How to Stop High Employee Turnover: Change the Culture

Click here for our complimentary checklist, "How to Tell if Your Top Performers Are Ready to Leave". 

Average employee turnover rates in the U.S. are roughly 15–18% per year, across all industries. If your rate is higher than that, you need to do some work. 

High team turnover comes with high costs—it drains you of time, resources, and budget as you recruit and train new employees. And, it’s not just low performers. Your top-shelf talent may be more disengaged than you realize. Studies show that 70% of American workers are “not engaged” or are “actively disengaged.” Get ahead of losing your top talent by understanding what your team needs to thrive at work.  

The first place to start: your company’s culture. 

We’ve dedicated the podcast series, “Your Team’s Top Three Needs to Thrive,” to help. With actionable knowledge based on research and from our work with companies struggling with high turnover, this series will help you offer a healthy company culture and keep employees happy. 

Change the Fear-Based Atmosphere 

Employees reject work atmospheres with communication barriers, unproductive teams, lack of employee engagement, and drama between colleagues. The telltale signs of unsafe company culture are when employees react out of fear, self-protection, and self-preservation. They’re driven to protect themselves from leadership and each other. It’s an exhausting environment that stifles productivity when the team is walking on eggshells. 

Create a Healthy Company Culture for Engaged Employees 

Research shows that there are often differences between what employees actually want at work and what leaders think their employees want. If you take care of your people, they will take better care of your clients and your business. This is why company culture matters. Repeated studies show that employees would rather be unemployed than work in an environment where they are unhappy with the job and feel unsafe and unappreciated. An engaged team will help you propel your vision and make a real impact by sharing their unique contributions and ideas.

 

If you take care of your people, they will take better care of your clients and your business. This is why company culture matters.

 

Your Employees Want to Feel Safe 

Start by understanding the different types of employee needs. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs ties in beautifully with workplace needs: survival, safety, belonging, importance, and self-actualization. Above all else, your employees want to feel psychologically safe in the workplace and they want a safe leader. That vibe always begins with you. You can ensure you are a safe leader by becoming aware of your negative self-talk, visualizing yourself successfully communicating with your team, and putting a mental recharge into your schedule. These are just a few of many practical tactics to improve your emotional intelligence.  

Your Employees Want to Belong and Feel Appreciated 

After survival and safety needs are met, true team engagement begins with belonging and appreciation. Appreciation and recognition are the least expensive yet most effective tools in your battle for employee engagement and satisfaction. In a study conducted by the University of Minnesota, employees ranked appreciation and desire for connection as the top two things that mattered most at work. You will begin to see results in your team when each employee feels appreciated, recognized, and able to express their full potential. 

Find Out if Your Employees Are Happy Right Now 

Do you recognize any of the qualities of disengagement in your own team? I put together a checklist to help you find out if your employees are unhappy or ready to leave. With the download below, you'll have an immediate guide to knowing whether your top performers are headed for the door and how to keep them.