Turnover and retention:

General summary prepared by

David Loquercio
for People in Aid

January 2006
 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

Table of contents
Introduction

1. The concept of turnover 3

The general economic context 3
Turnover rates and main trends 4
When does turnover matter? 5
Costing turnover 6
2. Why people leave an organisation 8
Push and pull factors 8
Turnover in humanitarian agencies 8
3 Is it always desirable to retain staff 10
For whom do we want retention 10
Engagement 10
4. Approaches to improving retention 12
It’s all connected 12
Human resources strategy 13
Staff policies and practices 14
Managing people 14
Consultation and communication 15
Recruitment and selection 15
Learning, training and development 17
Health, safety and security 19
Can retention work in the humanitarian sector 19
5. Alternative approaches to retention 20
Retaining knowledge 20
Building local staff capacity 20
6. Conclusions 21

References 22

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

Introduction
This summary of current literature on turnover and retention is largely based on the literature
review document that was simultaneously prepared for People in Aid. This summary tries to
organize issues in a more systematic way, mixing concerns from the humanitarian sector
together with practice from the corporate sector when it seemed relevant. This document is
not meant to propose new ways forward, as it is mainly a review of existing literature, but it is
hoped that the way it is presented will help in highlighting and identifying key issues in
retaining staff for the humanitarian sector.

To clarify the scope of this summary - it focuses on expatriates or international cadres for two
reasons:
1) Most of the available literature and information available relates to this category of
staff, and,
2) Many key management posts within INGOs (and elsewhere) are currently filled by
this category of staff, and it is these posts where the problems of staff turnover or
retention issues are felt most acutely

1. The concept of turnover

According to recent surveys, “attracting and retaining key talent is considered as a key
strategy to achieve financial success” (Raikes and Vernier 2004). The impact of turnover is
widely considered to have direct and indirect costs on organisations, with the bill costing
anywhere between 50 and 150% of an annual salary (Mercer 2004). In the humanitarian
sector as well, the negative impact of staff turnover on the performance of relief aid agencies,
and ultimately on what is delivered to beneficiaries, is mentioned as a key challenge to
address (Richardson 2005; EPN 2005; Loquercio 2005), with the cost of a successful
recruitment estimated at around 15'000 sterling by both the ICRC and VSO (Loquercio
2006).

The general economic context

According to consultancies, retaining staff might become increasingly difficult in the coming
years. Even though UK based research suggests that turnover rates have remained stable in
time (CIPD 2005b) the demographic evolution means that the baby boomer generation will
start retiring in the coming years. At the same time, demographic changes show that the
number of skilled 15-29 year olds entering the job market is steadily contracting, which is
increasing the strain on human resources (Deloitte 2004).
Then, Arthur (2001) draws attention to a change of attitude towards work in the younger
generation. According to her, younger people are less likely to have a sense of loyalty after
having frequently seen their parents fall victims to corporate “downsizing”. As a result, they
know that they have to actively manage their career. They are more interested in continuing
learning and education and expect to go through numerous jobs and career changes
throughout their lifetime. They respect expertise and knowledge, rather than titles and will be
reluctant to start working for an employer who does not allow them to challenge the status
quo. They are trying to balance careers and familial responsibilities, unwilling to give up
either one.

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

Turnover rates and main trends

But what are the trends and rates for turnover? First, to calculate the crude turnover rate the
generally used formula is:

Total number of leavers over period x 100

Average total number employed over period

The total figure includes all leavers, even people who left involuntarily due to dismissal,
redundancy or retirement. It also makes no distinction between functional (i.e. beneficial )
turnover and that which is dysfunctional. This means that it is useful for benchmarking
purposes but of little practical use to identify precisely problems within an organisation (CIPD
2004).
Griffeth and Hom (2001) offer to focus on the part of turnover that is of real concern to an
organisation by differentiating between voluntary and involuntary turnover. In other words,
did the employee choose to leave the job or was it a decision made by the employer? Then,
voluntary resignations are further distinguished between functional (exit of substandard
performers) and dysfunctional (exit of effective performers). Finally, unavoidable resignations
over which the employer has no influence are also left aside (family move, childbirth, serious
illness or death). This leaves the group of avoidable resignations as the key focus. It also
implies that to allow an informed decision, turnover rates have to be calculated down to
department level, to identify which areas are most problematic.

