Struggling with High Employee Turnover in IT? Let's Discuss Ways to Improve Retention

Advance Happy Diwali to all! I have been working as an HR Executive for the past 5 months in a small IT company with more than 20 employees. We provide basic benefits to our employees. I am new to the IT field, so I don't have great awareness of the IT environment and benefits.

In addition, our company has a high attrition rate. Therefore, my management has asked me to take actions to reduce attrition and retain old employees. I would appreciate it if you could share your thoughts on how to address this concern and reduce the attrition rate.

Current Employee Benefits

Below, I have listed some benefits that we currently provide:
- Casual leave: 2 per month (after confirmation)
- National and festival holidays
- Performance appraisals every 6 months
- Office timing: 8 hours (no extra time, no shifts)
- No mental pressure on employees
- Friendly work environment
- Office tours

Thank you for your assistance in helping me develop these measures.

Regards,

You are going through typical small organization problems, which are quite usual and expected. The ideas given by Anand are good ones but are effective in mid to large-size organizations and not so much in smaller ones. So what do you do? Easy!

Accept the Reality

First, accept the fact that you will lose people. Every individual has a right to a good career and growth. If he/she is unable to foresee the same in your organization, then they will surely leave, and that is absolutely fine.

Foster a Family-like Environment

Second, understand that in your current size (20+), you are less likely to be an organization and more likely to be a family. So ensure that is exactly what you are doing, i.e., being a family. Employee engagement is the single most effective, important, and critical retention tool for any small organization. But employee engagement means being transparent, involving everyone in decision-making, and making them a part of organization plans and growth. It is more difficult than it sounds because all these things are an entrepreneur's/management nightmare (things that are most difficult for them to do).

Identify and Nurture Key Players

Third, while everyone is important in a small team, there will always be some key players. They need to be taken care of more efficiently without being seen as playing favorites. You can't afford to lose them too regularly.

The golden rule is: Treat them as you would your family, and they will reciprocate.

Cheers,

Navneet

Well, it's good that you offer good facilities and benefits to your employees, but it seems that the employees are not happy, which is why the attrition rate is high.

Additionally, please check if employees are leaving from specific departments or sections, or if it is the same across all departments/sections.

Furthermore, you should have an exit interview process where you can ask them about the reasons for leaving in a polite manner. It is challenging to retain an employee who has decided to leave, but by understanding the specific reasons, you can make improvements and potentially retain other employees, thus reducing the attrition rate.

Your challenge is not just the retention of employees but engagement too. The battle against attrition can best be won by engaging our employees. Recently, there was a good amount of discussion on employee engagement. You may click the following link to read it:

https://www.citehr.com/473042-hr-pla...ngagement.html

Secondly, the methods that you have proposed or other members have proposed do not cover Level V needs in the pyramid of Abraham Maslow's Theory of Hierarchy of Needs.

You should do something to fulfill your employees' self-actualization needs as well. How to do this? The best way is to ask them what challenging assignment they want and give it to them. They know better how to challenge their brains.

The next thing is to create a learning environment. They should learn something on their own and show its implementation. Give them hefty rewards for the implementation of learning. Trust me, this works very well. It fosters healthy competition in learning and then implementation. The benefits that the organization accrues are far greater.

All the best!

Regards,
Dinesh Divekar
[Phone Number Removed For Privacy Reasons]

Thank you so much for spending your valuable time on me. Everyone is sharing valuable points; I am surely trying to implement them. In addition, new joiners are leaving the organization within one week, although not all. Regarding this, what steps can we take to better retain new joiners?

Regards,
Revathi
HR

Mr. Anand mentioned some nice benefits to motivate employees. Kindly share some other benefits provided by other IT companies to motivate employees. Thank you so much. Have a nice day!

Regards,
Revathi HR

Whenever I hear "It can't be done," I know I'm close to success. — Michael Flatley

As fellow members have already given very fruitful points to implement, in addition to that I would like to mention that as you have said, even new joiners leave within a week. This indicates that your existing employees are not motivated or delighted in the company. In most cases, people who join and leave within a couple of days are influenced by office gossip, where they feel that working in the company will not be beneficial to them. Therefore, I suggest that you first ensure your existing employees are properly engaged and motivated, and try to create a "feel-good" working atmosphere.

