In today’s world of increasing employment costs, most human resource managers perceive recruiting and retention of qualified employees as a primary challenge. As well they should.
Estimates of the cost of employee turnover vary between 50% to 150% of a departing employee’s annual salary, depending on job level, industry and location. Perhaps the largest cost can be the lost future potential of that employee.
Of course many factors may trigger an employee to look for a new job. The only way to address retention proactively is to understand the key factors that can become a triggering event. It is important not to overlook the impact of the work environment on employee performance, attitude and outlook.
A series of studies commissioned by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) investigated the impact of all aspects of the work environment to employee satisfaction.
A 2001 study Workplace Values surveyed employees about what they valued most in their workplace. 40% cited a comfort issues – physical comfort, atmosphere and cleanliness, etc. In contrast, compensation and benefits and issues with management were cited by 7% and 9% of those surveyed respectively.
One aspect of an earlier study conducted in 1999, Recruiting and Retaining Qualified Employees by Design, found that first impressions count when people visit prospective employers. An orderly and clean workplace is the characteristic most people look for when they see the environment for the first time.
Certainly a clean workplace is not the only key to employee recruiting and retention, but it does have an impact. While bringing professional cleaners into your workplace cannot automatically cause an employee to get rid of desk clutter, or help your office manager find time to clean out old files to accommodate new ones, we can drastically improve the quality of your company’s work environment that will impact your employees in a positive way, impressing new recruits and your customers.
Original article can be found here.