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Recruitment & Retention

Published October 2008

How Frontline Managers Retain Hourly Workers

 

  David Creelman and Steven Hunt

In many industries, turnover among hourly workers is very high. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2007, turnover in the retail sector — most of which is hourly-worker turnover — hovered around 4.5 percent per month, some 54 percent annually.

High turnover is accepted by some as one of the costs of doing business. In fact, some companies state explicitly that this is how they operate. But while the cost of replacing an hourly worker is less than replacing a professional or manager, it is not insignificant.

In addition to costs associated with recruiting new employees, employers also lose money with every new hire because it costs money to get them up to speed. Turnover creates other costs, such as work-process disruptions, stress for employees who have to cover for those who are missing and negative customer-service impact.

Organizations can avoid this ongoing drag on their bottom line and do a better job of retaining their hourly workforce by focusing on the oft-repeated saying, "People don't leave companies; they leave managers." In most cases, employee happiness and satisfaction levels can be directly traced to things their managers are doing — or not doing.

Is Turnover the Line Manager's Fault?

In many cases, frontline managers feel constrained. How can they be expected to keep their people happy when their hands are tied by corporate? They don't control compensation, they don't determine working conditions, they don't set the targets, and they don't write policy. In other cases, managers don't know how to act. They haven't been told that managing retention is important, nor have they been taught how to do it or given feedback on how well they do it.

Then there are managers who intentionally practice the burn-and-churn method. They treat employees poorly, squeezing everything they can out of them until they burn out, and then hire a new victim. Other managers may not be quite so intentional, but achieve much the same result by not treating employees with respect.

Companies can control a large percentage of turnover by being careful about whom they select as managers in the first place. All managerial selection processes — even at the lowest levels of management — should evaluate candidates based on their ability to appropriately work with people. A condescending or disrespectful view of employees should be enough to eliminate a candidate from consideration.

HR should take an active role in getting the right selection processes in place and auditing to be sure these processes are followed. Auditing may seem like extra work, but examining even a small sample can send a clear signal that the company is serious about these processes. Further, HR should track turnover and report on it, making a point of highlighting the names of any managers whose turnover is above normal levels and how much this is costing the company.