Identifying and Reducing High Staff Turnover

Introduction
The Information Technology Department (IT) at ABC Hospital is comprised of the following Teams: Radiology IT, Radiation Oncology IT, Lab IT, Cardiology IT & Peri-operative IT Teams. The focus of the IT Department is to provide IT Support for the clinical applications utilized by the respective departments that they support. The IT department focuses on application support, incident management, project management, and a strong focus on customer service. Customers include Physicians, Radiologists, Technicians, Nurses, Clerical Staff, Billing staff, and Administrative Staff. The IT Staff is customer facing, they are required to interact with stakeholders on a daily basis. IT also serves as a liaison between the clinical departments and the technical IT Departments within ABC Hospital. IT focuses on understanding the IT needs of each department and verbalizes this in technical terms to the technical IT Department. IT department is staffed with eleven staff members and is managed by one Manager. Each IT sub department has a Team Lead who is directly responsible for each team meeting all IT & Clinical Department goals & objectives.
Brady Consulting Services has been hired by ABC Hospital to provide an analysis and recommendations on the cause for high staff turnover within the IT Department. Over the past 2 years the IT Team has seen a high volume of staff turnover within the Lab IT, Radiation Oncology IT, and Cardiology IT Teams. Brady consulting will identify the root cause for staff turnover within these teams and provide recommendations on solutions to this problem.
Problem Statement
High staff turnover is a growing problem in many industries. Staff turnover may be costing your organization more that you may think. Staff-turnover costs go way beyond recruiting and training costs. When employees leave organizations, so does quite a bit of valuable knowledge. In addition to the financial costs and knowledge loss, it can also be costly in terms of customer and staff satisfaction. Stemming the tide and making sure you keep valuable employees requires analysis to understand why employees are leaving your organization and implementing solutions to alleviate staff turnover. By working hard at keeping employees, not only will you cut attrition, and improve staff satisfaction, but also you’ll build a priceless vault of knowledge.
Literature Review
Definitions
Staff turnover is inevitable, however organizations with high levels of staff turnover face a loss of corporate knowledge and their ability to meet business objectives comes under threat. Staff turnover is a common issue that plagues many organizations. Turnover can be viewed as a whole in three ways; Employee Controlled: dismissals, redundancies and early retirements; Employee Led: dissatisfaction of varying kinds; Employer and employee uncontrolled: long-term sickness, normal retirement, maternity leave and death in service. (1) For the purpose of this report we will be focusing on Employee Led dismissals also referred to as voluntary dismissal.
Relative Theories
So why do so many companies struggle with high rates of staff turnover? Entrepreneur.com states, external forces may influence turnover, such as short supply of some occupational groups, internal factors are usually more significant. Study the work of the motivation theorists. Maslow argued that people have a hierarchy of needs ranging from physical needs to self-fulfillment; Herzberg distinguished between two sets of factors: hygiene and motivation; McGregor proposed that bosses tend to treat subordinates according to their own prejudices--that employees need to be rules and controlled (Theory X), or that, given the opportunity, all employees can make a significant contribution if encouraged (Theory Y). (1)
Costs of Staff Turnover
According to a University of Tennessee study, there are three costs associated with Staff Turnover: Separation Costs, Acquisition Costs, and Knowledge Transfer and Training costs. Each has direct and indirect costs that are incurred by the organization. Direct costs can be easily identified and quantifiable. Indirect costs are much more difficult to quantify. (4)
Separation costs are those expenses associated with the disassociation of the employee from the position. This may include actual contact buyouts, litigation costs, decreased productivity, and loss of institutional knowledge. Acquisition costs include items related to the recruitment, selection, and placement of a new individual. Advertisement costs, transactional costs for paperwork processing, lost time and productivity of the search committee, interviewing, reference checking, and relocation costs are some typical examples. Beyond separation and acquisition costs, there are expenses associated with orientation and subsequent training of the new employee. A rule of thumb is that it takes two to three months for a new employee to reach a basic level of competency in the new organization. In addition to the direct costs associated with learning, there are the indirect costs of diminished productivity between the new hire and the former employee. The costs of this lost productivity can be very real, in some cases requiring the institution to hire another employee to take up the slack. (4)
Staff Turnover Rate
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is a professional body for those involved in personnel, training and development. It is located in Wimbledon, UK. The CIPD conducts research covering all aspects of working life, from recruitment to employment law, and work-life balance to productivity. (3) Every year the CIPD conducts a survey on Staff Recruitment, Retention and Turnover. The survey provides benchmarking data on current and emerging trends in people resources. It includes information on the trends and changes in attraction and selection methods, diversity issues, and reports on the time and costs of recruitment and labor turnover.
Based on CIPD’s 2008 Staff Recruitment, Retention and Turnover survey the median staff turnover rate is 17.3% (Reference Table 24). (2) A majority of this turnover was voluntary (Reference Table 25).

