Staff turnover in production: how to reduce it

Most departures in the first month have organizational causes, not pay causes. Someone who leaves after two weeks hasn't had time to compare pay yet, so at this stage staff turnover in production is reduced more cheaply than with a raise: with a better job ad, better onboarding and better commuting.

Why employees leave in the first month

On the production floor, early departures repeat for three reasons:

• The commute turned out to be unworkable, especially after a night shift. The candidate agreed during the interview, and the timetable proved otherwise in the first week.
• Working conditions were a surprise: temperature, noise, smell, physical load, standing work. No one described them in the job ad or during the interview.
• No one explained the job. Onboarding happened amid noise, in a foreign language and at the pace of the line.

None of these causes is removed by a higher rate. Someone with no way to get home after a night shift will still leave even for more money.

What one departure costs

The cost of replacing one employee is estimated at 30-200% of their annual pay. This is a range from a foreign study from 2009, cited by Polish HR portals, so treat it as an order of magnitude, not a norm for your plant.

You can calculate your own cost by summing the items:

• job ad and candidate selection,
• medical checks and health and safety training before starting work,
• the time of the team leader or operator who trains the new person,
• lower line productivity during onboarding,
• overtime for the rest of the team while the position stands empty.

For a departure in the first month, most of these costs have already been incurred, and the plant has not yet received full productivity. Compare this amount with the cost of the measures described below.

How to find the causes of departures at your plant

Three tools, all cheap:

1. A short conversation with everyone who leaves in the first quarter. Two questions are enough: what decided the departure and what would have prevented it.
2. A breakdown of departures by position and shift. Turnover rarely spreads evenly, it usually concentrates on one shift or one department.
3. A conversation with the coordinator or team leader. They hear about commuting or accommodation problems before anyone hands in notice. For teams of foreign workers, this role is filled by a coordinator of a multinational team.

If one shift clearly stands out from the others at the same rate, the cause lies in how that shift is organized, not in the pay.

How to reduce staff turnover in production

An honest job ad filters out some candidates before hiring. Every person who withdraws after reading the description is one fewer recruitment to repeat.

Organized first days are structured by the checklist from the article on onboarding a foreign employee: documents, an account, accommodation (if the offer includes it), training and introduction to the floor.

Working in pairs is the cheapest single measure: the new person learns at the workstation, not from instructions read amid noise.

Commuting at a plant outside the transport network stops being a perk and becomes a condition for staffing the night shift. Options are described in the article on transporting employees to the plant.

Turnover after a year is a different problem

Departures after a longer tenure have different causes: pay, lack of promotion, relationship with a supervisor. Here a raise and a development path actually work. The mistake is treating early departures with a raise and late ones with better onboarding, because both phenomena are measured and fixed separately.

How to measure staff turnover

To start, one number is enough: the share of people who leave before the end of the third month, counted separately for each department and shift. Alongside it, track an overall annual turnover rate to separate early departures from late ones. A comparison with the industry can be made based on published labor market reports, but comparing your own shifts against each other tells you the most.

If you want an agency to take recruitment of workers for production off your hands, see services for employers.

Frequently asked questions

How do you calculate the staff turnover rate?

Divide the number of people who left in a given period by the average headcount in that period and multiply by 100. For early turnover, count separately the departures before the end of the third month of work.

What turnover rate is high in production?

There is no official standard for production, and the values given in industry materials are examples, not research results. A more reliable signal is a shift or department that clearly stands out from the rest of the plant.

Does a raise stop employees from leaving?

For departures after a year, often yes, because then pay and the prospect of promotion decide. In the first month, rarely, because the employee leaves due to the commute, conditions or lack of onboarding.

How long does a new employee need to reach full productivity?

It depends on the position: simple packing work needs shorter onboarding than operating a machine. Working in pairs in the first week shortens this period for every position.

What to do when turnover starts rising?

First break departures down by tenure, department and shift. Then talk to the people leaving and to the team leader before you change the rate.