Attrition

Background

The data matrix has a column that tells whether an employee has left the company or not.

• Why should we care about it?

Let's reason through!

Disadvantages of a high turnover rate

• Decreased overall business performance.
• Difficulty in handling tasks, i.e., the tasks that former employees leave behind upon resignation.
• Increased expenses, i.e., (the hiring process = money and the learning process = money).
• Loss of an employee's development plan (possibly a mistake on the company's part, a miss in offering relevant assistance).
• Lack of knowledgeable/experienced employees.
• Negative experiences can give companies a negative corporate image of those who have been laid off.

Therefore, suitable questions have been identified based on the data I have been provided.

Which of our employees are more likely to leave our company within the year?

Findings

The data matrix has been examined, and the following conclusions have been reached:

1. People tend to switch to another job early in their careers, or in the early parts of their careers. Once they have settled with a family or found stability in their jobs, they tend to stay in the same business for a long time.

2. Salary and stock options are significant motivators for employees, and people with higher stock options tend to leave the organization much less. Higher pay and more stock options have been seen to make more employees loyal to their company.

3. Work-life balance is a major motivator for employees. However, people with a good work-life balance tend to switch in search of better opportunities and a better standard of living.

4. Departments where goal fulfillment is crucial (e.g., sales) tend to have a higher chance of leaving the organization compared to departments with a more administrative perspective (i.e., Human Resources).

5. People with good job satisfaction and environmental satisfaction are loyal to the organization - and this speaks volumes for any organization. But people who are not particularly satisfied with their current project tend to leave the organization much more.

Strategic Retention Plan

The stronger indicators of people leaving include:

• Monthly income: people with higher salaries are less likely to leave the company. Therefore, efforts should be made to gather information about industry benchmarks in the current local market to determine if the company is offering competitive salaries.

• Overtime: people who work overtime are more likely to leave the company. Therefore, efforts should be made to properly scope projects in advance with adequate support and manpower to reduce overtime usage. They work 80 hours in 9 days. Maybe it's worth checking out if you can find new "suitable" work schedules. i.e. the extreme programming methodology recommend you don't want to exceed 45 hours a week.

• YearsWithCurrManager: A significant number of employees leave six months after their current managers. By using manager information for each employee, it can be determined which manager has experienced the highest number of employees resigning in the past year. Several metrics can be used here to determine whether action should be taken with a line manager: Number of employees under managers showing high turnover rates; this may need to be reviewed to improve efficiency. Number of years the line manager has been in a particular position: this may indicate that employees may need leadership training or be assigned a mentor (preferably a manager) within the organization. Patterns of employees who have resigned: this may indicate recurring patterns of resigning employees, in which case actions can be taken accordingly.

• Age: Employees in the relatively young age group of 25-35 are more likely to quit. Therefore, efforts should be made to clearly articulate the company's long-term vision, and young employees should fit into that vision, as well as provide incentives in the form of clear paths to promotion, for example.

• Distance from home: Employees who live farther from home are more likely to leave the company. Therefore, efforts should be made to provide support in the form of company transportation to clusters of employees leaving the same area, or in the form of transportation reimbursement. Initial screening of employees based on their hometown is probably not recommended as long as employees can get to work on time every day.

• Total years of work: More experienced employees are less likely to quit. Employees with 5-8 years of experience should be identified as potentially having a higher risk of leaving.

• Number of years at the company: Loyal companies are less likely to leave the job market. Employees celebrating their two-year anniversary should be identified as potentially having a higher risk of leaving.

A strategic "retention plan" should be established for each risk group. In addition to the proposed steps for each function listed above, face-to-face meetings between an HR representative and employees can be initiated for employees with medium and high risk to discuss working conditions. A meeting with the employees' line manager would also allow for a discussion of the team's work environment and whether actions can be taken to improve it.