Turnover

Voluntary Involuntary

Dysfunctional Functional

Avoidable Unavoidable
turnover Turnover

Recent research in the UK (CIPD 2005b) shows that turnover currently is around 15% and
notes that evidence doesn't seem to support the view that turnover rates are increasing over
time. According to the report, the biggest share is made of voluntary turnover, as opposed to
termination of the contract by the employer or retirement. However, there are wide
differences between regions and sectors. Industries such as retailing, hotels, restaurants or
call centres often have rates superior to 50% while the public sector average is at 11,5%.
Regions with lower unemployment rates will experience higher turnover. Rates can also
significantly vary within the same organisation in the same location and is often related to the
type of position but also contextual factors which will be addressed under retention.

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

Another UK based report (People Count 2005) focusing on the voluntary sector mentions an
overall turnover rate for the voluntary sector of 21%, and 16,7% for the international
development sector. According to this research, turnover is lower for managerial employees
(13,9% in the international development sector) than for operational/support employees
(21%). Here as well, voluntary turnover makes up most of the turnover (12,4% vs. 2,1% for
end of contract and the rest for redundancies and dismissals).
However, as underlined by Loquercio (2005), calculating turnover rates for the humanitarian
sector is not so obvious. Because many relief aid agencies still largely rely on fixed term
contracts, which are usually not included in the calculation of turnover, turnover rates are
bound to be of little use for any analysis. The problem is acute for key management posts
which are often filled by expatriates and international cadres, and where humanitarian
agencies of necessity (or circumstance) often end up ‘rotating staff’, with the result that even
those with open ended contracts change from one assignment to the other, often on a yearly
basis. Therefore, Loquercio argues that it is necessary to rely on other indicators to monitor
problems related to turnover and staff rotation, offering among others the average duration of
field missions, vacancy rate and seniority of staff. According to his research, the average
duration of a mission for an expatriate ranges from 5,2 months (MSF-France) to 10,1 months
(ICRC). Finally, Loquercio notes that the highly unpredictable staffing needs, related to the
difficulty of forecasting humanitarian crises adds the problem of surge capacity to the
previously mentioned HR problems.

When does turnover matter?

One of the key questions around turnover is "what is excessive turnover?" While
consultancies tend to make turnover a major issue to tackle (Raikes and Vernier 2004), a lot
of UK based companies don't consider turnover to be such a serious problem, or only to
have a minor negative impact (CIPD 2005a). It is however true that at the same time, these
organisations recognised retention to be one of their most pressing challenges while few had
attempted to calculate turnover costs.
First, it should be noted that some employee turnover positively benefits organisations. For
the CIPD (2005b), this happens "whenever a poor performer is replaced by a more effective
employee, and can happen when someone’s retirement allows the promotion or acquisition
of welcome 'fresh blood'. Moderate levels of staff turnover can also help to reduce staff costs
in organisations where business levels are unpredictable month on month. In such situations
"when business is slack it is straightforward to hold off filling recently created vacancies for
some weeks" (CIPD 2005b). Gray et al (1996) add that turnover is considered by economists
to be a necessary component of an efficient labour market and can ensure increased
productivity by ensuring better matches between jobs and workers.
"It wouldn't make sense to claim that turnover will generally hurt beyond a defined level" says
CIPD (2005b), adding that "where it is relatively easy to find and train new employees quickly
and at relatively little cost, it is possible to sustain high quality levels of service provision
despite having a high turnover rate. By contrast, where skills are relatively scarce, knowledge
important, relations with customers/stakeholders are close and important, where recruitment
is costly or where it takes several weeks to fill a vacancy, turnover is likely to be problematic
from a management point of view." However, Hinkin et al. (2000) show in their article that
even for jobs that do not require very elaborate skills, a retention strategy can positively
affect the engagement, turnover and ultimately financial performance, especially, for
positions that involve strong interaction with customers.

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

For the humanitarian sector, Loquercio (2005) sees several benefits in ‘rotating’ expatriate
staff.
• By allowing breaks in between assignments, rotation of staff can allow to protect aid
workers from burnout.
• Exposing staff to different contexts over a short period of time can support the
development of experience and also allows this experience to travel and cross-
fertilize with others.
• Limiting the duration of assignments can help to bring new blood and new ideas in a
given context while ensuring the preservation of neutral and impartial analysis and
action.
• The use of fixed term contracts can allow more flexibility to adapt staffing to
operational and funding levels.
• Rotating staff and turnover provide more opportunities for career advancement.
However, the author recognises that negative general impact turnover can have and these
are discussed below. The point here is that each agency needs to measure its natural
turnover rate (CIPD 2005a) in order to determine when it is worth doing something.

