What's one of the most expensive, painful activities companies engage in on an ongoing basis? Ask any HR manager, and you'll hear it's replacing valuable employees who leave seeking greener pastures. The US Bureau of Labor reports a turnover rate of 72.5% in the hospitality and food services industry, while the churn rate for hourly retail employees is 65%. And a Gallup study says such voluntary employee turnover costs businesses a whopping trillion dollars a year.
Why does turnover cost so much? First, there's the cost of recruiting—searching, screening, interviewing, and checking backgrounds. Then there's the onboarding process, the training, and the learning curve, during which productivity is lower than usual. Studies show it can cost from 50% to 200% of an employee's salary to replace them. And even when you find the ideal hire, your operation suffers from a loss of knowledge, and your other employees end up picking up the slack for a while. That leads to falling morale and team engagement, locking your HR department into an endless hiring cycle.
Digital signage enables employers to communicate, communicate, communicate
The sad part is that much of this is self-inflicted—51% of exiting employees say that if their organization would have been better at communicating with them it could have prevented their leaving. In other words, showing employees that they matter, that their organization cares about their well-being, career development, and, yes, that their happiness is important can go a long way.
That's why more than ever, companies need to over-communicate with their employees—everything from company news, team building activities, company culture, and much more—to make workers feel more part of the team. And digital signage in the workplace, not to mention quality digital signage content, is an ideal medium for the types of communication that help people feel good about the company they work for—and can combat high turnover rates. Here are just a few ways digital signage can help reduce staff turnover:
Job recognition
Often employees simply want to be recognized for their hard work. However, the bigger the organization, the more difficult and time-consuming this can be. You can use digital signage to recognize people in a more engaging public way than would be possible with printed or email newsletters. Digital signage content can congratulate those getting a well-deserved promotion or the "employee of the month," of course. But you can also give a public "thank you" to someone who went out of their way to provide stellar customer service, help their peers, or any other type of company or peer recognition. This type of content is the perfect opportunity for organizations with multiple locations to delegate content creation to local associates using tools like Reflect Xperience. You can then display this content company-wide, in a single facility, or even in one department—your choice.
Social and customer reviews
Another way to communicate with workers using digital signage is to leverage your social feed with content you put into the network. For example, when you get a great customer review, why not feature it as part of the content on your signage so all your staff can see it? Being aware of customer reviews can cultivate a sense of pride in the organization. It can also motivate employees who don't often get to see or speak with customers, showing them the impact of their work on customer satisfaction. Tools like Reflect’s Social Spotlight can help make this easy and scalable.
Personal milestones
Besides recognizing positive job performance and customer feedback, use digital signage to show employees you see them as people, too. Why not call out congratulations for a birthday, an anniversary, the birth of a child, a graduation, or any other milestone important to an individual worker? Digital signage is also an ideal forum for welcoming a new hire to the team, hailing a new client visiting the facility, or anything else that might personally impact employees.
Peer recognition
Everyone wants public recognition from their boss, but peer recognition from the bottom up is just as crucial to boosting morale and productivity. Encourage your team to give co-workers a shout-out for their contributions. Whether you use formal polling or a simple "suggestion box," you can use this feedback to create digital signage content for the workplace. Not only will the recipient get a kick out of seeing their name in lights, the co-worker that wrote it feels good about it, too. Soon, tools like Reflect Zero Touch will even allow associates to nominate their coworkers using the digital signage display and their mobile devices.
Causes and community involvement
Many employees feel more valued if they perceive their company cares about causes that are dear to them and is an integral part of their local community. Using digital signage, you can reinforce your company's core values and culture. You can also show how the individual location participates in local functions, supports local causes, and generally supports the communities in which the employees live, work, and go to school. It can be fun and easy for local employees to contribute ideas, pictures, and community events to post on your digital signage screens. The result is a closer bond between workers, their community, and their employer.
The grass isn't always greener somewhere else
Employee turnover is a persistent and expensive problem for today's organizations. Though younger and millennial workers may lack the job loyalty and staying power of early generations, companies can better encourage employees to feel good about where they work. Reducing employee turnover with digital signage content is not only good for the bottom line, but it's good for employees, too. Producing content that encourages workers to take pride in their jobs, their companies, and their communities, they might not go looking for greener pastures as often.
We invite you to connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter for the latest about our ReflectView digital signage content management platform, Reflect Xperience, and all our solutions. Better yet, contact us to find out how we can get you started building employee engagement and loyalty today.
