It’s no secret that the workforce culture has taken a drastic change in the past two to three decades. This is even more apparent in Asia, where people are looking at work more differently than ever, people are not just moving between jobs, they’re moving between industries. Job for life? That hardly exists anymore.

With the shift towards more fluid and frequent movement, it is important that a company accounts for these changes in overall culture towards work to keep the business afloat. Effective workforce management is all about forecasting the possible pitfalls down the road, predicting the turnover and also the challenges of the workforce. It adopts a proactive mindset over a reactive one to optimise your company the best way possible.

Like personal healths, it is crucial that a company keeps a vigilant eye on their workforce wellbeing. This means timely check-ups on the overall stability and chemistry of your employees. The last thing you want is to have a problem beyond repair blowing up and affecting your business, least of all if it’s something that could have easily been prevented in the first place.

There are many ways you can go about to identify these pitfalls. From in-house monitoring, to professional HR analytics systems, these are some of the ways that can help fortify your business.
 

5 Signs Your Staff is Ready to Quit!

So you’ve decided to raise your game in workforce management, but what should you be looking for?

Well, there’s many things you can look at, from the way your staff interacts with you, to the chatter that goes around the office. However, this can all be simple speculation or misguided assumptions of what may or may not be. In order to benefit from this exercise,  it’s crucial to base your observations on a solid foundation of facts.

Below is a list of things you can look at to identify the gaps in your workforce to be more prepared for the possible movements up ahead.

1. A Drop in Performance

A big way of telling if there is a problem with your employees may be to look at how “present” they are on the job. It’s been found in a report by the Global Corporate Challenge that presenteeism (practice of going to work absent-mindedly) can cost a business 10 times more than absenteeism.

Sudden drops in performance and productivity or lowered levels of involvement in the company may point to the beginnings of such a problem. It can mean that they are having a hard time achieving the same results as they did before and are either less engaged or committed. In this case, it would be a good idea to examine the underlying causes and resolve the problem before the phenomenon starts affecting others in the workplace.

2. “Migration” Patterns - People are taking off

We see this year-on-year, people switching jobs, especially in Q2 and Q3. While it’s perfectly normal for people to be moving around, you may have to look out for when there is an increase in voluntary turnover rates, specifically after a change has taken place in the company.

If, for example, after a major shift, such as in senior management or company policy, many people are upping and leaving then you should look into this immediately, as there may be an underlying problem that is  affecting the company’s morale and can indicate an even bigger problem down the line, such as compliance issues and retaliations.

3. Incentive Reviews
(Good intentions = positive outcomes?)

It’s great that companies nowadays are more open to offering  employees a diverse range of incentives, however to make the best of your efforts it’s important to properly measure and review the impact of your incentive. Any changes, even ones that are meant to motivate, can have a negative impact on the workforce on the whole.

Say you started implementing flexible hours at the office, when you make such a change it’s helpful to track how it actually performs. For example, are your staff generating more revenue and enjoying work more, or is it leading them to be more disorganised? It’s critical to track the outcomes of your incentives and adjust your incentives to promote a more desirable outcome rather than a disruptive one.

4. Attendance Levels - Not showing up at work

Showing up for work is one of those things that should be a no-brainer for a committed worker. If your staff starts showing less commitment to turning up in the first place then you may have a problem in your hands.

Assuming that it’s not flu season and that their annual leave isn’t due to expire soon, if your staff are calling in sick very often or are taking sporadic vacation days then this may be a sign that they are disengaged with their current work and ready to move on.

5. The Blatantly Obvious - They tell you there’s a problem

This is one of the most obvious yet overlooked signs, “they tell you”.  First, you have to realise that it’s actually a good sign that staff are confiding in you as this gives you the opportunity to fix the issues at hand. However, more often than not these initial voice outs are silenced by inaction.

It’s crucial that you do not take these comments for granted and that you take action to resolve them as they are the first building blocks to great workforce management. If these comments are shut down without being addressed, people become less willing to voice out, which can manifest into a bigger problem.

At the end of the day, it’s important to keep in mind that great workforce management starts with an open exchange of information and an attentive eye to any underlying issues in the workplace.

Additional Tip

Effective workforce management looks at the bigger picture over individual incidents. By looking at the bigger picture you are able to draw more predictions, allowing you to be preventative rather than reactive.  All businesses have tons of HR data and analysing this data allows you to have a more accurate prediction and make better people decisions.

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