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More importantly CPID provides a breakdown of staff turnover into industry sector. This breakdown is reference in Table 26. You will see that the IT sector has a 17.8% voluntary turnover rate.

The IT Department when fully staffed has a total of 20 employees. Over the last two years the department has experienced numerous voluntary staff dismissals. In the last two years a total of 7 staff members have voluntarily left the organization. Staff turnover rate can de calculated by the following equation:
Staff leaving the organization/Average number employed x 100.
Based on this equation the IT Department has experienced a 35% staff turnover rate. This rate is well above the National Rate of 17.3& and the IT industry rate of 17.8%. To understand why the IT Department has experienced such a high turnover rate we must identify the causes for Staff Turnover.
Analysis (Causes)
Staff retention rates are a major concern for organizations; many HR leaders find it difficult to pinpoint the cause for high staff retention. In a 2003 survey the Saratoga Institute revealed that 89% of managers believe employees leave for more money. But in fact the survey found that 89% of employees leave for reasons other then money. So how do you determine what is causing your employees to leave? Just ask them. Most people generally enjoy being asked their opinions. Brady Consulting utilized two methods to identify what is most important and how satisfied employees are in the IT Department. 1. One on One Interview 2. Employee Job Climate Survey
One on One Interview
The first method we utilize is a one on one interview with each staff member. The interview method is used to gather an understanding of the background and staff turnover history within the IT Department. The interview process is an informal discussion to understand the history of the recent staff turnover rate. One consistent message that was communicated by most employees was the need for additional staff. Staffing has been a major concern for the current and past employees. This has been a major contributor to why staff has been leaving the organization. The primary teams dealing with the staffing concerns are the Radiation Oncology IT, Cardiology –IT, and Lab-IT Teams. These are also the same teams that have experienced the most staff turnover in the last two years. Some of these positions have not been filled since staff members have left the organization. The Team Leaders of these respective areas provided documentation on the risks that have been identified due to the staffing shortage. * Departmental performance targets are at risk of not being met. * Level of service the customer expects has declined. * Backlog of projects waiting to be initiated is significantly increasing. * Stress levels are increasing among team members. * Paid Time Off has been limited. * Time off work creates significant coverage hardship. * Managing Work/Life balance is challenging and perceived as difficult. * Ability to respond timely to customer service requests has significantly decreased.
Employee Survey
The second method is a Job Climate Survey (Appendix A). Brady consulting utilizes a job climate survey to measure employee’s most important attributes for job satisfaction. The job climate survey also measures how satisfied employees are with the current work environment. Based on the survey results from the IT Department, we have ranked the top ten most important attributes the IT Department employees desire for job satisfaction: 1. Work/Home Balance 2. Adequate Staff in the workgroup 3. Adequate Pay for their job function 4. Manageable level of stress in their workgroup 5. Reasonable Workload 6. Supportive, effective Management 7. Ability to take Paid Time Off (PTO) when needed 8. Training to perform their job duties 9. Flexible hours 10. Get along with Team Members

Analyzing the results from the importance section of the job climate survey it seems six of the top ten items relate to stress and workload in the department. This is a major factor for job satisfaction in IT. Let’s now see how satisfied the employees are with the current work environment.
Current IT Job Satisfaction
Somewhat Satisfied
Not Satisfied
Very Satisfied