Strategies for Employee Retention

Additionally, you can consider the following strategies for retention:

- Introduce a joining bonus payable after 3/6 months.
- Implement a "Basket of Allowances" component in the CTC, which employees will receive at the end of the financial year.
- Work on a "loyalty bonus" scheme.
- Implement a good performance appraisal methodology; I believe a 360-degree appraisal will be effective.
- Conduct proper exit interviews, and it would be best to create an exit questionnaire to gather necessary feedback on why employees are leaving your company.
- Organize monthly "One on One" or "HR Connect" sessions where you can discuss employees' productivity, performance, and succession planning.

Regards,
Ashutosh

Understanding Employee Engagement

Did you notice the breadth and depth of all the suggestions that have come from so many professionals? Did you understand the core fundamentals of Employee Engagement from these posts? It's simple...

What you can do is limited only by your own capacity to be creative, innovative, and your ability to understand your employees. There are no set rules or processes or even can'ts and don'ts... the only limitation is you (the HR and management involved).

All the ideas shared work, and in some cases, none of them do...  You need to first understand your employees and what will work. Remember, you will always be in constraints (expenses, time, lack of initiative, lack of vision, peer pressure, management expectation, etc.). The trick is to work within these constraints and yet create some effective engagement activities/initiatives. That's where your own innovation skills are going to be tested... 

Have fun because if you are enjoying what you are doing, you already are successful by default!!!

Cheers,

Navneet

I appreciate you and all those wonderful people who have also offered you their time and thoughts for the query you've raised. I'm sorry, I can't give you a direct reply, as one doesn't have the real data to offer solutions off the "cuff." There is no one "chair" that fits all sizes of people. Read this through with "patience" and you will get a lot of information. In the end, you will also have a lot of questions that you need to ask yourself and answer. If you think you can do this and then share your thoughts, it's quite possible that you may get solutions to stem the "rot of attrition" in your growing company, which seems to be already offering some exciting inducements to make people get engaged.

A Little Bit of History - Before We Try Solving the Mystery

Attrition is an age-old phenomenon. I've had several opportunities in my career, especially in IT, dating back to 1987. Companies, as everyone knows, start off small, and so it's called a "start-up." The period that I am talking about didn't pose serious competition domestically, but to earn a breakthrough into companies in the US and the lure to earn foreign exchange and money was the challenge. People would do everything to earn this break. And some companies were there at the right time, with the right people doing the right thing, so there is very little doubt as to why they succeeded. The rush for talent was there, but not as much as it increased worldwide nearer to the Y2K and immediately after until the emergence of the DOT.COM boom and subsequently the burst of the "bubble" and then the downturn. The industry was more cautious in its approach in all aspects - recruitment, finance, etc., and naturally, therefore, people were beginning to pick and choose people whom they could bet on going forward. On the other side, technical people also started picking and choosing - some went to dream companies, technical growth, some were bent on only on-site assignments, etc., so the cat-and-mouse game started.

Sadly, though it is still prevalent, the struggle for start-ups has been more or less the same. You need to sell the company a lot harder than, say, you have to sell a better-known company, where you need to concentrate on this sequence - only on the role, technology, growth, and compensation (the prospect would like to hear this though the prospect's priority and sequence may be different). After a round or two of talks, this deal is concluded, and engagement gets going, assured for at least three years, which is when the resource might plan the next move. If the company has assignments that can take people overseas on on-site assignments, then this mantra is used for extending the careers.

On the other side, a "start-up" may only have to rely on the "integrity" and reputation of the promoters working on the latest technologies along with some solid techies handling the leadership positions, and also having some projects in the pipeline, to get the company going. If one gets this combination, then it is the effort of everyone, not just the HR, to get more people excited and interested in joining the company to work. And mind you, everyone who comes to meet you as a prospect will give the start-up company a feeling that he/she is doing the company a favor by risking his/her career in joining a relatively unknown company, despite having a market for himself/herself. This is a reality with which you have to live and contend; I see no escape. Once the resource decides to come on board, the first motivator is compensation; the rest are not major factors. There are exceptions in this regard, but they are very few. This doesn't end here; you need to be consistent with your policy statements, employee relations policies, etc., to keep the system moving, which means you in HR are often under scrutiny by the promoters and the management on one side and on the other, the employees enjoy the upper hand as they only need to raise their voice to see that the leadership is alerted. Without going into too many details, things will get aligned in a manner that HR will have to play the "subjugated" role, taking instructions all the way, and maybe also be deemed as not so good, not so effective, or worst to be deemed as "useless." In fact, people are also known to make a sweeping comment that "Oh! these HR People are all like that, hopeless people, who don't understand the reality, etc.,"

