At Magnet Culture, we dive deep into our client’s turnover issues. Sometimes this leads to surprising findings that help us serve future clients.
One of our clients is a ready-mixed concrete company. The leaders expressed concern due to a high turnover rate specifically among the truck drivers. What we uncovered is applicable across every organization we work with. We asked the managers why their people quit, and the managers had two primary reasons: Their people wanted more money and better schedules. We hear these reasons frequently. While money and schedule are both important to employees, it’s not always the root issue.
To everyone’s surprise, poor communication and favoritism from the bosses were some of their primary reasons given when the truck drivers were asked why they left their last company. One person even said, “I’d like to be called by my name not my truck number, thank you very much!” Most eye-opening however was this: the employees said that the truck they received as a rookie was a joke!
Now consider, who’s the flight risk again? The rookies! The new hires are the biggest flight risk.
If we swap out that word truck for something else—let’s say the shift you get, or the resident load that you get—we don’t want to leave the crumbs to the new hires. That’s one of the quickest ways to rush them off. We must ensure that we’re not pushing any grunt work to the new hires we wouldn’t want to do ourselves.
Those new hires are our greatest flight risk. Usually, the quickest way to reduce turnover is to focus on the new hires.
The struggle to retain today’s new workforce is costly. We shift manager mindsets and bridge generational gaps to dramatically reduce turnover costs, increase employee loyalty, and ensure high-quality products and services are delivered.
Book a call today to see if what we do for other clients would work for your team!
