Top Tricks for Decreasing Employee Turnover

Losing employees is never fun, especially when your team members excel and bring your workplace joy and positivity. Beyond emotional loss, losing valuable employees can also significantly impact your business. High turnover can result in decreased productivity, increased costs and low morale among your other staff.

But, why do employees leave? Each person is unique, as are their reasons for parting ways with your business. Conducting exit interviews can help bring workplace issues to light. You may learn that there are some frequent motivators for quitting among your staff, which can help you to implement changes to stem further departures. These may include:

• Feeling challenged by their work,
• Feeling unappreciated,
• A desire for higher compensation,
• Feeling disconnected from coworkers or company culture,
• Poorly defined job responsibilities,
• High stress or burnout.

Ultimately, happy employees don’t leave unless they absolutely must. So naturally, the best way to reduce turnover is to keep your staff happy.

You can achieve lower turnover rates with smart yet attainable strategies. From offering fair wages to creating room for professional growth and cultivating professional development opportunities, we’ll look at practical tips that will help you promote employee engagement and longevity for your spa’s long-term success.

Pay Their Worth

Compensation can be a difficult topic to broach, but it’s a crucial consideration. While pizza parties are fun and delicious, they won’t help your much-valued employees increase their financial stability.

You may not be able to pay each employee an exorbitant salary, but you can take strides toward meeting their needs. Review workers’ pay regularly and ensure that plans are in place to provide fair compensation for everyone on your team.

Related: 5 Ways to Reduce Staff Turnover

Rewards Beyond the Paycheck

Aside from base pay, there are many ways to show appreciation for your team. Rewards elevate employees’ quality of life and create loyalty among your staff. Plus, you have room to explore creative solutions when designing a total rewards and compensation package.

In many compensation packages, employers provide health and life insurance, dental and vision benefits, paid time off, performance bonuses and stock options (if applicable). These are great items to include as the foundation of your compensation program.

You can go a step further by introducing unconventional benefits like profit sharing, career development programs, counseling subsidies, green commute incentives, wellness programs, flex time, staff discounts, retirement planning services and so much more. With a generous and thoughtful compensation package, the sky is the limit!

A Healthy Work Environment

From encouraging clear communication to promoting diversity and work-life balance, many strategies exist for creating a healthy workplace culture. When striving to maintain a respectful and friendly working environment, little things add up.

Set an example by approaching all employees with a welcoming and friendly attitude. You can also lead by communicating respectfully, even when conflicts occur. If an employee has a more abrasive communication style, you can work one on one to improve workplace relationships and manage disagreements with other staff members.

All workplaces should be equal-opportunity employers. Employing people from diverse backgrounds is a major asset to your business. Diveristy and inclusivity should be rooted in all aspects of your spa, from the makeup of teams to promoting open communication.

You should also seek to establish firm boundaries between work and personal lives. Allow them to keep personal information to themselves. Don’t expect employees to work overtime routinely and avoid setting the expectation that staff should always work on weekends, holidays or during their vacation time.

While regularly working overtime may feel like a sign of your employee’s dedication, it is also a recipe for burnout. Allow your team the space to separate from work and recharge.

Create Room for Growth

Have you ever left a job because there was no room to grow? Even if you haven’t, you can probably imagine how unfulfilling it would feel for your career to stall.

Growth opportunities, or a lack thereof, are a major make-or-break issue for employees. A recent Pew Research study found that 63% of outgoing employees left their positions because they saw no opportunity for growth.¹ Don’t let this happen to your staff!

To foster professional opportunities within your team, check in with them to discuss their career goals and collaborate on development plans. Think of these opportunities to touch base with your staff as “stay interviews.” Like exit interviews, a stay interview will help you learn about what’s really going on with your team.

Ask specific questions about the employee’s happiness in their role, future goals, relationships with other employees and anything that’s dampening their satisfaction at your company. Encourage an open and honest dialogue with no repercussions for their constructive criticism.

Find opportunities to bring team members onto projects that expand their horizons and help them develop new skills. Additionally, you should look for chances to offer promotions and title changes when appropriate. Remember, moves can be lateral as long as they’re fulfilling that person’s goals and interests!

Encourage Education and Development

Continuing education goes hand in hand with creating room for professional growth. No matter how successful you are in your career, there is always something new to learn. Your employees are undoubtedly curious about how they can build on their existing skills or develop new ones.

Your staff members can enroll in post-secondary programs, workshops, seminars, webinars, coaching sessions or mentorship programs. You can also offer cross-functional training as a regular part of onboarding.

Encourage their development by allowing your team members time off to attend courses and professional events. Additionally, you can bring educators into the workplace so that everyone can learn together.

Consider funding or subsidizing your employees’ continued education. You can work this into your total rewards program or benefits package.

Celebrate Wins

In the words of Maya Angelou, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” This sentiment applies to all aspects of life, including work.

Make your employees feel valued by celebrating their achievements. Consider giving a public-facing shoutout for excellent work. Even a simple “good job” can boost morale and make employees feel proud of their accomplishments.

You can also nominate staff members for professional awards within your company and externally. This could include an employee of the month program, annual company awards or awards for excellence in specific occupations or fields.

Ultimately, some turnover is inevitable. After all, it wouldn’t be fair to expect each person to stay in one role forever. But the above-mentioned strategies may help reduce turnover rates to keep your business operating smoothly. Many of these tips work hand in hand with one another, so it’s great if you can implement a multi-pronged approach.

One key takeaway? Turnover will rise when staff feels underappreciated—both financially and emotionally. Your team wants to feel good about the work that they do. So, create opportunities to reward your employees. When you allow staff to fulfill their goals and shine in their roles, you’ll notice that they are less inclined to leave. 

Amber McBain, vice president of marketing and communications at Éminence Organic Skin Care, is a sharp innovator with more than 15 years of marketing and communications experience. She has spearheaded the company’s marketing strategy for the most successful product launches in Éminence’s history.