What Then Might Be the Prime Reasons Why People Leave

Some of the prime reasons why people leave are their inability to handle stress, monotonous work, company policies, lack of career growth, problems with senior people, no on-site possibilities, not enough money, not enough increments, unfair/biased treatment, too much micro-management, rigid rules and regulations, lack of trust in the management, leadership, and maybe colleagues too, inconsistent interpretation of policies, the list can go on... There can be multiple reasons for leaving, whether it's a well-known company or a start-up.

What Then Are the "Drivers of Engagement" Specifically for Smaller Start-up Companies

It's important that the company works in laser-sharp/latest technologies. If there is a "bouquet of the latest technologies," even better. For instance, Mobile - Android, iPhone, Windows/JEE/.Net/PHP/Oracle, and with clients who can assure a reasonably good quantity of work, ensuring that no one gets sidelined onto the bench.

Regular on-the-job training programs, be it on technology/managerial/leadership, behavioral, or whatever, depending on the need of the company to meet the present demand or prepare for the future. All of this should enable the employee to make his/her profile seem good and rich.

The other aspects that follow:

- Market-equivalent salary, without too many deductions but with a bucketful of benefits
- Sizably good increments annually after review
- Regular feedback and dialogue with superiors
- Recognition and rewards on a regular basis to keep them engaged

These are aspects that you will want them to understand and know, but the employees might not think so.

Employee perceptions of job importance, clarity of job expectations, career advancement/improvement opportunities, quality of working relationships with peers, superiors, and subordinates, perceptions of the ethos and values of the organization, effective internal employee communications.

If these are the realities, then, now for the encouraging factors, which is what you need to find out how it is in your present organization:

1. Are you suitably qualified with a relevant degree in the subject and experienced enough to stand up and talk for yourself?
2. Do you enjoy the support of the promoters, leadership, and the management?
3. Are you sufficiently equipped with the right resources - to handle your responsibility - even basic things like a neat workplace, a system with the right software, adequate support systems in terms of administration, accounts, and housekeeping (or are you one in all)?
4. How do people perceive you as an individual?
5. How good an influencer are you?
6. Are you well-read - especially on contemporary management/industry subjects, etc?
7. Does the office have a professional look and atmosphere?
8. What is the management style - participatory or what else?
9. Is the company engaged in the latest technologies, and do they have the right people in the right places, doing the right thing for the right customers?
10. What would the USP (Unique Selling Point) of your organization be?
11. What would be your EVP (Employee Value Proposition) to attract new talent?
12. What do the current employees think about the organization, and what would they want it to be like?
13. Were you able to get any useful information from any of the employees leaving the company so that you can examine what can be done to address the issue?
14. Lastly, are you confident of hanging on despite the carnage around you?
15. Also, ask yourself whether you will be able to do this alone or you would want some professional HR Advisors from external sources, and whether the management would be open to seeking advice from specialists to redeem the future of the company.

That's it for now.

Best wishes and warm regards,

TSK. Raman
[Phone Number Removed For Privacy Reasons]
[Email Removed For Privacy Reasons]

Addressing Attrition: A Balanced Approach

First of all, there is no foolproof method to stop attrition! At best, you can 'try' to reduce attrition. Whatever tricks you employ, such initiatives and measures will last for a few months. Employees will then ask, what is next waiting to happen...

Organizations can always try to reduce attrition by creating a very good working environment, work culture, and ethical practices, and not by offering too many freebies. There is nothing called a free lunch, and more and more freebies will only erode the company's margins. For how long can an organization go on offering so many things? Everything has a monetary value ultimately.

Keep offering freebies a little at a time, but simultaneously create an excellent working environment. Employees look for more of this than free carrots!

Best wishes

Both the posts of Mr. Navneet are really valuable readings. Of course, Mr. Raman has also made us well aware of the situation in his simple and elaborative language.

It is correct, as stated by many contributors, that looking at the organization size, the chances of retaining employees, especially youngsters, are very difficult. Whatever amenities you provide to them and make them feel happy, every human being wants to take a leap for betterment. After a few months of experience in your company, if he is selected by a slightly larger organization, he will certainly quit.

