In the current business climate, managing employee turnover has emerged as a critical issue for many organisations, affecting operational continuity, security, and costs. Certain industries face higher rates of attrition due to the unique demands and conditions of their work environments. Understanding the dynamics of attrition and the strategic role of IT in addressing its consequences is crucial for maintaining competitive advantage and operational efficiency. This blog will dive into the causes of high attrition rates, their implications for businesses, and how leveraging advanced IT solutions, particularly through effective Joiner-Leaver-Mover (JLM) processes and the support of service desks, can transform these challenges into opportunities for growth and innovation.
What Is Attrition and Why Do Some Industries Have Higher Attrition Than Others?
Attrition, in its simplest form, refers to the rate at which members of an organisation leave over a certain period. While a natural phenomenon in the business cycle, certain sectors experience higher rates than others. This can be due to various factors, including the nature of the job, working conditions, and the demographic makeup of their workforce. Industries like logistics, retail, and hospitality often have higher attrition rates for several reasons:
- Entry-Level Positions: Many positions in these sectors are entry-level, attracting individuals who may view their roles as temporary stepping stones rather than long-term career paths.
- Physical Demands and Working Conditions: Jobs in logistics, for example, can be physically demanding and require long hours in potentially less-than-ideal conditions. Such factors can contribute to higher turnover as employees seek less strenuous work environments.
- Seasonality and Fluctuating Demand: Certain industries see seasonal spikes in demand which lead to temporary employment that naturally ends after the peak season, contributing to the industry's overall attrition rate.
- High Proportion of Foreign Workers: Industries that rely heavily on foreign workers may experience higher attrition rates due to visa limitations, homesickness, or better opportunities in their home countries or elsewhere.
How Does High Attrition Impact Organisations?
High attrition rates can significantly impact organisations across various dimensions:
- Recruitment Costs: Frequent departures necessitate constant recruitment efforts, incurring costs associated with advertising positions, interviewing, and processing new hires. These expenses can accumulate, especially in high-attrition environments, placing financial strain on organisations.
- Loss of Knowledge Transfer: When employees leave, they take with them valuable knowledge and experience that would have benefitted peers and successors. This loss hampers knowledge transfer, leading to gaps in skills and expertise within the team or organisation.
- Service Continuity: High turnover disrupts the continuity of service, potentially affecting the quality of output or customer satisfaction. New employees often require time to reach full productivity, which can lead to delays and inconsistencies in service delivery.
- Security Risks: Each departure and subsequent hire introduces security risks, particularly in roles with access to sensitive information. Organisations must ensure proper offboarding to secure data and thorough vetting for new hires to maintain integrity and confidentiality.
- Time Constraints: High attrition rates force management and HR departments to focus considerable time and resources on recruitment and training efforts, diverting attention from strategic initiatives and core business activities.
Why is the JLM Process So Important & How Can IT Help?
Harnessing the power of IT is crucial in mitigating the challenges associated with high attrition. Central to this approach is the enhancement of the Joiner-Leaver-Mover (JLM) process, which is crucial for organisations experiencing frequent employee turnover. The JLM process encompasses all IT-related actions required when an employee joins, leaves, or moves within an organisation. Given its complexity and critical nature, the service desk often owns most JLM processes.
The importance of a well-managed JLM process cannot be overstated in high attrition environments. It ensures that new employees have timely access to necessary tools and information, thereby minimising downtime and facilitating quicker integration into their roles. For leavers, it secures the organisation's data and systems by revoking access and retrieving company assets, addressing potential security risks. When employees move internally, the process helps realign access privileges according to their new roles, maintaining operational integrity and security posture.
The advent of General Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is transforming how service desks manage the JLM process. GenAI can automate routine tasks, such as creating user accounts, setting up email, and provisioning access to software and databases, which traditionally consume significant time and resources.
How Can This Be Implemented?
To leverage these advancements effectively, organisations must integrate IT Service Management (ITSM) tool native technologies with a well-designed, unique JLM process tailored to their specific needs. This approach ensures a seamless, efficient, and secure handling of the JLM tasks, reducing errors and enhancing service delivery.
Outsourcing first-line Service Desk and end-user services to a provider that expertly balances ITSM native tools with customisable process governance and a robust knowledge base presents a strategic advantage. Such partnerships enable organisations in high attrition markets to maintain continuity of service, manage recruitment and training resources more efficiently, and safeguard against the loss of institutional knowledge.
Providers that understand the nuances of an organisation’s needs can develop bespoke processes that align with its objectives and mitigate risks associated with high turnover. This collaborative model ensures that despite the inevitable changes in personnel, the organisation can continue to achieve its business objectives while limiting the risk that essential knowledge exits the organisation with departing employees. Through strategic use of IT and external expertise, organisations can transform the challenge of high attrition into an opportunity for enhancing operational efficiency and securing competitive advantage.
Next Steps
At OneAdvanced our service desk utilises an enterprise-class IT Service Management (ITSM) platform- ServiceNow, which underpins our entire support operation. With automation and machine learning built into the platform as well as their own GenAI capability, it really does give providers like us and customers exciting opportunities. We are already using these capabilities to automate repetitive tasks, improve governance, and interface our monitoring tools to provide self-healing capabilities.
We accommodate various support scenarios, including standard business as usual support, tactical resource recruitment challenges, and supporting disaggregation from single suppliers, improving service quality and user experience. With services tailored to your unique needs, our dedicated team, rigorous processes, and unwavering focus on user experience set us apart. Learn more about outsourced service desks, or get in touch today.