According to a recent article in Fortune magazine, for nine years, Merck and Co. was voted the most desirable company in America to work for. Merck and Co. did a study and found it cost 1.5 year's salary to replace a worker who resigned or was discharged. This includes the cost of running recruitment ads, training the new employee and bringing him or her up to speed. That's a high price to pay for replacements.
Merck is a high-tech company, and most businesses would not require that much investment, but every business manager or owner I've ever talked to agreed that turnover is expensive.
With this in mind, we need to look at reducing turnover, particularly since our labor market is so tight and competition for skilled, educated and productive workers constantly grows. One study, reported in USA Today, reveals that what the employee desires from the job and what the employer thinks the employee wants are worlds apart. Most employers believe the first three things on the employee's "job wish-list" are: better pay, job security and room for advancement. However, when the employees were queried, the three most important things to them were interesting work, appreciation for the work that they do and the feeling of being in on things.
Granting the employee their three wishes for job satisfaction obviously doesn't cost the employer anything. If the workers are satisfied according to their wants, the chances of them voluntarily leaving are substantially reduced. To underscore the above, according to the Department of Labor, 46 percent of the people who voluntarily leave their jobs do so because they do not feel appreciated where they were. We need to always remember it is the individual we're dealing with — not just the job.
Honor this approach when dealing with your employees. Turnover will decrease, the bottom line will increase, and you'll enable yourself to get to the top more easily.
To find out more about Zig Ziglar and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. Subscribe to Zig Ziglar's free email newsletter through info@zigziglar.com.
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