Costing turnover
Looking more closely at the cost and impact of turnover, we need to include here both direct
and indirect costs. There are differences in what exactly should be included, but if we only
keep broad categories, we can mention (CIPD 2005b)
• Administration of the resignation
• Recruitment costs
• Selection costs
• Cost of covering during the period in which there is a vacancy
• Administration of the recruitment and selection process
• Induction training for the new employee
CIPD (2005b) says that "many of these costs consist of management or administrative staff
time (opportunity costs), but direct costs can also be substantial where advertisements,
agencies or assessment centres are used in the recruitment process." Direct costs are easier
to calculate, however, according to research, it only constitutes the tip of the iceberg. The
most important costs are related to the wider impact of turnover. This includes the cost of
mistakes, efficiency loss for new staff and departing ones, loss of knowledge and delays in
ongoing projects. For example, Gray et al. (1996:121) reported that for nurses in the UK, the
average efficiency loss over the first 6 months of employment was estimated to be 30%,
climbing to 50% in some cases. Estimations of recruitment and turnover costs in the UK are
provided below (from CIPD 2005a).

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

Finally, even though measuring the costs of turnover can appear in some cases as
subjective, CIPD (2005b) reminds that "measurement of the costs to the employer as a result
of turnover is vital in building the business case for thorough and effective recruitment and
retention initiatives. These costings can be a powerful tool for winning line manager and
Board-level support for people management activities in these areas."

In the humanitarian sector, according to discussions held at EPN (2005), the impact of
turnover on humanitarian agencies' work output is such that the overall quality of the work
delivered is compromised, despite standards being set and a desire to raise them through
accountability.
Costs related to turnover are not fundamentally different in the humanitarian sector. Here
again, one can mention direct costs such as:
• Costs and time related to the recruitment, selection and training of new staff
• Costs related to departure, such as medicals, visas, briefing, handover or flight
tickets. These costs are always incurred but will be higher when staff rotation is
quick.
• Separation costs with debriefing and administrative procedures are also mentioned.
Indirect costs, which are also substantial according to Loquercio (2005) include:
• The impact of role overload and open vacancies on staff morale.
• Initial inefficiency, mistakes and short productive time incurred by frequent staff
rotation
• Loss of knowledge, especially informally captured knowledge and the negative
impact on the continuity of programmes.
Loquercio does however make a distinction between emergencies and longer term contexts,
considering the impact of staff turnover in emergencies as less detrimental because
substitution approaches are more often used in such cases.
In terms of strategic HR management, EPN 2005 also noted that if because of high staff
turnover, those recruited that showed promise are lost to the system, a problem in terms of
renewal of future senior managers will emerge.

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

2. Why people leave an organisation

Push and pull factors
If we look now at the reasons behind employees' resignations, CIPD (2005b) identifies
different reasons. It says that sometimes, it is the attraction of a new job or the prospect of a
period outside the workforce which 'pulls' them, on other occasions they are 'pushed' due to
dissatisfaction in their present jobs to seek alternative employment. Sometimes it is a mixture
of both pull and push factors. For another group, reasons for leaving are entirely explained
by domestic circumstances outside the control of any employer, as is the case when
someone relocates with their spouse or partner.
But the CIPD also draws attention to the fact that the reasons people give for their
resignations are frequently untrue or only partially true. "The use of exit interviews is
widespread yet they are notoriously unreliable, particularly when conducted by someone who
may later be asked to write a reference for the departing employee. They are reluctant to
voice criticism of their managers, colleagues or the organisation generally, preferring to give
some less contentious reason for their departure."
Among the main reasons advanced for resignation, research strongly suggests that push
factors are a great deal more significant in most resignations than most managers
appreciate. In fact, says this paper (CIPD 2005b), "it is relatively rare for people to leave jobs
in which they are happy, even when offered higher pay elsewhere", adding that "most staff
have a preference for stability." People leave when they are not committed and motivated
anymore and lack of training or career opportunities can contribute to that.

