In order to prevent employees from quitting their jobs, it is necessary to improve work-life balance and ask employees about their reasons for quitting.
There are many people who are worried about “I want to know the reasons why employees leave their jobs” or “I want to know how to prevent employees from leaving their jobs.”
In this article, we will explain the causes of employee turnover, measures to prevent turnover, and success stories. By reading to the end, you will be able to understand the reasons why employees leave their jobs and specific measures to prevent them from leaving their jobs.
Table of contents [ hidden ]
- 1. What is turnover prevention?
- 2. Five necessities to prevent job turnover
- 3. 5 reasons why employees leave their jobs
- 4. Seven specific measures to prevent job turnover
- 5. 3 success stories for preventing job turnover
- 6. Improve internal conditions and prevent employee turnover
1. What is turnover prevention?
Turnover prevention means preventing employees from leaving their jobs .
Efforts to prevent employee turnover are sometimes called “retention management.” “Retention” means “maintenance/retainment.”
The reasons for turnover vary depending on the employee, so in order to prevent turnover, it is necessary to understand the cause as early as possible and take measures.
2. Five necessities to prevent job turnover
There are four reasons why employees need to work to prevent employee turnover:
- Difficult to secure young human resources
- Increased burden on existing employees
- The costs associated with hiring and training human resources are large.
- affect the company’s image
2-1. Difficult to secure young human resources
Currently, Japanese companies are having difficulty securing young human resources. The following are probably the reasons why it is becoming difficult to secure young human resources.
- Declining birthrate and aging population
- Activation of job change market
- Outflow of human resources from rural areas to urban areas
As the working-age population is decreasing due to the declining birthrate and aging population, the labor shortage is expected to become more serious in the future.
In addition, seniority and lifetime employment have collapsed, and changing jobs has become the norm. There is still an outflow of human resources from rural areas to urban areas, and small and medium-sized enterprises in rural areas continue to have difficulty securing human resources.
In order to avoid having to struggle to secure human resources, it is necessary to prevent turnover.
2-2. Increased burden on existing employees
When an employee leaves the company, the burden on existing employees increases. A temporary increase in work load is unavoidable as employees will be taking over the duties of departed employees in addition to the duties they are already responsible for.
In addition, burdens on existing employees arise in various ways, such as:
- Leads to turnover of existing employees
- cause a decrease in motivation
- Loss of know-how and skills due to job separation
If an employee leaves the company and the workload of the existing employee increases, there is a high possibility that the existing employee will leave the company. When a talented employee leaves the company, it causes a decrease in the motivation of the employees around them.
Additionally, when a mid-level employee leaves the company, the know-how and skills that they have cultivated over a long period of time are lost, resulting in a significant loss for the company .
In order to avoid increasing the burden on existing employees, it is necessary to prevent them from leaving their jobs.
2-3. Costs related to recruiting and training human resources are large.
Recruiting human resources is costly, which places a large burden on companies. Specifically, the following costs will occur:
- Job posting cost
- Brochure creation fee for company information
- Applicant’s transportation and accommodation expenses
- Costs when requesting training to an external instructor
- Venue costs when conducting training
The costs of transportation and accommodation will increase as more people are hired . If employee turnover is not prevented, the costs will only increase.
2-4. Affects company image
A high turnover rate due to frequent employee turnover will affect the company’s image. A high turnover rate is associated with a poor working environment , making it difficult to attract job seekers.
Once your image is down, it will take time to recover. In order to avoid damaging the company’s image, it is necessary to prevent employee turnover.
3. 5 reasons why employees leave their jobs
There are five reasons why employees leave their jobs:
- Job content doesn’t match
- Not an environment where you can grow
- low salary
- poor work-life balance
- bad interpersonal relationships at work
3-1. Job content does not match
If the job content is not suitable, it will lead to stress and loss of motivation, which may lead to employees leaving the job. There are several reasons why employees feel a mismatch:
- I don’t feel motivated
- There are many difficult jobs
- does not match the required ability
- The company culture doesn’t suit me-
It’s easy to feel a mismatch if you don’t get a sense of fulfillment or accomplishment from your work, or if there are many tasks you’re not good at.
