How're You Gonna Keep 'Em Down On the Firm?

Not that Rabinowitz and Durham are likely to simply drop it. So far, they estimate that the program has cost $600,000, mostly in consulting fees, travel costs, funds for training, and management time. Even if the company lost money in the short run, Durham claims, it was worth doing because "it forced us to think about all the elements that go into this 'simple' business--especially the human-resources processes--and to make it systematized."

And there's been another, unanticipated payoff: IHS's focus on retention has helped the company differentiate itself from its competitors. "We use it in our sales pitch," Durham says. At least one client claims to have chosen IHS because of its retention record. "I was hoping to see less turnover than I had previously," says Rich O'Brien, help-desk coordinator at Warner-Lambert, in Morris Plains, N.J. "It's nice to have a company that retains people. Getting support staff fresh off the street makes it harder for us to manage our services."

So, from what Rabinowitz can tell, the company's retention program is helping it generate revenues--which was the goal all along. "By stopping our rigid focus on sales," says Rabinowitz, "we've actually found a way to improve them."

Christopher Caggiano is a staff writer at Inc.

Tackling Turnover: Staying Power

Those employees marching out the door in droves represent a problem that isn't going anywhere. Fifty-three percent of U.S. workers expect to leave their jobs voluntarily within the next five years, according to a recent poll by Louis Harris & Associates. While some industries are merely feeling pinched (the turnover rate among printing production workers is 16%), others are already badly bruised (for convenience-store employees, the turnover rate is 103%). Still, few industries can afford to ignore the threat--which is why some have mobilized to plot out a strategy. Among them--

Industry: Trucking

Turnover Rate: 10%, and projected to stay at that rate through 2005

Coping Strategy: "We know that truckers like their jobs better if they have consistent, steady routes, so we're encouraging employers to do more in that area," says James Lewis, spokesman for the American Trucking Associations. "We're also looking at demographic categories that are growing--namely, women and minorities--that have not often been the demographic categories our industry has drawn its drivers from."

Industry: Software

Turnover Rate: 18.2% for technical professionals; 16.8% for technical managers

Coping Strategy: "Software companies realize that if good tech folks aren't there, then nothing is going to happen," says Ann Dondanville-Allen, manager of human-resources reporting at Culpepper and Associates Inc., a software-industry-research firm. "So they throw more resources and money into the technical area, in terms of recruiting." They sometimes appear to do so, she points out, at the expense of keeping employees in such nontechnical fields as marketing and accounting, areas that have higher turnover rates.

Industry: Fast-food restaurants

Turnover Rate: 140% among hourly workers

Coping Strategy: "It's important for a restaurateur to recognize the different types of personalities that work in our industry," advises Julie Malveaux, a spokesperson for the National Restaurant Association. "There are some pass-through employees, like students, who want a job only for a short period of time. There are some careerists who are looking for advancement opportunities. And then, of course, there are some people who should not be in the industry. Managers can prepare themselves by learning to recognize what distinguishes one type from the next." --Mike Hofman

 PREV  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5