Turnover in humanitarian agencies

The situation doesn't seem to be much different in the humanitarian sector. Dissatisfaction
with the employing agency is presented as a factor leading to resignation, a situation that can
be the result of diverging values between employee and employer, lack of support and
transparency on the side of the agency or inadequate management (Loquercio 2005). EPN
2005 also noted that "the poorly managed relief worker leads to disillusionment and results in
high staff turnover".
Beyond that, some issues seem to be more specific to the humanitarian sector, (Loquercio
2005):
• Quality of life: working in conflict areas with a heavy workload, limited comfort and
privacy is seen as lifestyle that is accepted only for a certain amount of time by most
aid workers.
• The aspiration to having a family is often incompatible with the realities of field based
life.
• Many young adults see their engagement with the aid sector as a limited period of
their professional life, fearing that their market value could suffer from prolonged
absence from their home country. Others can give up for lack of career opportunities.
These dynamics are illustrated in the figure below (from Loquercio 2005):

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

Easier to
Structural factors: influence
Project based funding and Leaves
job insecurity, pressure on agency
overheads and poor
investment in training. • Deficient field management
• Poor HQ support to staff
• Unsatisfactory terms and
Personal factors: conditions of service

Decision toleave process :

Family related issues, career
concerns, health • Poor development and training
• Job insecurity

OUTCOME
Stays with
• Health problems low
engagement

• Diverging values
Organisational factors:
Agency’s policies, values and
management, including support,
• Work related stress
training and development, terms
and conditions of service • Conflicting family plans
• Professional concerns
• Private reasons
Contextual factors:
Context of assignments
(social life, security, climate,
Leaves
other local stress factors) sector
More difficult
to influence

Referring to issues of expatriate assignments but for private companies, an American survey
(Price Waterhouse Coopers 2005) found out that "for dual career couples, 59% of
respondents considered that the management of dual careers was the fundamental reason
for refusing an expatriate assignment".
Planning weaknesses, poor information systems, lack of management support at field level,
conflictual atmosphere, poor involvement of staff in decision making, lack of transparency in
management and stress and burnout are also cited in Henry (2004b).

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

3. Is it always desirable to retain staff?

For whom do we want retention?
Before looking at possible ways to retain staff, one needs to ask the following question: is it
always a positive thing to retain staff. Hansen (2005) argues that there is a need to seriously
distinguish between voluntary and involuntary turnover, claiming that turnover was
inadequately labelled as a “money- sucking evil”, “turning turnover reduction into an end it
itself while disconnected from business outcomes”. To illustrate the case, the author gives
the example of the SAS institute, a successful organisation where, while voluntary turnover is
low, involuntary turnover is much higher than in the rest of the sector. The article implies that
most companies experience a general managerial reluctance to discharge poor performers,
partially for fear of employee lawsuits.
Addressing the issue of talent, a report by Deloitte (2004) supports this point by writing that
"today, a significant share of the workforce is disengaged, as a result of downsizing,
employer demands and job disenchantment". But because of economic circumstances
people stay put in their jobs, waiting for a better opportunity to come up before leaving their
employer. While it is true that it is worrying for their performance to see such a proportion of
disengaged staff within organisations, not the least because of the detrimental effect on
morale, organisations bear their share of responsibility for this situation.
The same report says that companies place too much attention on “acquiring” talent, often
ignoring employees once they have been signed up. It argues focussing on acquiring and
retaining staff is not enough, especially when the strategy adopted tries to bribe talent to
stay. Instead, it needs to “develop, deploy and connect” their employees.
In fact, it's not the fact that employees stay or are "retained" with the organisation which is
important, it's why they stay. As noted by Hansen (2005), “optimal turnover is not the lowest
turnover you can achieve. Optimal turnover produces the highest long-term levels of
productivity and business improvement.”
So, there are two key points to note here:
1) First, organisations need to identify which positions, profiles and skills are most
important to them and where turnover is most detrimental to their organisation. They
can then focus on reducing turnover for these selected categories.
2) Second, retaining staff that have lost motivation is detrimental for an organisation. But
since the degree of motivation is to a large extent the result of an organisation's
management and HR actions, by increasing the "engagement" of their employees,
organisations can achieve a double benefit: increased productivity together with
higher retention rates.

Engagement
So, how does engagement happen? “Employees need the will: the sense of mission, passion
and pride that motivates them to give that all- important discretionary effort. And they need
the way: the resources, support and tools from the organization to act on their sense of
mission and passion" says a report by Towers Perrin (2003). The link between employee
engagement and performance is illustrated in this report with the figure below.
In principle, the humanitarian sector should be able to count on a stronger engagement of its
employees, due to the more "noble" nature of its work. But relief aid agencies still need to
develop a sense of belonging to the organisation says Henry (2004b).