A Gap Analysis can be utilized to compare the existing state of IT and the desired state. This analysis is used to determine ways to diminish the difference between what exists and what is desired. Based on the responses from the IT employees the largest gaps that exist in IT are: 1. Work/Home Balance (Gap5) 2. Adequate Staff in the Department (Gap5) 3. Manageable Stress in the workgroup (Gap5) 4. Reasonable Workload (Gap5) 5. Ability to take Paid Time Off (Gap 4) 6. Flexible Hours (Gap 4) 7. Adequate Pay for Job function (Gap2) 8. Training to perform Job duties (Gap2) 9. Supportive, Effective Management (Gap1) 10. Get along with Team Members (Gap1)
To decrease staff turnover in the IT department solutions must be put in place to address the gaps identified during the job climate survey or risk the possibility of more staff leaving the organization.
Solutions
If nothing is done to address these gaps in job satisfaction in the IT Department employees will continue to leave the organization in high rates. In order to prevent this there are solutions that can be implemented. There are three solutions that need to be implemented that can positively impact job satisfaction and decrease staff turnover: 1. Address Staffing Issues 2. Address Work/Home Balance 3. Create a Staff Retention Program
If these three solutions are implemented the IT Department will be able to improve job satisfaction and close the gap on the issues identified within the IT Department.
Staffing
Employees have expressed a deep concern for staffing in both the Job climate survey and the one on one interview. Before any other solutions are implemented staffing must be on the top of the list. The staffing levels within the C-IT Department have reached a critical level in the eyes of the employees. Some of the Teams within IT only have one staff member supporting clinical departments and are unable to take any time off. This has lead to low employee moral within the department. The IT Department is currently staffed with 16 Team members; there are also 4 vacant positions, due to staff turnover, that have not been filled. Employees feel the staffing shortage has reached a critical level.

Brady consulting recommends Management to immediately fill the 4 vacant positions within the department. We also recommend adding 5 additional staff members to the IT department. This will grow the current employees count from 16 to 25. Below you will find a suggested organization chart that was developed for the IT Department. The new staff members should be allocated based on the number of applications and customers each team supports. Below you will find the proposed IT Staffing model

By hiring 5 additional staff members for the IT Department you will be able to effectively improve four of the top ten gaps within the IT Department. 1. Adequate Staff in the Department (Gap5) 2. Manageable Stress in the workgroup (Gap5) 3. Reasonable Workload (Gap5) 4. Ability to take Paid Time Off (Gap 4)
By adding 9 staff members (4 vacant and 5 new positions) to the current IT Department this will allow the department the issues discussed in the one on one interviews. By adding additional staff the IT Department will be able to achieve the following items:

* Reduce project delays * Reduce outstanding backlog of work requests * Improve the ratio of on-call incidents vs. staff members * Improve the ratio of team members vs. customer population * Drastically reduce the stress level for support staff * Improve customer satisfaction

We strongly believe that a total of 25 FTE’s is required to support the customers and business needs of the IT Department today. An adequately staffed team will allow for proactive support versus the current reactive support. This will allow the team to focus on providing more value to the customer through Process Improvement & Problem Management. By adding this additional staff this will also allow the IT Department to proactively support the growth that is planned for the ABC Hospital in the upcoming years.

Work/Home Balance Work/Home balance is the most important factor for job satisfaction in the IT Department. It also has the largest Gap within the current state of IT. Employees feel due to staff shortage and current workload they are unable to find a Work/Home balance. Many employees are forced to work from home in the evenings and on weekends. This prevents them from being able to spend time with their family. According to Management-Issues.com, “Eight out of 10 people say that work-life balance considerations play a crucial role in their decision to stay with or leave their current employer.” (5) The IT Department must implement solutions to improve work/home balance to see a positive impact on job satisfaction within the Department. We recommend the following solutions to address employee work/home balance. 1. Address the staff shortage issues 2. Allow staff to take PTO when needed 3. Allow staff to telecommute 1 day a week 4. Allow employees to set flexible working hours.
Employees who are able to balance their work, family and life commitments have been shown to be happier in their job and are more likely to stay and work towards a rewarding and productive career. It is proven that companies that recognize the need and adapt work to peoples lives will win workers loyalty and, with that, a competitive edge.
Survey your Staff Regularly
High Staff Turnover rates are not unique to the IT Department. Many organizations struggle with this sane problem. However, organizations must understand that the IT labor market conditions are in the IT professional’s favor, and companies must make staff retention a priority. Organizations that are able to successfully identify the root cause for staff turnover and implement solutions are more likely to have high staff retention rates. Many organizations wait until employees are leaving the organization to understand why they have left. Organizations must poll employees regularly to understand their job satisfaction before it is too late. Renowned HR expert Dr. John Sullivan once wrote: “Asking employees at time of termination ‘why are you leaving’ is like asking your spouse ‘how to improve the marriage’ on the day before the divorce is final! By that time it’s too late to do much anyway.” Brady consulting high recommends polling your staff regularly to understand your employee job satisfaction. Poll early Poll often is the strategy Brady consulting recommends. Polling is especially important after a solution has been implemented. This will help gauge the effectiveness of the solutions. The survey attached to this report can be used or develop your own to better understand what’s important for your staff and how the current state of the department lines up with those priorities.

