director of Childbase Partnership Sarah Rotundo considers what it is,
how to measure it and why it matters.
Finding good-quality staff has consistently been a major problem in the early years. That is quite aside from the task of keeping them. But with the age-old battle between quality care and affordable rates now exacerbated by stress on funding levels, why should managers throw staff retention into the mix?
Long before changes to Government policy on qualifications, recruitment of staff, especially at Level 3, was an issue. In 2004 research from Sure Start, about half to three-quarters of all settings had recruited over the past 12 months, while many also lost staff in the past 12 months, but at a lower rate than they were recruiting. Yet to improve recruitment, and create and retain a viable workforce, you have first to understand staff retention. Various studies, including the Effective Pre-School, Primary and Secondary Education research and the Institute for Public Policy Research's Early Developments report, find that low turnover is an indicator of a good-quality setting. High turnover also makes parents and children unhappy. For parents, it will impact on their satisfaction levels and reduce the likelihood of them recommending the setting.
Yet in the early years sector, low pay and a relatively young workforce contribute to an above-average annual staff turnover. Studies have put early years turnover at about a third, compared with national average rates of a quarter.
Employees are our greatest asset, and once the right people are in place the right results can be achieved. If managers want to deliver the best care and early education, then staff retention should be a priority.
Knowing what your staff retention levels are is the first step to improving the situation. It is a good idea to have targets, but these targets have to be realistic. As best practice management accreditor Investors in People says, 0 per cent is not a realistic turnover target. By collating retention data about all teams in an organisation, you can identify which line managers are successfully retaining their teams and who isn't, and thus needs further support.
What loss?
When a member of staff leaves, it is easy to be distracted by the personal impact this will have on a manager or his/her team. But a worthwhile question for leaders to ask themselves is what quantifiable benefits are being lost. Every organisation will invest in its employees to a differing extent; however, there are common areas where the loss can be quantified. These are the person's knowledge, abilities and experience and the money and time that was invested into their recruitment, induction and training, which will be spent again along with money required to cover any interim period.
A departing staff member will commonly impact on work performance, productivity and morale of the wider team: they are bearing the additional workload created during the resulting recruitment and induction period. The team may also be asking 'Why did they leave and should I be doing the same?' The loss of a team member and the resulting change to their continuity of care also adversely impacts the children.
For organisation leaders, the moment an employee hands in their notice can bring a whole raft of differing emotions to the fore and focus will quickly turn to the recruitment task ahead. Take a moment to remember that despite the fact that this employee has made a decision to leave they should still be treated fairly and valued for their contributions. A discussion should take place promptly to acknowledge the notice, and understand whether anything can be done to retain the employee if this is the desired outcome.
How the departure is communicated to the remaining team, children and parents needs to be decided with the employee. If the reason for the departure is a sensitive one, agreement should be reached to decide a 'public' reason. The way in which a manager treats someone who is leaving will be noted by other team members and may be perceived as the manager 'showing their true colours' if they are unprofessional.
Why people leave
A range of factors will pull and push employees into a new job. The 'pull' factors could include the lure of an exciting new job, desire for a career change, and a job that better suits the employee's personal circumstances. 'Push' factors can include problem areas within the organisation: culture-related issues, such as lack of motivation and job satisfaction. They are often related to the behaviour and competence of their line manager. An excessive workload, poor working environment, lack of reward and recognition, and lack of training and development also commonly feature.
Feedback
If you want to really understand why people leave your organisation, data is a great help.
But the information collected has to be truthful to be of any use. It is natural for some employees to have concerns about giving frank feedback - they may worry about the impact on their reference, their relationships with their manager or team members or perhaps a desire not to burn their bridges in case they should ever wish to return, or ever find themselves working with the same manager in a different organisation or through an acquisition.
Exit interviews are an integral part of gathering this feedback. The best feedback comes where the exit interview is conducted by someone other than the employee's line manager. In larger organisations, other team members can complete these and in smaller organisations, the option of using external companies or online interviews through free survey sites should be considered.
Having a standard set of questions will make the data that you gather from different people comparable. It is vital not to make assumptions, even when the reasons for leaving appear clear.
For example, an employee choosing not to return from maternity leave may have done so because of concerns over combining an immense workload with motherhood, rather than simply wanting to become a full-time mum.
Once you have data, you are then in a position to establish trends and develop resulting strategies. If the data shows that a lack of training within your organisation is a major factor in people getting fed up and resigning, the costs of investing in training may seem minimal when compared to the costs you are facing from losing staff.
Top tips for performing exit interviews
1. Establish a consistent process where the interview is conducted by someone other than the employee's line manager.
2. Interview with a set of standard questions.
3. Collate and regularly review feedback.
4. Ensure feedback is informative - ie, if an employee is leaving for a new job, ascertain the exact reasons why.
Once the importance of staff retention is recognised, then a context is created in which addressing and improving retention becomes more manageable. This enables you to start the process of breaking the 'recruit, induct, train, replace' cycle.
Part 2 of the series will take a look at which features of leadership have the biggest impact on staff retention in early years.
