8 Keys to Reducing Employee Turnover

1. Pay Very Well

There are many reasons why people choose to work in certain places — culture, challenge, industry, fulfillment—but the universal reason every person wakes up and goes to work every day is simple: for a paycheck.

If an employee doing a job can see from job postings and market reports that their pay is not in line with market value, then they will not feel as though they are valued at their current position or be satisfied with their current earnings.

Harvard University research found that a $1 pay increase per hour among warehouse workers resulted in a 2.8% increase in retention. Meanwhile, a $1 per hour pay loss relative to other local businesses increased customer service representatives’ turnover by 28%.

This is not to say you should pay exorbitant amounts for labor to keep people on your payroll. You should always assess what the pay scale is for a position in your area. Choose an amount that makes sense for your clinic while being attractive to top providers.

The idea here is simple: if you are demanding excellence from your staff — as you should be — then you should be paying at the top of the pay scale. Otherwise, employees who are willing to go to the top percent of market performers will unfortunately find someone who is willing to pay them more for it.

2. Make the Workplace Fun

When you move past the pay rate, turnover largely becomes about workplace culture. After all, the workplace environment is where a person spends most of their time. When a workplace is toxic, stressful, poorly managed, etc, the dollar amount on their paycheck becomes less valuable.

But not having a poor work environment is really just the bare minimum. You should strive to create an environment where your staff can have fun while being productive. This entices your team to build relationships with one another, trusting management, and feeling safe in their employment. All of these factor create bonds between the employee and the practices that will make leaving harder.

Maintaining positive attitudes and treating everyone respectfully is a good place to start; there are also some smaller actions you can take in the daily processes:

• Avoid Micromanagement
• Eliminate Excessive Protocols and Rules
• Encourage Open Communication
• Take an Interest in Personal Lives
• Be Supportive of Personal Lives
• Solicit Feedback Often

3. Invest in Training

Driven people want to grow, and enabling that growth can help you keep top employees. In fact, research indicates a direct correlation between employee training and reduced turnover rates: 94% of employees express a desire to stay longer with organizations that offer career development opportunities.

Here’s how you can ensure your team is both skilled, motivated, and happy to be at your practice:

• Take All You Can Get from Your Reps: Leverage the expertise of your representatives. They are a valuable resource for insights and practical knowledge about the latest industry trends and best practices. Plus, many times you can get free training for your clinic.
• Attend Trade Shows and Aesthetic Seminars: Participation in trade shows and seminars keeps your team updated on new developments and innovations. It also offers networking opportunities that can lead to strategic partnerships and knowledge sharing.
• Research Top Performers in the US and Reach Out to Them: Identify and connect with top performers in your industry. Learning from the best can provide inspiration and practical strategies that can be implemented in your own organization.
• Assign Homework: Encourage continuous learning by assigning relevant homework or projects. This helps employees apply what they’ve learned in a practical context, reinforcing their knowledge and skills. Boost engagement by offering an incentive for participation.
• Identify Top Employees and Utilize Them to Teach: Recognize your own top employees and use their expertise to train others. This not only improves the skill set of your entire team but also provides leadership opportunities for your best performers.
• Demand Excellence: Set high standards and expect excellence. This creates a culture of continuous improvement and motivates employees to strive for their best.

4. Criticize Privately

Criticism is difficult to deal with, even for employees with the best attitudes. Yet, feedback is part of creating a clinic of excellence.

However, when criticism is required, constructive or otherwise, a public setting is never appropriate to deliver it. Embarrassment, resentment, and hurt are common reactions and are amplified when done in a public arena.

Whenever possible, refrain from providing criticism in a public setting. Instead, bring the employee aside, constructively tell them what areas need improvement, and provide support for that improvement through training or instruction. This allows them to maintain their confidence with other members of the team, while working on the areas that need to be addressed.

5. Praise Publicly

In the same way that private criticism can preserve an employee’s morale, public praise can boost feelings of appreciation and fulfillment. Particularly for high-drive staff members, being recognized for strong performances can bolster workplace satisfaction and reduce the desire to find fulfillment elsewhere.

Additionally, the exposure to a positive role model can help other members of your team know who to turn to and even motivate them to work harder. Calling out star players in staff meetings is an easy way to show expectations, how to meet them, and the reward for exceeding those expectations.

But positive feedback still matters, regardless of whether it is public or private. A study conducted by Gallup found that companies that give continuous strength-based feedback can reduce their turnover by almost 15%. A little reinforcement for your employees can go a long way. Ultimately, you should praise your team when they work hard and do their jobs well.

6. Value Their Opinions

Collaboration isn’t just good for an optimal and efficient work setting, it is an imperative factor for employee retention. According to a 2017 Office Team study, 66% of employees said they would likely quit a job if they didn’t feel appreciated. Among millennials, that number jumped to 76%.

So, considering the opinions of your staff isn’t just a nice thing to do — it is absolutely necessary to build a stable work environment.

• Solicit opinions and make actionable changes based on the feedback, especially in areas that are low-risk
• Host roundtable discussions for solutions to problems arising at the company
• Bring the entire team together to provide input on processes and daily workflows

Aside from boosting morale, you’re hearing honest feedback from your front line. Your staff knows your clients better than management, understands real-life application of processes, and knows where there are areas lacking. Using this immensely valuable feedback will not only support your team, but will also drive your practice toward more efficient operations.

7. Beware the Evil Witch or Warlock

While many owners and managers would never hire someone who is toxic to the workplace, sometimes those people slip through the hiring cracks and find themselves on your team. If you repeatedly receive complaints about a single member of your team, address it.

You may begin with a one-on-one conversation about their actions and ways they need to be conscious of their behavior. However, if you continue to experience issues with them, don’t be afraid to remove them from your team. Maintaining the delicate ecosystem of a practice is nearly impossible if you have an employee who instigates, gossips, and argues with the rest of their team. The cost of one provider to maintain the positive atmosphere of your practice is a small price to pay to ensure the rest of your staff is able to safely and happily do their jobs.

Remember, drastic measures shouldn’t be taken on day one, but you should always be careful of holding onto a single provider at the sake of multiple members of your team.

8. Acknowledge Them As Your Most Valuable Client

Without the providers and staff, the path to excellence is much harder to achieve in your clinic. Appreciation, respect, and value are at the core of employee retention.

If you strive to treat your staff as well as you would your most valuable client, then you have a strong foundation on which to build a stable and effective team for your practice. In turn, your business will do better as these team members become your practice’s biggest advocates.

Learn How to Create the Best Practice Possible

If you want to learn more about staffing and building up your team, check out our online course on Superstar Staffing or our dozens of other business-centric courses. Whether it’s building a happy, productive team or onboarding a new device, MINT has training options to ensure you feel confident in your decisions.