Bad news can make us want to check out. And there’s been a lot of it lately.
The pandemic, high inflation, the Great Resignation. What now?
Don’t worry. This isn’t another scare-tactic story. It’s an invitation to step back from the inflammatory news feed and think objectively about the core trends directly impacting your business.
Which economic circumstance has hit your bottom line most severely? And which can you respond to immediately?
In Accelo’s experience helping professional services businesses thrive through these global challenges, we’ve learned the answer to both questions is often the same: high employee turnover.
We encourage you to pause and evaluate:
You undoubtedly understand the frustration of losing employees, but when was the last time you measured the effects?
Frightening as it is to face a negative reality, it’s foolish to pull the proverbial wool over your own eyes. Let’s conquer your fears together.
First, we’ll explore the very real consequences of frequently changing your staff.
The most obvious cost of turnover is the investment you make in hiring and training replacements. On average, employers spend $4,000 per new hire. That figure covers the basics of recruiting and onboarding. It can be higher if you offer perks like signing bonuses, which many employers are doing to stay competitive.
Even if your firm has only a few full-timers who manage a team of contractors, it’s expensive to acquaint new consultants and leaders with your business’s values, systems and expectations.
In a collaborative environment, solid camaraderie is key to success. You could easily underestimate the negative impact of regular turnover on your team’s ability to gel.
While it’s tough to measure a lack of connectedness, there are a few metrics related to this specific struggle:
Employee loss is even more disruptive to a remote team because it takes longer for people to become familiar with and trust each other from afar.
When you lose a great employee, there’s no guarantee you’ll find someone to replace them. If that person was your star tech-savvy team member or your best presenter, it could prove difficult to come across a candidate with comparable skills immediately.
What’s more, if your clients have become accustomed to the level of service your existing team provides, it will be evident to them when something changes. They may also have established relationships with your consultants and be wary of anyone new. If clients choose to back out of contracts because of upheaval in your business, you could experience a devastating blow.
You can see why paying attention to talent turnover is essential, but what’s driving people to leave?
Here are some top reasons workers quit in 2021:
Consulting as an industry is feeling some additional pain. The lack of travel during the pandemic and the high-stress reputation of the industry is no longer attractive to a new generation of MBA grads.
It could be hard for your firm to respond to workers’ needs for engagement and flexibility as you simultaneously try to meet the high demand for consulting services. Drowning in client requests could mean requiring more work per consultant — thus, making for a far less attractive set of job responsibilities. Work-life balance may be merely a dream at this moment.
Add these components together, and you’ve got a dire situation that can seem insurmountable. But we promise it’s not.
Sure, there are current trends in employee turnover that are beyond your control. However, you can impact consultants’ desire to stay loyal to your organization.
Want more ideas for improving your rate of consultant retention in the short and long term? Download our latest guide.
