Employee Churn Cost Business $2Trillion?

Strategy Doesn’t Matter?   part 6

In a recent Workforce Management report, Gary Krantz quotes Jason Corsello, Cornerstone's vice president of corporate strategy and marketing:

…19 million Americans plan to change jobs this year, or 13 percent of the total U.S. workforce, according to the survey. The churn will cost U.S. businesses an estimated $2 trillion to recruit and train new workers. [!!!]  Fourteen percent of survey respondents said they plan to leave their current job within six months to a year. About 25 percent are eyeing a move sometime in the next three years. Just 46 percent of those surveyed acknowledge having a long-range career with their current employer.

This is a really unsettling if not shocking report.  To those of us aware of the costs, it is surprising only in the total dollar estimate.  It serves to illustrate simply controlling employment costs is not the best way to save money when you don't know or don’t care what questions to ask  regarding the effects of your employment culture.

This company disconnect, the lack of managerial, customer and employee value and feedback, is not only a fundamental strategy flaw, it is the primary contributor to why employees have become so disengaged. Their opinions are neither sought nor are they valued and given weight even when learned.  At the core it has become the quest for profits price paid for the long term wellness and survival of the company.  In addition to the above, it is also VERY costly in ways most organizations don’t recognize, track or monitor.  If becoming an ”employer of choice” isn’t a motivator, try to determine what current shoddy recruiting, hiring, engaging, developing and retaining practices cost you every year.

Another recent Forbes talent retention article, by Mike Myatt, echoed past decades and vast numbers of past survey and study findings going back decades:

So, for all those employers who have everything under control, you better start re-evaluating. There is an old saying that goes; “Employees don’t quit working for companies, they quit working for their bosses.” Regardless of tenure, position, title, etc., employees who voluntarily leave, generally do so out of some type of perceived disconnect with leadership.”  

Thank you, Mike.  I would add most managers quit for the same reason.

In these uncertain times of slow recovery how can business afford…. how can our country afford…. $2 Trillion in employment churn and training……when the waste and wasted effort can be changed?

Next: $2Trillion wasted through not knowing, or not caring?