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

Linking employee engagement to financial performance (Towers Perrin 2003)

Titl

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

4. Approaches to improving retention

It now makes sense to take a closer look at the different approaches proposed to improve
retention of staff. It might sound obvious to say, but there is no "one size fits all" to
addressing retention issues, because each organisation has a different management
approach and organisational culture.

Therefore, the first step in designing a retention strategy is finding out why people leave, why
they stay and what could make them stay. As observed by Hinkin et al. (2000), when a
significant share of employees only stay for a limited time with an organisation, it is often the
symptom of underlying problems that need to be identified in order to determine what the
most adequate measures would be.
Exit interviews are commonly used for this purpose, but they have two shortfalls. First, they
come too late in the process, and second, as mentioned earlier, they might not be reliable if
conducted too soon after the resignation, especially when conducted by a line manager of
the departing employee (CIPD 2005b). It is therefore recommended to guarantee
confidentiality and conduct the interview some time after resignation.
More constructively, staff surveys should be conducted at regular intervals to poll employees'
attitude and gather information allowing to shape a retention strategy. Indeed, specialists
consider that building engagement, and hence retention is a process that needs continuous
updating (Towers Perrin 2003).

It's all connected

When addressing retention, one needs to realise the connections between recruitment,
motivation, management of staff, communication HR policies and retention. Any approach
needs to balance and adapt the different aspects of a retention policy according to the needs
of the situation it is addressing. It also should be able to provide different incentives
according to the profile of the employee and the stage of its professional and private life.
For the humanitarian sector, this is well illustrated by the People in Aid Code of good practice
(People in Aid 2003) and its 7 principles :
• Human Resources Strategy: Human resources are an integral part of our strategic
and operational plans
• Staff Policies and Practices: Our human resources policies aim to be effective, fair
and transparent
• Managing People: Good support, management and leadership of our staff is key to
our effectiveness
• Consultation and Communication: Dialogue with staff on matters likely to affect their
employment enhances the quality and effectiveness of our policies and practices
• Recruitment and Selection: Our policies and practices aim to attract and select a
diverse workforce with the skills and capabilities to fulfil our requirements
• Learning, Training and Development: Learning, training and staff development are
promoted throughout the organisation
• Health, Safety and Security: The security, good health and safety of our staff are a
prime responsibility of our organisation
Sung and Ashton (2005), on their side, look at “High performance work practices” as a set of
complementary work practices which can not only improve performance, but also increase

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

engagement, performance and retention. These practices are split between three broad
categories:
• High employee involvement practices aiming at encouraging a greater level of
trust and communication between employers and employees, through involving them
more in the organisation, and empowerment. Common practices include circulating
information, staff association, staff surveys or self managed teams.
• Human resources practices target the creation of skills within the organisation
through practices such as appraisals, job performance feedbacks, review of training
needs, training or mentoring.
• Reward and commitment practices aim at creating a greater sense of belonging
and commitment to the organisation. Such practices include performance pay, flexible
job descriptions, job rotation, “family friendly” policies or non-pay benefits.

Finally, Deloitte (2004) argues that organisations need to concentrate on “developing,

deploying and connecting” their employees.
This means developing the skills, not just through formal training but by learning how to
learn, where to find the information (the report mentions that “A well known MIT study found
that people are five times more likely to ask a co- worker for information than to consult an
intranet, database or company computer system.”) or action learning supported by coaching
and mentoring (the report cites a study showing that 67% of respondents consider that they
learn most when working together with a colleague on a task).
Deploying means finding a fit between the skills and the job. This implies sometimes
redesigning job descriptions or encouraging mobility. When vertical mobility is not possible,
employees need lateral experiences that promise challenge and growth, says the report. It
argues that “by encouraging greater mobility, organizations inspire a more engaged
workforce and promote greater strategic flexibility.” The report also suggests that “successful
talent management includes strategies to stay engaged with alumni” because “individuals
granted latitude by their employers to explore new territory often make their way back with
renewed vigour and insights.
Connecting implies helping to develop rich networks, both internal and external. For
example, informal discussions around the coffee machine are said to be the founding
principle of “communities of practice”.
In order to build talent, the report argues that the first step is to define which jobs are critical,
then the skills required to achieve important strategies. But at the same time, a focus on
talent shouldn’t mean to block the development of other employees.
For this paper, we will organize the different aspects that can positively influence retention
according to the 7 points of the People in Aid code.

