High staff turn over - is this my responsibility?

[FridaySaturdaySunday5]

Interested to hear other peoples thoughts on a situation I’m currently facing at work. How would you take this and does anyone have any suggestions on how I can handle this moving forward?

I work for a large company as an in-house recruitment advisor. It's a team of 6 and we cover different roles. Mine are entry level jobs such as cleaners, receptionists and as such there is a high staff turn over. I'd say this is due to low wages and long hours. I also think it could be down to how some of them are treated at certain sites (we have roughly 80 sites across the UK) but I’m just speculating on this. Despite these issues, I doubt very much the company will agree to increase the wages or reduce the hours.

The company hr director checks a monthly leavers sheet and flags any candidates that have left after a short amount of time. Over the last few months, both my manager and hr director have flagged leavers to me and questioned why the person left and what could we have done to prevent it from happening again. Our process is for a screening call to be made (by me) then an interview with the manager on site and lastly a trial session. We then offer the job if the manager is happy with the candidate. I’m not sure what else we can do and the constant emails are making me anxious. I have no idea what to say when they ask me about it. They clearly want an answer but I don’t have one!!

I’m not site based and don’t have any control over what goes on or how they are treated. I don’t even speak to them after they’ve started as it’s the managers responsibility to train, and well, manage them!! Surely this isn’t my responsibility and why aren’t they directing this to the site?!

AIBU?

Do you speak to the employees or get feedback from exit interviews? Have you looked at which sites / managers have the highest level of turnover to see if there's any pattern? That's where I would start!

Then you need a system to find out why people are leaving rather than guess work.

If people know the wages and hours etc then I doubt it’s that.

Thinks like, being treated like 4 year olds, or micro management, or over time for favorites and not others, breaks being missed, being scolded for being a few mins late - I can think of lots of examples.

I’m in a similar role to your HRD (sounds like you’re in hospitality?) and would never challenge my recruitment team on this. It’s definitely a question for the on-site team- they hired them, did the induction etc.

I would ask your line manager the question what do they expect from you, and then if there is some expectation that you understand this then check what the process is and what your responsibilities are when it comes to leavers?

Maybe you should do exit interviews and see why they're leaving.

If nothing else, you'd be able to tell your manager the reasons, and maybe even propose some stuff that would improve retention.

Agree with Sunday, I'm an HRBP and would expect to be doing this sort of management support/analysis. I wouldn't be asking our recruitment team to do it.

They are leaving for a reason but are unlikely to disclose that to you at an exit interview as don’t want to say anything negative that might hinder references…. However if you ask them if there are any adjustments that could be made that would make it easier for them to stay then they might give you some indications of the sort of things which could be improved.

Thanks for your replies.

To answer some of your questions:

The hr team conduct the exit interviews, which I don't have access to. Unless a candidate contacts me, I don't speak to them once they've started. Some people do just walk out or go AWOL so hr don't even get a chance to speak with them after they've left.

I've already asked my manager if she expects me to contact staff after they've left but she confirmed that was down to hr to sort out.

I just don't know what they expect from me!

It's not hospitality but similar, I just don't want to say for obvious reasons. I have worked in hospitality recruitment before though and my previous manager never asked me that question.

Then I would specifically ask how she thinks you should reply to the emails?

Sounds like they're trying to shift the blame on the recruitment process rather than taking a closer look at the management and reasons why which is shit. I'd push back and tell them you don't have oversight over exit interviews and direct them to the department that does..

Shit jobs with shit wages have high turnover off staff shocker

@SundayFundayz I asked my manager this before and she just said to reiterate to the hr director the process that I followed which seemed pointless. I spoke to one of my colleagues yesterday about it and she said the same thing had happened to her a few times and that she didn't know what to say either. It's just really odd that the blame is being placed with us.

I don’t work in this field at all, so may be completely not the right advice.

Presumably you just say that you have no contact with the employees once they’re hired and don’t have access to the exit interviews, so you don’t have the information to say why they are leaving and they would have to ask HR and the employees managers for that.

You could perhaps suggest any changes to the recruitment process you think might be helpful? (If any). Ultimately though, it doesn’t matter who you recruit, staff won’t stay in minimum wage jobs where they’re not well treated.

I think it's annoyed me more than usual this time as the last email she sent she copied in half the hr team!

They need to speak to HR and get feedback from exit interviews. It’s not recruitment’s job.

If the turnover is above industry norms, when the pay and benefits are standard, it might be due to poor management for example.

One of my teams went from a 30% turnover rate to zero overnight, once I managed to push the team manager out.

It’s not your responsibility but I would be collating information on what the ask was for the hires and then doing an analysis to illustrate how far the requirements are being met by those being hired. I would follow this up with stating that people are being hired against the requested criteria, so the next course of action would be to conduct exit interviews to assess why people are leaving. This suggestion would be my response to any queries on the matter. This definitely isn’t your issue and I’d be firm on pushing back.

Exit interview notes to you after HR. HR to ask the employees’ permission first.

The key is to find whether or not the leavers are off to a similar job - if so, that’s your biggest prob. Above your pay grade, luckily.

Run an anonymous survey through the holey depts - you’ll need help, so suggest these as a solution.

You need to take as much responsibility as you can for this. Wailing won’t cut it. I’m

Sounds like part of your role is to understand the issues onsite and they are asking you to look into what is happening and advise.
That's the role of the central HR team
Is there a pattern? Certain sites worse? Maybe go out to visit the sites.
Perhaps you could and should check in after they start?

Are they "blaming" you though? Sounds to me like they are just asking a question. Your answer to them needs to be sorry can I redirect you to HR as they do the exit interviews, our department is only involved in the hiring process.

@TheOneWhereWeDontGiveAPhuck but they know this already... there's only so many times I can answer the same question 😬

Hate this sort of thing. They're just looking for some other reasons that the most likely obvious ones that they could but won't do anything about.

If you don't have access to the reasons they give for leaving (and who knows if they'll disclose actual reasons) then there's not much you can do.

Ask them if they've noticed a link between leavers to help with screening candidates?

Have you looked at the data and drawn any conclusions about the applications of those who stay and those who don’t?

For example, do employees with more experience stay/employees who met more desirable points on their application/employees who did interviews in person rather than remote etc etc

Basically, could you improve the hiring process to increase retention?

Our process is for a screening call to be made (by me) then an interview with the manager on site and lastly a trial session. We then offer the job if the manager is happy with the candidate.

What have you been told to screen for? Or have you been asked to create your own screening process? Do you have records of each screen?

I would put a reply together along the lines of:
During the screening call I check x and y. I look for people who have a history of staying in previous roles for over 12 months but recently I have had to reduce that to 6 months due to a shortage of candidates with over 12 months in current role.

I ask why they want to leave their current job and frequent reasons are seeking better pay and conditions or just wanting a change of role. I give factual info about the pay, schedule and the nature of the work and few candidates say they are unhappy with what I tell them.

I notice site A has three leavers in your list. Perhaps manager X can advise how the site A leavers found the work and if there were any issues. HR may also be able to provide input from the exit interviews. I would be happy to amend the screening criteria or the information provided to candidates if there are common reasons being given by leavers.

Refer them to your recruiting process. Ask them where they think you can make improvements. You could check the terms&conditions of similar jobs and compare them to what you offer.
Also refer them to the exit interviews - HR should be collating data.

I think I'd reply 'judging by these repeated emails, maybe they're all sick of being blamed for things outside of their control and asked for information they don't have?'.