At first glance, solving your turnover challenge seems simple–just hire better people, right? Unfortunately, the answer is far more complex. For most organizations, turnover is multi-faceted, requiring a thoughtful and nuanced approach to address each contributing factor. To reduce turnover, businesses must commit to a multi-step process involving analysis, strategy, and execution rather than searching for a single silver bullet solution.
Why Reducing Turnover Requires a Holistic Approach
The key to reducing turnover lies in understanding that it’s never about just one thing or one part of your hiring process. Organizations must take a holistic, data-driven (and ultimately human) approach to examine their recruitment processes and collect data on why employees are leaving.
“Effective turnover management begins with understanding the complex interplay of factors that influence an employee’s decision to stay or leave,” states I/O Psychologist Robert Loy. “As I/O psychologists, we harness data to uncover these layers, ensuring our strategies address the root causes of turnover, not just the symptoms.”
There are a multitude of reasons why employees churn. These could range from misaligned expectations to personal or family issues, from poor job fit to management conflicts. Addressing these causes requires a variety of strategies, not just one.
Once your organization has gathered data on the reasons employees are leaving, they need to ask themselves some key questions about their recruitment process:
- What does our current hiring process look like, from start to finish?
- What data are we collecting throughout the hiring pipeline?
- How are we measuring success at each stage?
Now that key retention causes have been identified, and you understand the ins and outs of your recruiting process, you can begin deciding what solutions would be best, and where they should be implemented, to begin addressing retention.
Targeting Specific Challenges with Tailored Strategies
A single assessment is not properly equipped to solve all of your challenges, you need a variety of strategies. Every stage of the hiring process, from the job description to the interview to the onboarding experience, has an impact. To really reduce turnover you need to break down each cause and identify actionable solutions that target those specific challenges.
- Misaligned Expectations: Offering realistic job previews during screening can help align candidate expectations with the reality of the role, reducing no-call, no-show issues.
- Job Fit: Cognitive assessments can help evaluate whether a candidate has the skills and abilities necessary to successfully perform the job.
- Personal/Family Issues: These may require multiple actions throughout the hiring and employment journey, from a minimum qualifications questionnaire at the beginning to set expectations to objective questions asked in the interview.
It’s critical to understand that improving turnover metrics isn’t just about addressing retention at a broad level. Instead, focus on realistic goal-setting that tackles individual causes of turnover.
A Data-Driven Approach to Reducing Turnover
At HighMatch, we use a multi-phased, data-driven approach to help organizations reduce turnover. This process is led by our Industrial-Organizational (I/O) Psychologists and informed by the latest scientific research on employee behavior and retention.
- Learning Phase: We begin by gaining a deep understanding of the target employee population. Our I/O team examines historical data, such as exit interviews and training performance, and conducts focus groups and interviews with your subject matter experts. This data is then validated to ensure accuracy and relevance.
- Solutions Phase: Next, our I/O team identifies the turnover challenges that can be directly addressed through assessments and maps those challenges to specific solutions, such as cognitive tests, behavioral assessments, or job previews. These assessments are deployed at key stages of the hiring process to ensure they have the greatest impact.
- Optimization Phase: Finally, we partner with our clients to monitor how these assessments are performing against defined retention metrics. Based on the results, we recalibrate and optimize the process as needed, ensuring that our solutions evolve alongside the organization’s needs.
There’s No One-Size-Fits-All Solution to Turnover
Employee churn is driven by many factors, and no single assessment or tool is equipped to solve all of them. That’s why HighMatch takes a multi-pronged approach led by trained industrial psychologists. We leverage a combination of assessments, real-time data, and ongoing analysis, to help organizations address their specific turnover causes at the right moments in the employee lifecycle.
To truly reduce turnover and retain your best talent, you need a holistic, data-driven and expert led approach that is adaptable, realistic, and deeply embedded in your hiring process. This is not about quick fixes–it’s about doing the hard work to make a lasting impact.
For a deeper dive into effective retention strategies, explore HighMatch’s report, Addressing Turnover Through Strategic Hiring Solutions. This comprehensive resource offers actionable insights into the root causes of early turnover and provides practical solutions tailored to your organization’s needs.
