It is said that a high turnover is a sign of a bad social climate. In reality, you should not rely on this criterion alone to measure the quality of work in a company, especially if it is an ESN (Digital Services Company). Turnover depends on many other factors.
What is the definition of turnover?
Calculation of turnover
The turn-over or turnover is an English term used in France to designate the staff turnover rate In a company.
The turnover is a rate expressed as a percentage that calculates the flow of arrivals and departures of employees in a company, whether due to resignation, dismissal, retirement or termination of employment the amicable.
Turnover calculation staff annual report in 3 steps:
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Stage 1: (number of departures over a year + number of arrivals over a year) / 2
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Step 2: Step 1 / headcount on January 1 of year n
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Step 3 : Step 2 x 100
The average turnover in France
The average staff turnover rate is 15% in France in 2021 according to a study by INSEE (National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies). INSEE considers that below 5% turnover is low and above 15% turnover is high.
A social climate indicator?
It is an indicator that therefore makes it possible to translate the social health of an organization. Indeed, a low turnover rate is generally associated with a sign of stability and well-being of employees in their jobs.
Conversely, a high renewal rate would be the result of poor working conditions, a lack of development opportunities, or even remuneration below the labor market average.
But what is it really? A turnover high necessarily result in a bad social climate?
How to interpret the turnover of a company?
In reality, the turnover of a company should not be interpreted too quickly, because it depends on many factors.
Turnover depends on the sector of activity
There are many employment sectors under pressure. Which inevitably drives up the turnover rate. In this case, a high turnover rather reflects a dynamism of the sector. There are also sectors, such as tourism, with many seasonal jobs which, structurally, have high turnover rates.
It is therefore necessary to compare the turnover of the company with the average of the activity area.
So the turnover an ESN (Digital Services Companies) has always been high due to highly sought-after skills, with a rate of 20 to 30% on average. Today, faced with an increasingly tight job market, ESNs are striving to improve the quality of life at work Link to article 10 QWL in ESN – Interview with Khedidja Pomart.
So including, in an ESN, a high turnover does not necessarily rhyme with poor working conditions.
Turnover depends on business growth
In periods of strong growth, turnover is high since the number of recruitments is very high. So in this specific case, it’s a good sign!
Turnover depends on the economic context
A global economic crisis inevitably leads to high turnover, but this is not strictly speaking linked to the internal context of the company.
Turnover depends on involuntary departures
If the company has a mushroom-shaped age pyramid, ie the average age is high, there are many retirements and therefore turnover is high.
The turnover of a company therefore depends on several metrics and not only on the social climate. This is why it may be interesting to take an interest in this indicator before joining a company, but not only!
How do you know if it’s good to live in a company?
Some qualitative criteria should also be analysed.
View employee reviews
In order to estimate the good health of the company you are targeting, you can start by learning about the company by carrying out research on the Internet, consulting press articles or the opinions of its employees about it.
Sites like Glassdoor.com or Indeed, can shed light on your future employer. You will find anonymous testimonials from employees. However, keep in mind that these reviews are often written by ex-employees who have left the company or lost their jobs. So stay objective, but if the same complaint comes up often in the comments, it’s probably a real problem.
Asking subtle questions during the job interview
In the job interview, subtly asked questions can also help you gauge the underlying reasons for high turnover. Thus, you can request more information on the reason for the need for recruitment, which will allow you to discover whether it is a departure or an internal development. You can also ask about team size. If the answer is vague, then you can assume that the number of people in it is probably not stable.
Contact ex-employees through LinkedIn
You can also try to contact ex-employees via LinkedIn. Invite them to discuss in order to obtain their opinion on the working atmosphere, remuneration, career development opportunities, training and simply ask them the reason for their departure.
Keep in mind that via this professional network, and especially if the exchange is in writing, it is a safe bet that the answers will be polite and moderate. It will then be up to you to know how to read between the lines in order to understand if it is a company where life is good or not.
In the same vein, you can consult the LinkedIn profiles of current or past employees and observe the average number of years that the employees of the department you are targeting spend in the company. This will tell you about the quality of the company: is it a temporary company or a company where they make a career and evolve?
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