Staff Retention
Research confirms a clear link between effective staff retention strategies and well-performing companies. "The most successful companies globally are all staffed by motivated people - motivated people are consistently core to high performance," says Michael Rennie, director with McKinsey & Company. So it is important for the IT Department to have an effective staff retention program to prevent employees from leaving your organization. Bill Gates once said, “Take my 20 best people and, virtually overnight, Microsoft becomes a mediocre company." (6) To retain your top staffs implement these solutions: 1. Listen to your people - make your employees feel you are interested in them personally. Use surveys, individual or group meetings to gain the insights and information to help you plan your retention strategy around areas most important and relevant to your staff. 2. Work/life balance - consider providing staff with the flexibility to achieve a satisfactory mix of time at home and on the job. Perhaps offer reduced working hours or work-from-home options, where possible. 3. Staff your department accordingly. Staff you departments according the workload. Proactively manage your staffing needs to prevent work overload. 4. Salary Watch - As long as salary is in the general range for a particular role, most employees will not consider it the deciding factor in job satisfaction. 5. Reward and Recognize - build your employees' esteem. Show them you value their opinion and ideas and that you're watching their performance. Reflection I chose the topic of this paper because of my personal experiences at work. Although I am very happy with my current job I have seen some of the other teams deal with major issues with Employee retention. I have seen many people leave the organization and have seen no sense of urgency from Management to fill open positions. At times I fell that Management either does not care or does not understand the impact this has on the work group. I began the MBA Program at Keller to prepare myself for a role in Management. In this class I have learned to put myself in Management’s shoes to better understand how I would deal with Management issues. By researching this paper I now understand that staff turnover is inevitable and that it is difficult to find qualified people to fill open positions. I also understand that the longer positions are unfilled the more stress you bring on your staff and this in-turn can cause you to lose even more staff. It is very important for Managers to understand that their needs to be a sense of urgency to fill vacant positions in your department. I also understand how important it is to survey your staff on what they feel is important for job satisfaction. Surveys allow you to understand how your employees feel in the workgroup. By researching this topic I feel that I have gained some insight on how to address staff turnover and the need for a staff retention program. Staff retention programs are extremely important to proactively manage the threat of staff turnover.

Appendix A
Job Climate Survey

We are interested in your feedback about your work environment. Please complete the following survey so that we may have a clear idea of your opinions.

How Important is: | Not Important | Don’t Care | Somewhat Important | Important | Very Important | 1. Adequate Staff in your workgroup | | | | | | 2. Opportunity for Advancement | | | | | | 3. Supportive, effective Management | | | | | | 4. Work/Home Balance | | | | | | 5. You can work flexible hours | | | | | | 6. Being able to take Paid Time Off (PTO) when needed | | | | | | 7. Training to perform you job duties | | | | | | 8. Manageable level of stress in your workgroup | | | | | | 9. Adequate Pay for your job function | | | | | | 10. Receiving regular feedback from your Manager on your work | | | | | | 11. Getting along with Team Members | | | | | | 12. Reasonable Workload | | | | | |

Please indicate how SATISFIED you are with each of the following factors in your current job

How Satisfied are you with: | Not Satisfied | Neutral | Somewhat Satisfied | Satisfied | Very Satisfied | 1. Staffing in your workgroup | | | | | | 2. Opportunity for Advancement | | | | | | 3. Supportive, effective Management | | | | | | 4. Work/Home Balance | | | | | | 5. Ability to work flexible hours | | | | | | 6. Ability to take Paid Time Off (PTO) | | | | | | 7. Training to perform you job duties | | | | | | 8. Stress level in your workgroup | | | | | | 9. Salary for your job function | | | | | | 10. Feedback from your Manager on your work | | | | | | 11. Getting along with Team Members | | | | | | 12. Workload | | | | | |

References 1. Managing staff turnover and retention. Entrepreneur.com http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/100012289.html

2. Recruitment, retention and turnover 2008. Charter Institute of Personnel and Development. http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/recruitmen/general/_recruitretnt.htm

3. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartered_Institute_of_Personnel_and_Development

4. The Cost of IT Staff Turnover: A Quantitative Approach. University of Tennessee. http://connect.educause.edu/Library/ECAR/TheCostofITStaffTurnoverA/40037?time=1224384416

5. Work-life balances the key to retention. http://www.management-issues.com/2006/8/24/research/work-life-balance-the-key-to-retention.asp 6. Exit Interviews.com. http://www.exitinterviews.com.au/staff-turnover.htm