If the skills the company wants and the skills you have don’t match, you’ll make repeated mistakes and feel more tired, leading to you leaving your job.
Also, if the company culture doesn’t suit you, it’s easy to feel a mismatch in your compatibility with your boss and the way you approach your work .
3-2. Not an environment where you can grow
If the company does not provide an environment in which employees can grow, it may cause them to leave the company. This is because if you don’t feel like you’re improving your skills, you’ll feel anxious about your future career , and you’ll think about changing jobs to a company where you can grow.
The characteristics of an environment that does not allow for growth include:
- no discretion
- Lots of simple work
- afraid of change
Even if employees are motivated, if the company does not give them discretionary authority and only assigns them simple tasks, it is not an environment in which they can grow.
Additionally, if a company sticks to existing rules, employees will lose their desire to take on challenges, and will likely decide that they cannot grow and leave the company.
3-3. Low salary
Low pay causes a decrease in motivation for work, leading to employees leaving their jobs.
Low pay due to the following reasons may also lead to employees leaving their jobs:
- Not commensurate with workload and responsibility
- Don’t give raises based on performance
Dissatisfaction can easily arise if the pay does not match the workload and responsibility. Additionally, if pay increases are not based on employee performance, such as seniority, this can lead to talented young employees leaving the company .
3-4. Poor work-life balance
Poor work-life balance and lack of time for personal life can lead to employees leaving their jobs.
If you work long hours and have to work a lot of overtime , there will be no balance between your work and private life, and you will easily get tired, making it difficult to work efficiently .
Reasons for poor work-life balance include:
- Personal wishes are not met
- There is no flexibility in working style
- Difficult to gain management’s understanding
If personal wishes, such as vacation time, are not met, people end up prioritizing work and not having time for their private lives.
The inability to change work styles flexibly, such as flextime or remote work, can also lead to inability to find time for things other than work.
Furthermore, even if employees actively work to improve their work-life balance, it will be difficult to improve unless management changes their mindset.
3-5. Poor interpersonal relationships at work
Poor interpersonal relationships at work, including compatibility with superiors, can lead to employees leaving their jobs. There are several reasons why interpersonal relationships at work deteriorate:
- boss doesn’t accept opinions
- A communication error has occurred
- Unable to share information
If superiors do not accept the opinions of their subordinates or if communication is frequently disrupted, interpersonal relationships deteriorate.
Additionally, if employees are not able to share information on a daily basis, teamwork will be poor and a feeling of alienation will occur.
4. Seven specific measures to prevent job turnover
There are seven specific measures to prevent employee turnover:
- give discretion
- Responding to diverse work styles
- Share company goals and vision
- Ask about the reason for resignation in a situation where you can speak your true feelings.
- Improve work-life balance
- Create opportunities for interviews and communication
- Improving the management skills of managers
4-1. Give discretionary authority
To prevent turnover, it is necessary to give employees discretion. Giving employees discretion will help them feel more motivated and improve their skills, giving them a sense of fulfillment in their work.
Specifically, discretionary powers include the following:
- Entrusted with responsible work from a young age
- ideas are put to use
- opinions reflected
When considering measures to prevent employees from leaving the company, check whether the company has discretionary authority.
4-2. Respond to diverse work styles
In order to prevent employee turnover, it is necessary to accommodate diverse work styles. If work hours and work locations are limited, life events such as marriage or child rearing may make it difficult to work.
Examples of diverse working styles include:
- Flextime system
- remote work
- Staggered work hours
- short working hours
- side job
Supporting a wide range of work styles makes it easier for employees to work, thereby preventing them from leaving their jobs.
4-3. Share company goals and vision
To prevent turnover, share your company’s goals and vision with your employees. Without a clear path to achieving the company’s goals and vision, employees will feel uncertain about the company’s future prospects.
