Dealing with staff turnover

How do you deal with staff turnover as an employer?

The market is changing. Construction and installation companies are struggling with staff turnover, while projects simply carry on. That can hurt your organisation. How do you tackle this problem? We'll tell you in this blog.

According to research by the Economic Institute for Construction (EIB), Trends in the construction labour market 2021-2025, the main reasons people quit are too little appreciation and too much pressure at work in construction and installation.

Workload and teamwork

There are opportunities when it comes to workload and teamwork. How can you tackle this?

Find out how satisfied your current staff are.
Get the right balance between permanent and flexible staff.
Assess the skill level of your current staff:
- Decide in advance which skills the job requires. These could be customer focus, problem solving and/or adaptability.
- Ask the employee to describe a specific situation that shows he or she has these skills. You then assess the situation based on knowledge, attitude and behaviour.
- Together you draw up a development plan and set a new review date. It's important to offer prospects too, in the form of salary or secondary benefits.

Download the e-book on how to deal with staff turnover as an employer and get all our advice.

Permanent or temporary staff

You can use the 80-20 rule to work out a healthy balance between flexible and permanent staff. Safeguarding the continuity of the business and making sure there's enough knowledge and experience in-house to see projects through successfully is really important. Flexible staff can help you cope with peaks in demand for workers, provide specific skills or bring in expertise.

Recruitment do’s

Turn your permanent staff into ambassadors
They can play a key role in attracting new people. Invest in a good company culture and make sure people feel involved.

Win candidates over with smart policies
Employees value a healthy work-life balance, so be open to part-time jobs. Offer good training and career development opportunities too.

Find and keep ambitious students
Skilled tradespeople are scarce. It can pay off for companies to get on students' radar early. So offer work placements or apprenticeships, for example.

Recruitment don’ts

Long application processes
Make sure you don't keep a good candidate waiting too long. Map out your current application process and look at where most applicants get stuck or drop out.

Don't hire people too quickly
Hiring the wrong person costs a lot of money, time and energy. That's why it's important to stay critical, especially during busy periods. As an organisation, you want to protect the quality of your service.
Don't limit your search to the Netherlands
Looking for professionals across the border really works, and companies are slowly starting to realise it. Invest properly in language lessons and extra training so foreign tradespeople can get to work.

Need help finding permanent staff?

With our revamped recruitment & selection service we find permanent staff for you. We take the whole process off your hands and you pay a one-off fee to hire the candidate.