How to Prevent Employee Turnover During the Holidays
Photo by Alesia Kazantceva on Unsplash
December may be a laid-back month filled with Christmas parties, uplifted spirits in the office, and goal-setting for the year's end as the holidays draw near. However, by January, seasonal and New Year turnover may significantly destabilise the environment. In order to avoid a spike in employee turnover, employers must focus on retaining top talent as much as recruiting new employees.
What is Employee Turnover & Why is it important?
Employee turnover, or employee turnover rate, is the measurement of the number of employees who leave an organisation during a specified period, typically one year.
Turnover is considered a crucial piece of data for companies to pay attention to. According to evidence-based strategies in retention and turnover, reducing turnover rates is associated with sales growth and improved employee morale.
Bringing in the factor of globalisation and demographic shifts, not to mention economic uncertainty, it’s becoming more challenging, and therefore increasingly important, to retain key employees. On top of the direct costs required to recruit and onboard a new employee, there are indirect costs of turnover to contend with, including loss of diversity, diminished quality of work while a role is open and a higher risk of additional turnover.
Why is there a spike in Employee Turnover during the Holidays?
Turnover tends to increase in January when most organisations ramp up hiring. Some people wait for their year-end bonuses before leaving. Additionally, employees may use the new year to reinvent themselves with a new role. Although some turnover isn’t within anyone’s control, employers will fare better if they can anticipate major turnover challenges ahead of time.
How to Prepare for Seasonal Turnover
Employers can take a two-pronged approach by focusing on:
Retaining existing employees
The power to improve retention doesn’t just lie in the hands of managers and companies. Both employers and employees can reduce turnover by using several evidence-based approaches. Here are a few illustrations:
Encourage Growth and Development: Create possibilities for employee growth by funding online training, leading workshops, sending staff members to industry conferences (safely, of course), or having role-playing activities.
Give Recognition: Praise and acknowledge your team for good work—whether it’s a kudos in an email or a more formal recognition program. Consider delivering end-of-year recognition in a card or email. Better yet, implement a year-round recognition and/or bonus platform to show employees they’re valued.
Optimize for Autonomy and Empowerment: By encouraging employees to be independent, you can increase their sense of ownership over their work and organisational commitment—both critical factors for preventing turnover. There isn't a fix that works for everyone. Give your staff the freedom to determine what motivates them.
Reconnect with Meaning and Purpose: You may have heard of job crafting, a tactic that anyone can use to redesign or reframe their work in a way that creates stronger engagement, meaning, and fulfilment while aligning work with passion. The start of a new year is a great time to reflect: Who do you serve and how can you better support them? What would you like to do more? How can you integrate that into your daily or weekly routine?
Growing your teams
Focus on Recruitment Efforts
Build a Pipeline: By building a pipeline, you can stay ahead of organisations that aren’t as prepared for the January shift. Identifying potential candidates early on, gauging their interest in transitioning, and even conducting interviews can prepare your team for seasonal changes.
There are many more ways to reduce turnover and improve recruitment. At the end of the day, understand that seasonal turnover isn’t completely out of your control. It’s one piece of an organisational puzzle, and with careful recruitment, onboarding, and engagement strategies, it could be one less worry for your organisation and one more competitive advantage over organisations that didn’t start sooner.