Sharing your vision will be easier if you follow the steps below.
- Understand your company’s current role and external environment
- Predicting issues that may arise in the future 5 or 10 years from now
- Predict your future role
- Clarify the vision while incorporating employee opinions
- Share and disseminate within the company
In order for the vision to permeate the company, it is necessary to gain understanding from employees, so incorporating opinions from people other than management will make things go smoothly.
4-4. Ask about the reason for resignation in a situation where you can tell the truth
To prevent employees from quitting their jobs, ask them about the reason for their resignation in a situation where they can talk about their true feelings. Interviewing employees who are retiring can lead to the discovery and resolution of issues.
The contents of the hearing are as follows.
- Reason for wanting to retire
- Company problems
- What’s good about the company
- Is there support from your supervisor?
Since interviews need to bring out the true feelings of employees, we recommend that you assign a senior employee or someone you can talk to to conduct the interviews.
4-5. Improve work-life balance
Having a good work-life balance will make your work more rewarding and enjoyable, which will prevent you from leaving your job and improve your productivity.
Here are some ways to improve your work-life balance:
- Identifying the causes of poor work-life balance
- Review existing operations and utilize new flows and tools
- Gain management understanding
In recent years, there are many IT tools that can be expected to improve work efficiency, so if you have not yet implemented them, please take advantage of them.
4-6. Create opportunities for interviews and communication
In order to prevent employee turnover, it is necessary to provide opportunities for interviews and communication. By holding regular interviews and increasing opportunities for communication between employees, you will be able to prevent your employees from burdening themselves with their worries.
Specifically, we recommend the following method.
- Have regular meetings to share concerns and issues
- Introduce a mentor system
- Increase opportunities to interact with peers such as training
- Change to free address
In order to prevent early turnover, we must take time to follow up with young employees in particular and actively communicate with them.
4-7. Improving the management skills of managers
To prevent employee turnover, it is necessary to improve the management skills of managers.
If the management skills of managers improve, a good work environment will be created and human resources who can grow on their own will be developed. This will also improve the motivation of your subordinates.
In order to improve the management skills of managers, the following is necessary:
- Improving problem-solving skills
- Improving decision-making power
- Improving communication skills
Efforts to improve the management skills of managers through regular guidance and training by management will help prevent turnover.
5. 3 success stories for preventing job turnover
Below are three examples of success in preventing employee turnover.
- Sharing opinions with employees
- Strengthening the follow-up system for new employees
- Improving productivity and working environment
5-1. Sharing opinions with employees
The success story of Company A, which operates a personal training studio, is as follows.
| assignment | There are few opportunities for conversations between representatives and employees, making it difficult to discover issues. |
| What was done | Introduced turnover prevention tools |
| effect | By sharing opinions with employees using questionnaires, we are now able to understand their concerns. |
5-2. Strengthening the follow-up system for new employees
The success story of Company B, which operates a restaurant business, is as follows.
| assignment | ・Unable to secure human resources ・Many young employees leave the company ・Insufficient training and follow-up system |
| What was done | ・Clarified human resources requirements for executives who follow store managers
・Revised personnel allocation – Conducted individual interviews and training for new employees |
| effect | Issues that reduced the turnover rate of new employees |
5-3. Improving productivity and working environment
The following is a successful example of Company C, which operates a lodging business.
| assignment | ・There is a shortage of human resources ・Some people leave their jobs to raise children or care for family members. |
| What was done | ・Aimed to visualize operations and improve productivity
・Increased public holidays – Conducted training for new employees |
| effect | ・Number of customer interactions per person increased
・Issues where the working environment has been improved |
6. Improve internal conditions and prevent employee turnover
Employee turnover can occur for a variety of reasons. Since it is becoming difficult to secure young human resources, we must start taking measures to prevent them from leaving their jobs as soon as possible.
After understanding the reasons for employees leaving their jobs by interviewing them about their reasons for leaving their jobs, let’s take concrete actions to prevent them from leaving their jobs.