Suggestion for Employee Retention

My suggestion: Select an employee in a higher age group, say 40+. They may be a VRS person, a victim of a shut-down company, or someone whose present employer has transferred them to an unwanted location, etc. These senior individuals usually try to remain in one place and provide mature and sincere services.

Thank you, Abhay, for your kind comments. Bulls-eye, Raman! The single biggest challenge in working with management (start-ups more than mature organizations) is the management buy-in, and it doesn't help matters when everyone feels that HR is the easiest thing to do. Anyone and everyone can do it... :-)

So, you WILL have management who feel they know HR better than you and that whatever they wish can be achieved (after all, you are supposed to be Aladdin's Genie in the guise of HR... :-) ) but whatever you say will be an unnecessary expenditure. So the trick, as shared by Raman, is to be neutral. Listen, observe, research, analyze, and propose. Show them the value, and you will get your support.

Just a note of caution to every HR working in a small/startup organization - The size of the operations will create an environment whereby you will be prone to becoming either an administrative HR person, where you will keep doing the same mundane stuff day in and day out OR you will become the mouthpiece of the management/promoter. Both these conditions are not where you should find yourself in.

It will purely be on your skills and knowledge that people within your (extended) organization, including management, will approach you with problems and for solutions. You need to always be proactive, approachable, and enterprising to ensure that you create your identity and are respected for the same. That's when you can truly consider yourself a successful HR professional... just like Raman. ;-)

Cheers,

Navneet Chandra

Welcome to HR Family

Please find my inputs below:

1. I suggest conducting Employee Satisfaction Surveys first to identify the reasons behind dissatisfaction. Then, address them in a step-by-step process.

2. Provide more benefits to senior employees if management agrees.

3. Employee Engagement

- Divide employees into groups and arrange fun activities to foster interaction and build strong bonds and coordination.

4. You can name the teams with inspiring words or names to motivate them.

5. Rewards & Recognition

6. Company Outings

7. During the exit interview process, try to understand the reasons for leaving. Attempt to retain valuable employees by explaining the HR policies you have implemented to enhance employee satisfaction.

Regards.

After reading every senior's valuable points, I have gained more ideas to develop my concern. Thanks to everybody. I am planning to analyze everything such as infrastructure, interpersonal relationships, employees' expectations, etc., about my company. After that, I will suggest my ideas to my management.

Diwali Celebration Plan

As my first step, I am planning to celebrate Diwali, which includes management games and rewards to motivate employees and make them enjoy this festival.

Looking forward to your reply regarding my start-up.

Regards,
Revathi

Hi, some seniors have mentioned conducting exit interviews to reduce employee attrition rates. However, I have some queries regarding this process. During these exit interviews, should they be face-to-face or conducted using exit interview forms? What if employees may lie to receive positive acknowledgment during future employment verifications or are not willing to raise issues with the current company, which may lead to incorrect information on employee attrition rates? Please share your views.

Regards,
Revathi

Ms. Revathi, The concerns you've raised are quite genuine. These are purely my personal views, and I take full responsibility for whatever I say here: I really do not know what your experience is like; however, I must tell you that you need sufficient standing, maturity, and, above that, as a professional, you should enjoy unquestionable respect both within and outside the organization to effectively handle an exit interview. In fact, some people (who don't want to close the doors for the future, who might look at a return) will give you balanced and honest feedback—both positive and negative (with constructive suggestions too). The converse is true too; there will be some who are so excited about their new job that they will be critical of everything they experienced with you. There is another category too, which will only gloss over the whole thing, sound good and sweet, and may not tell you the truth, crying for every emotional reason to convey their departure. Anyway, for your evaluation, you will need to have some sort of background information on such employees, such as what their contributions were when they were with you, what their attitude was like, etc., to probably arrive at some good conclusions. Then there must be a process by which the information is shared with those who are at the decision-making table to ensure concerns, if any, are addressed, in order to reduce, if not arrest, attrition. You will be well advised to take a detailed read of this too: exit interviews - tips for interviewers, employees, sample exit interviews questions and answers guide. Here are some more links for your information: Sample Survey Employee Exit Interview: Employee exit interview including an evaluation of the relationship with co-workers, The Job, Benefits, and company evaluation. http://aia.org <link fixed> This might lead you to more questionnaires on Employee Engagement, Employee Satisfaction, etc.: Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions: 3 Sample Templates You Can Use Today | Qualtrics Blog

Exit Interview Form Feedback Request

I have attached the exit interview form that I have prepared. Kindly suggest your opinions regarding that.

