Staff turn over solutions

Buffeted by Australia’s skills shortage, businesses large and small are taking a closer look at the real costs of staff turnover.

Worklife International has been helping organisations around Australia develop and retain staff for almost 30 years.  With clients including Australia Post, Brisbane City Council and the Victorian Police Department, they’ve worked with managerial and frontline staff of every kind.  They even train the Australian Institute of Sport’s team of career coaches, responsible for the ongoing development of our elite athletes.

Managing Director Peter Tobin says that businesses are increasingly aware of the damage that staff turnover can cause.  “Organisations are looking at any way of keeping staff — remuneration, benefits, flexible working arrangements”, he says. “Everybody’s doing it, but many still have high turnover.”

To keep staff engaged, you need to sit down and talk to them about their personal goals and how they match the organisation’s objectives.

“It’s really around making sure that what they’re doing is what they want to do”, he says. “Is this the work they really enjoy? Are they doing what they do really well? Do the organisation’s values align with their personal values? Do they get work–life balance?”

“Staff or climate surveys are an excellent way of receiving honest feedback”, says Tobin. “They are usually undertaken anonymously and enable organisations to implement strategies that may help with staff retention, as well as lifting their reputation to become an employer of choice.”

‘If you get all of those elements aligning with the organisation, then you’re going to have a much more engaged workforce.”

His advice to business owners is to think flexibly. “Don’t look in the more traditional spaces. Think outside the box in what you can provide to prospective employees.”

And Tobin practices what he preaches. When a key staff member announced that he and his wife wanted to move away from Sydney, Tobin began to think about alternatives. “Twenty years ago I would have told him to go and find another job. But we sat down to see how it could work.”

Now that employee works remotely from the Gold Coast.

“We need to throw out some of the traditional ways that we’ve worked and think about how we could work differently”, says Tobin. “There are lots of good people out there, but they’re probably not looking at a traditional nine to five work environment.”