High staff turnover, normal?

Sly21C

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I work for a civil engineering company, for close to 3 years now. I like working there but obviously things could be better. It's a medium sized company with about +/-60 staff members. One thing that unsettles me is the high staff turnover, i.e. the high number of people that resign.

This year so far there have been 6 employees who resigned. Last year there were about 8 staff members that have resigned. As far as I can recall, about 5 new employees have been hired this year so far and last year about 6 new employees have been hired.

Is having that many people resigning almost every month normal?
 

OrbitalDawn

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Why are the people resigning? If there's organisational uneasiness, or a toxic workplace environment that could lead to people leaving.
 

kripstoe

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Depends. If its something like a call center it might be normal. If you have engineers leaving then I'd be worried. Working there, surely you have a feel of why its happening?
 

Sly21C

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Why are the people resigning? If there's organisational uneasiness, or a toxic workplace environment that could lead to people leaving.

Most resign because of better offers, others resign because of my employers. They can be very demanding and can be verbally abusive sometimes. So some can't take it and ultimately resign.

Depends. If its something like a call center it might be normal. If you have engineers leaving then I'd be worried. Working there, surely you have a feel of why its happening?

Most employees are technicians, they are the ones that resign. Out of all the people I've mentioned that resigned so far since last year, only 2 are engineers and 4 are senior technicians. The rest are junior technicians.
 

ponder

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Most resign because of better offers, others resign because of my employers. They can be very demanding and can be verbally abusive sometimes. So some can't take it and ultimately resign.

If people don't like the environment then they will seek 'greener' pastures elsewhere. Nothing unexpected.

I'll never get why companies can't create an environment conducive to performance and employee wellbeing, everybody wins.
 

kripstoe

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If people don't like the environment then they will seek 'greener' pastures elsewhere. Nothing unexpected.

I'll never get why companies can't create an environment conducive to performance and employee wellbeing, everybody wins.

It costs money.
 

Cius

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People primarily leave for 3 main reasons:
1) Company is underpaying the staff and so many leave for better offers (like the airforce)
2) Poor work environment due to crazy travel requirements, bad office, long hours, etc (like the big consulting firms with their hours)
3) Management issues

We have very high staff turnover right now and its all due to senior management issues.
 

guest2013-1

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lol, you call that high staff turn over? There's this publishing company I used to contract for, about 48 people work there, worked there for 3 years more or less, all new employees except management. And the way the "CEO" yelled at his staff/accused them of stealing etc, I wouldn't work there either.

I went back a year later, all new faces except the CEO. You can't run a business like that, but 6-8 people leaving in a year? Naw not high at all.
 

Crowley

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I work for a ICT company and we have on average 3-4 people a month leaving. Management issues mostly but non market related salaries also play a part. Those that leave just gets replaced.
 

Priapus

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Six to eight people per year is high in my experience. But I think you have nailed it on the head as to why they are leaving. Personally I wouldn't be too worried about it.
 

genetic

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Certain industries traditionally have high staff turnovers.

I work in the advertising industry. It's a highly stressful industry.
Our company is large, with a few hundred employees in our office. You'd be one of the few if you've lasted there for more than 2 years.

Other companies head hunt you - or you die out from natural selection.
 

Mila

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I work for a civil engineering company, for close to 3 years now. I like working there but obviously things could be better. It's a medium sized company with about +/-60 staff members. One thing that unsettles me is the high staff turnover, i.e. the high number of people that resign.

This year so far there have been 6 employees who resigned. Last year there were about 8 staff members that have resigned. As far as I can recall, about 5 new employees have been hired this year so far and last year about 6 new employees have been hired.

Is having that many people resigning almost every month normal?

If its BEE candidates, they are in high demand so it might be the corporate ladder. Been seeing it at our company, other companies find out about our workers and poach them.

Who can blame them, the only problem is we don't employ people that job hop any more. It takes time to teach a person the company how it works and then they stay a few months to go somewhere else. So it will start biting them in the butt, we have also started working on 2-3 months notice periods for our highly skilled people. It makes them less attractive to poach. But sometimes even that doesn't deter other companies.
 
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