by Sun Meilan

Created on: April 17, 2010   Last Updated: July 11, 2011

Most companies strive to maintain a low turnover of employees, for a number of reasons - including cost and convenience. There are, however, sometimes advantages to high turnover, depending on the industry and other factors. Whether you put effort into maintaining a low turnover of employees or not depends very much on weighing up both sides of the argument. Here are some of the pros and cons of high employee turnover. 

*Pros

-New blood

It is easy for a group of people who work together for a long time to become stagnant in their way of thinking. New blood can add more of a competitive edge - the newcomers are eager to prove themselves and the older employees want to show that they know best. New people can also encourage new ways of thinking, instead of resorting to the same old strategies. 

-Low wages

If employees move on quickly, the chances are that they won't stay around long enough to expect much of an increment in their wages. Newcomers will start at the basic level. This works particularly well in jobs that don't involve a great deal of training, where employees don't expect to do more than turn up for their job, work set hours, and then go home. 

-Low employee expectations

If there is a high turnover of employees, no-one will have any particularly great expectation of the job. This means that employers can put the minimum amount of effort into ensuring that employees are satisfied - perks can be forgotten about and, apart from ensuring employees do an adequate job, there will not be a great deal of pressure to make anyone's life better. 

-Minimum impact of difficult employees

Most companies have a few employees who are difficult at one point or another. It could be that they are moody, or like to stir up trouble amongst other employees, or they could be unreliable. A high turnover means that this type of employee is likely to move on quickly, therefore minimizing their impact on the company as a whole. 

*Cons

-High cost of training

In some industries, employees need extensive training before they can take on the job. In this case, a high turnover could be extremely costly, because each replacement will need to be re-trained. This is also going to affect productivity. 

-Brain drain

Following training and on-the-job experience, employees gain a great deal of knowledge that they can then take to another company if they leave. In jobs that involve this level of knowledge development, it is a real disadvantage if they are not

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>