DreamTeamElite | Transform Your Team...Transform Your Business | 1083 Queen St, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 0B2

High Turnover

$11,440. $15,600. $20,000. Would you withdraw cash in these amounts and throw it out

the window? If you have a high amount of employee turnover, you might be doing so without

realizing it. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) estimates that the cost to

replace an employee is a minimum of 50% (or 6 months) of their annual pay. Using the most

conservative figures, a Front Desk Associate who makes $11/hr would cost $11,440 to replace.

A Technician who makes $15/hr, $15,600. Your Office Manager with a $40,000/year salary,

$20,000 replacement cost. These figures represent direct costs but the total cost of turnover is

estimated to be as high as 200% of the departing employee’s salary! You could be losing as much

as $45,760 for that Front Desk Associate, $62,400 for a Technician and as high as $80,000 for

an Office Manager. If that money stayed in the profit column, what could you do with it? Could

$80,000 buy a new piece of equipment? Go toward building improvements? Pay off business

loans? Hire an additional staff member so you can take a much needed vacation? The possibilities

are endless and the costs of constantly replacing employees are too high to ignore.

You already know it is time consuming and tedious to hire new employees. Quantifying the

monetary impact further underscores the need to reduce unnecessary turnover. Unnecessary is

a key word. Not all turnover can be avoided, nor should it be. There are times when it’s best for

an employee to “ride off into the sunset” toward opportunities they are better suited for - at a

different place of employment. Hopefully, this will be an infrequent occurrence and you have quite

a few employees you would prefer to hang onto.

Assuming you have hired the right people for your team (which is a topic for another time), efforts

to keep them should begin immediately and continue indefinitely. Most employees in today’s

workforce do not place the same value on staying with one employer for a long portion of their

career. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics calculates that employees stay with one employer for

an average of 4.6 years. That drops to just under 3 years for members of the Millennial generation,

the youngest and largest generation now in the workforce.

Why do good employees leave for greener pastures?

Pay and benefits remain important in attracting and retaining

employees but, believe it or not, they aren’t number one.

The good news is you likely have a high level of control over

the #1 reason employees leave. The bad new is, it might be

you! The adage, “employees quit managers, not companies”

couldn’t be more true. Micromanagement, lack of

approachability and unrealistic expectations from managers

are large barriers in keeping your best employees.

DreamTeamElite | Transform Your Team...Transform Your Business | 1083 Queen St, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 0B2

Second only to low quality leaders, employees will head for the door when a negative office culture

exists. If gossip, immature and unprofessional behavior are allowed to persist, your best team

members won’t stay around and fall victim to the toxic, negative environment.

How do you keep them from leaving?

Model positive leadership and make sure other

leaders in your practice are doing the same. Set clear

expectations for constructive complaining - ask your

staff to address concerns or complaints to someone

with the authority to implement solutions. Foster

open communication so they feel comfortable

bringing concerns to management rather than

gossiping and spreading negativity. Employees want

to feel that they have access to management to help

them solve problems and grow. When concerns are raised, involve employees in the resolution

by asking them for ideas on how to overcome the issue they are presenting. Offer timely guidance,

recognition and coaching on performance. Competitive pay and benefits can be found in most

other practices. Strong leadership and positive culture cannot. Set your practice apart from the

rest by striving to achieve and maintain a healthy, positive atmosphere. Finally, think of your

employees as vital to the success of your practice, just as are your customers, and treat them

accordingly! Consider them your internal customers and strive to make them want to stay in the

same manner you strive to keep clients coming back.

Your dedicated Team Builder Counselor can assist you in creating a plan to turn around a

negative culture and give you guidance on ways to foster a positive one. Management training

sessions available under the Dream Team Elite program cover these topics as well and are a

great tool for learning how to identify symptoms of a negative culture and how to turn it around.