from incumbent and exiting employees, and reviewing organizational policy. These activities are referred to in the tasks outlined below.
The resource,
Organizational Recruitment and Retention Research Workbook [2.1.2.d.1], will help document all the results of research from Task 2 - 5 including those that are related to past organizational efforts and stakeholder input. This documentation will allow data to be sorted and reviewed in order to identify trends or gaps.
Task 2: Interview Stakeholders
Interviewing stakeholders who have a deliberate view can help establish assumptions as facts. Interviewing long-tenured individuals who are in strategic positions, such as the CEO, human resource personnel, top-level administrators and supervisors, specific board members, staff, and consumers, could provide valuable information. Each group’s perspective is important since success may be defined differently. This process can also assist in understanding how recruitment and retention issues affect the stakeholders associated with the organization.
The following resources will help you complete this task:
Task 3: Research Recruitment and Retention Materials
This task requires that you review recruitment materials (brochures, job ads, and hiring policy manuals) and retention materials (HR policies, organizational policies, and step benefits), and document your findings.
Task 4: Gather Input from Current and Exiting Employees
The employee survey provides an avenue for the organization to gather information concerning what your employee thinks of his/her job and team or work group, the organization, and other specific issues such as organizational culture or turnover problems. It can aid in understanding or anticipating employee needs as they relate to your organization’s bigger picture. The most important function is to provide a basis for an action plan to build on strengths and improve deficiencies.
Making an assumption about why an employee is leaving may prevent the organization from gathering potent information or encourage a biased view of the terminating employee. Individuals who are voluntarily leaving can offer constructive insight that could help reduce turnover. They have a unique perspective of the organization and their position. This feedback is especially compelling when a pattern becomes evident among terminating employees. Studying the pattern of voluntary exits can assist the organization in making informed decisions and deliberate improvements concerning what employees see as negatives and positives. Once the organization identifies trends, they can start solving problems. Information gleaned from the exit process is most effective when it is compiled from many employees and reviewed over time.
If you do not have data from employee satisfaction surveys or employee exit interviews you may want to consider integrating both surveys into your organization’s practices using the resources provided. Results from employee exit interviews may need to be collected over a period of time to capture sufficient data for this stage.
[1] Sherman, D (2004, December). Strategies for retaining top talent.
Hays Insight Selections,
Selection 7, 1-3.
[2] eMediawire by Human Resources Marketer, (2008, March 20). Survey: U.S. executives report employee retention a top priority in 2008. Retrieved May 20, 2008, from
JobBank USA Web site.
[3] McNulty, T. L., Oser, C.B., Johnson, A., Knudsen, H.K., and Roman, P. (2007). Counselor turnover in substance abuse treatment centers: an organizational-level analysis, Sociological inquiry, 77(2): 166–193.