Regards,
Revathi

Good Morning Ravathi, Enclosed below, find the Exit interview format, which covers all aspects of having an Exit interview. Hope it would be helpful to you.

Dear Revathi, follow the Six Sigma model, and you can cut down your attrition rate and be on the path to profit.

DMAIC:

- DEFINE YOUR PROBLEM
- MEASURE YOUR DATA
- ANALYZE YOUR FINDINGS AND DATA
- IMPLEMENT THE SOLUTION
- CONTROL THE SOLUTION

AND NOT FORGETTING

- REWARDING / RETENTION SCHEME

For further details, please email.

Regards, Capt Rajeshwar Singh

There is no hard and fast rule for controlling attrition since every employee's needs are different. Even if you use tactics like bonds, an employee may still leave the company, and the company might dismiss him, which is bad for business. Greed factors are not tailored to address individual needs.

Understanding Employee Motivation

A fundamental step during the interview is to look beyond the resume and understand why the candidate wants the job and why they left their previous job. This is where the key lies; it could be related to growth, timing, etc. If the same issues exist in the new company, the employee will leave faster than anticipated.

The Importance of Relationships and Environment

The second most crucial aspect is the employee's relationship with their superiors. Thirdly, the work environment plays a significant role. Even if the facilities or work environment are poor, but the relationship with the boss is good, the employee may still stay.

At my previous company, former colleagues often contact me expressing their intention to leave and join me in my current workplace. When asked why, they mention that they learned a lot from me and now feel like they are just robots.

To summarize, employees leaving cannot be entirely prevented, but there are ways to reduce attrition. Additionally, managers should refrain from blaming HR; it is their attitude that can make the most significant impact on an employee.

Just to complement what Dave Jeff has just said...

Factors Contributing to Employee Retention

Money is important for people to work and make a living; however, there are a few things that contribute to retaining people. Employees would like to be respected, expect fair treatment, need to feel proud, and have to feel secure in their jobs. Remember, they have a personal life too, so they should be assisted in balancing their work and life. You can't afford to have them stressed at work because they need to maintain good mental and physical health. They should not be micromanaged; instead, they should be helped to deliver by being encouraged and coached. They need to be appropriately trained to improve their skills to meet and surpass the competition. Finally, they need to feel celebrated.

Addressing Employee Attrition: Strategies for Retention

Employee attrition rate becomes a huge challenge in every industry. A company should take generalized feedback from every department every month to understand their employees' needs. Additionally, top management should maintain a trust factor, value proposition, focus on career growth, and provide compensation (dependent on employee performance) to sustain their employees for a long period of time.

Regards

Importance of Training and Conferences

Programmers care deeply about remaining relevant, so it's important to cater to that need by providing training programs and sending them to conferences. These opportunities can help them remain relevant and grow.

Developing Client-Facing Skills

It is important for programmers to develop skills that help them face clients directly. Facilitating this based on seniority would be helpful. The idea is to let juniors have a clear view of where they are heading.

Managing Expectations to Reduce Attrition

One of the primary reasons for attrition is usually unrealistic expectations. This often occurs when management staff makes unrealistic promises to clients and expects the technical staff to deliver. Client interfaces need to have proper technical advisory so that the promises made are realistic.

Focusing on Career Opportunities

Technical people are usually very capable of keeping a lookout for better opportunities, primarily online. Have them focus on clear goals and rewards within the company.

Building a Strong Company Brand

Brand matters. Develop a name in the industry for whatever your company does. Without that, you will only attract people looking to stay employed while they look for better opportunities.

Project Assignments and Fairness

Projects matter. Who is assigned to which project is crucial. Make sure you are pushing the right people to the big projects, and the reasons are fair and known. If anyone feels alienated, they will leave.

Technical Knowledge in Recruitment

The recruiter needs to have some technical knowledge when recruiting technical expertise, even at the initial stages. This will create a filter for people generally looking to fill gaps in their career while they search for better opportunities. It would be a good idea to find and involve someone from the technical team in recruiting. This can additionally make the technical team members feel involved in the company processes and help reduce attrition.

I work in an IT services and consulting firm. These days, employees are being poached or leaving on their own so frequently that we have decided to implement a retention policy. Kindly help me in framing one.