The retail and the financial-insurance industries experiencing highest staff turnover

The five most common reasons given by employees to leave a company are the salary, the direct relationship with the boss, the distance from job, the organizational environment and the lack of development perspectives. Regarding the areas experiencing high staff fluctuation, a surprise comes from financial and insurance sector, which ranks second after retail.

In Romania, the salary still is in first place among the reasons why employees choose to leave a company, so whatever the field, most specialists who resign consider that their remuneration does not reflect the amount of work experience or their position in the company.

Second place on the list of reasons why employees quit their jobs is occupied by the direct boss. Basically, the relationship with the boss often reaches a level of dissatisfaction that holds many employees to continue working. The overcrowding with daily tasks, unrealistic demands, lack of feedback in time – all are related to the relationship with the direct supervizor, that, according to Smartree statistics, is not an ideal one in Romania.

“The distance to the office began to matter very much in Romania, as new generations increasingly focus on the work-life balance. Thus, when companies move their headquarters or when employees move with their home in an area of 45 minutes faraway from office, many believe that the time spent on the road is not worth it”, said Raluca Penes, HR Coordinator Smartree.

The top reasons for leaving the companies operating in Romania is completed by the organizational and the political environment (lack of procedures or rather, too many procedures that delay the project completion) and the lack of development perspectives. So those who want to perform often feel constrained by the organizational policies and by the limited development horizons.

Finance and insurance, the surprise among top industries with personnel turnover

Among the industries with the highest staff turnover, a Smartree statistic conducted between July and September 2015 in the 150 multinational companies in Romania reveals a surprise: in the financial and insurance sector, the staff turnover seems to more higher than in all other areas analyzed, except retail, which is known to be leader at this chapter.

Thus, in the period analyzed by Smartree, the top industries depending on the personnel fluctuation is as follows:

• Retail (6.43%)
• Financial & Insurance (4.47%)
• Logistics & Transport (4.45%)
• Services (4.27%)
• Pharma (2.40%)
• Manufacturing (2.16%)
• IT&C (1.91%)
• FMCG (1.42%)
• Agro (0.54%)
• Energy (0.50%)

IT, the domain with the most measures to limit the brain drain

The first three elements that ensure high employee retention rate are benefits package, working environment and encouraging professional development through courses, trainings etc.

“On the other hand, high turnover of employees is synonymous with professional environments in which the employee is just a wheel in the system that can be easily replaced in the context of a weak specialization, low salaries and lack of development perspectives or the work environment is very stressful without being fairly rewarded”, says Raluca Penes, HR Coordinator Smartree.

The most measures for limiting the staff turnover in Romania are found in IT. The employees in this domain are most fortunate in this respect, they received various extra-salary benefits, from car from work until subscription to the gym, lunch, phones and new generation gadgets or consistent bonuses, per project or annual.

HR techniques designed to limit the turnover

The HR techniques designed to limit migration of employees start from a very clear strategy on engagement, to be in agreement with an organizational culture oriented to employee. For now, this model is found mainly in the West, although shy developed in Romania also.

“Relaxation and hobby room, internal trainings held by employees who earn recognition and points transformed into awards and bonuses, the possibility of career advancement within the company, the transparency of decisions and a democratic environment, all these are elements that reduce turnover. At the same time, creating a long-term salary package (pension plans, life insurance, extra vacation days depending on seniority in the company, benefits for family members etc.) is a way in which Western companies keep their employees”, said Raluca Penes.

Another limiting migration tool is the employee exit interview that begins to gain importance among the Romanian companies also. In this respect, Smartree developed the “Exit Interview” functionality on the HR software platform MyStaff to meet companies who want to know as much information about the health of the organization and the reasons for leaving the company, in order to outline the strategy for employee retention.