From my knowledge and experience I would infer that attrition is something we cannot really put an end to. It is a vicious cycle and there are various reasons why employees leave an organisation and others join. However, when it comes to organisations that have a high attrition rate, there is a problem that needs to be solved using out-of-the-box methods.
Here are a few such methods that have worked in our team at Finacus.
Collaboration and team work
I believe collaboration and team work are two sides of a coin. Collaboration creates a feeling of ownership among employees as they work on common goals and everyone shares the same vision. Everyone is committed to a single outcome and people work for a project as a team, though every individual is a contributor.
It is when everyone is assigned a task matching their strengths and encouraged to achieve the final goal that they give of their best. Aligning employees with organisational goals makes them feel part of a bigger story.
Assigning tasks to team members on experimental basis taps into their latent leadership qualities at an early stage and ensures that employees develop a bond towards their work and feel a sense of responsibility towards the organisation. This will help to bring down the high rate of attrition. At Finacus, implementing this method helped lower the attrition rate by 12-15 per cent.
Personalised training
From my HR work experience in different companies, I have learnt that training is one of the most important functions. It should be given the utmost importance as part of the on-boarding process for a new employee and as an on-going process for the ones already employed.
Training modules must be designed to help employees sharpen their skill-sets. This helps in employee-employer engagement and will result in retaining the right talent for the organisation. Companies that lack such a structured programme tend to lose talent.
Gig economy
A large number of people are moving towards part-time, temporary or contract jobs, as the gig economy is cheaper than the traditional employment set-up. Growth in technology has enabled new-age businesses to take advantage of this gig economy, as it can be implemented in big cities where enough resources are available in the job market.
This type of employment brings down the overall hiring and development cost of an employee as compared to the traditional way of employment. At the same time, the attrition rate will also be under control.
Employee engagement and experience
Employees feeling a sense of belonging towards the organisation is what takes a company to the next level, as the more an employee feels connected, the longer they stay with the company. With a sustained employee engagement programme, an organisation can understand the core issues which need to be addressed at a primary level.
This helps in controlling the attrition rate and will create a sense of ownership among the staffers towards the work they are assigned. To reduce the attrition rate, an organisation must develop and implement a two-way communication mechanism to understand the connect or disconnect between employees and the management.
In any organisation one needs to give the employees the right opportunities to take their careers to the next level. A successful company is a winning team, where people are valued for their skills and collaboration is encouraged.
(The writer is Assistant Manager-Human Resources, Finacus Solutions Pvt Ltd)