Preparing for Summer Turnover: May is the Time to Plan
Get the Facts
The first thing you should do is arm yourself with information. Is turnover a real issue at your organization? Or perhaps it just feels that way as you lose your summer hires to the beach or empty nesters decide to take a well-deserved break and travel the world. Take the time to review your company’s historical summer turnover over the past few years and analyze the patterns:
- What roles are most affected?
- What teams or departments tend to leave during the summer?
- What percentage is voluntary?
- What patterns do you see in the reasons for resignations?
- Are any of the reasons controllable, meaning they are in your power to influence?
This last question is important because you may be able to make employee-friendly policy changes that can actually reduce your turnover. For example, schedule adjustments, flexible hours, or a working hybrid environment may make summer work more enjoyable. Because turnover can cost the equivalent of one year’s salary (more in some positions), it’s certainly worth it to keep your people happy.
If you’d like to know more about best practices for designing employee policies, San Diego Human Resources Consulting can help with structuring employee-friendly programs.
Prepare for the Worst Case
sEngagement factors aside, people will still want to travel, follow their dreams, chase the surf, or transition to new and enticing opportunities. You can still plan ahead by identifying the key roles at risk and working on your talent safety net:
- Cross-training programs. Begin by creating a Critical Coverage Matrix of essential skills and competencies needed. This could be task or knowledge-based; the important thing to remember is that you should be at least three people deep in bench strength for critical tasks (think payroll). By cross-training your teams, you will build an internal safety net, the most cost-effective option.
- Nurture the talent pool. Most ATS solutions have the ability to maintain a warm talent pool through automated communications and newsletters. As summer approaches, proactively check in with them and see if they’re interested should openings arise. Use referral awards and sign-on bonuses to spark some interest.
- Line up a contingent workforce. Just as the retail industry prepares for holiday hiring, tap into outsourced recruiting services to support you with a contingent workforce plan. If your data supports it, you can create a plan in advance, negotiate terms, and have a core team proactively backfill roles that you know are going to thin out. While this can be a more expensive safety net, you are able to avoid disruption in your operations and customer service.
And of course, San Diego Human Resources Consulting is here to help if you need help recruiting during the summer months! We have a national staff of amazing recruiters dedicated to getting you through the summer.
Nurture Your Culture
Last but definitely not least, creating a culture that connects your people to the organization and to each other will often act like glue. Employees who experience joy and achievement in their work feel appreciated and needed. Those who know they are valued and trusted will tend to be more loyal to the mission of the company…even during the summer!
