In working with many clients, Nesco Resource has found that two weeks is a make or break time for employee turnover. Employees that make it past the two week mark have a sudden and significant drop in turnover rates.
Looking at that figure, it’s easy to conclude that the two week mark is simply weeding out reliable workers from less reliable ones. However, when Nesco has introduced incentive programs such as a bonus given after two weeks of work, the overall turnover rate drops by almost half. More significantly, that favorable turnover rate continues no matter how long the workers are assigned to that employer. In other words, two weeks doesn’t necessarily weed out unreliable workers; rather workers simply hit a stride and stay longer.
There are several reasons for this: familiarity with surroundings, jobs becoming less challenging, making friends in the workplace, and simply going to work without facing the ‘unknown’.
As mentioned, a two-week bonus is one way of getting workers over this hump. Other strategies might include placing more attention on employees within the two-week window, asking about their day or answering concerns early on. It’s a key window to reducing overall turnover rates.
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