1. Human resources strategy

“Human resources are an integral part of our strategic and operational plans.”
Even though the humanitarian sector relies on its staff for the success of its operations, and
expects them to work hard in difficult circumstances, it doesn’t have a good reputation in
terms of their treatment, something that ALNAP (2002) clearly describes as an unsustainable
approach for the development and retention of a pool of qualified and experienced aid
workers. It is therefore not surprising that recruitment and retention of experienced managers
should remain the most burning issue for relief aid agencies, as observed by Henry (2004b).
While it might be attributed to bad planning, or sometimes the employment of non-specialists
in HR departments, ultimately, it has to do with the fact that HR is often seen by agencies as
a service department of secondary importance vis a vis operational desks, meant to provide

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

staff rather than participate in strategic planning and orientation for the whole agency (Henry
2002b). It can be related to a lack of commitment on the side of agencies, but also to
structural problems related to funding.
The donors’ tendency to squeeze overhead costs to the minimum is impacting on the funds
that can be allocated for HR purposes says Henry (2004a). Few agencies have qualified HR
personnel and career planning is difficult because of the project based funding. "Cheap" HR
management is however not an option adds Henry, as it would put relief agencies' existence
at risk. Therefore, to improve the situation for this first point, action is required at agency level
to recognize the strategic role of the HR function and integrate it in strategic planning. There
is also a need to address the issue of funding, so that poor HR practices do not negatively
impact on the quality of agencies' programmes.

2. Staff policies and practices

“Our human resources policies aim to be effective, fair and transparent.”
The CIPD (2005b) advises to "bend over backwards to ensure that you do not and are never
seen to discriminate against employees on any unfair grounds. A perception of unfairness,
whatever the reality when seen from a management point of view, is a major cause of
voluntary resignations. While the overall level of pay is unlikely to play a major role unless it
is way below the market rate, perceived unfairness in the distribution of rewards is very likely
to lead to resignations."
The concept of "psychological contracts" can be useful here to illustrate this point.
Psychological contract refer to the perceptions of employee and employer as to what their
mutual obligations are towards each other, even though these obligations are often informal
and imprecise: they may be inferred from actions or from what has happened in the past, as
well as from statements made by the employer, for example during the recruitment process
or in performance appraisals. Some obligations may be seen as 'promises' and others as
'expectations'. The important thing is that they are believed by the employee to be part of the
relationship with the employer" (CIPD 2004). In fact, the psychological contract is based on
employees' sense of fairness and trust, and their belief that the employer is honouring the
'deal' between them.
In the humanitarian sector, this is especially strong, with field staff usually dedicating to an
agency more than just their professional life. This self-perceived strong personal investment
is matched by expectations of fairness and adequate recognition on the side of the employer.
Because of the distance with headquarters, field based line managers have a particularly
important role to play. Henry (2004b) adds that in order to build loyalty, base pay is not the
determining factor, but rather efficiency, ethics and the professionalism of an agency.
Unfortunately, as in other industries, line managers often fail to show the basic people
management skills that would allow to succeed here.
Another point, which is maybe more acute in the humanitarian sector because of the high
turnover is related to training. Some agencies appear reluctant to invest in training their staff,
fearing that if that person doesn't stay with them at the end of the contract, they will have lost
their investment. In reality, training is both meant to be beneficial quickly when it is adapted
to the needs. Moreover, not (or reluctantly) training staff is probably an incentive for them to
leave, because such a policy can be perceived as unfair and endangering the employability
of the employees.

3. Managing people
“Good support, management and leadership of our staff is key to our effectiveness.”
It is common to hear that people join companies and leave managers. This is unfortunately
also true in the humanitarian sector. In all sectors, people want competent managers. Both
in terms of technical skills (know what they're talking about), fairness and people
management skills. Because they are the persons who impact most on their work

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

experience, managers are also often the factor that will make the difference between staying
and resigning. Consultants in the corporate sector have proposed that line managers be
made accountable for staff turnover in their teams and reward managers whose record at
keeping people is good by including the subject in appraisals (CIPD 2005b). It was also
proposed to train line managers in effective supervision before appointing or promoting them
and offer re- training opportunities to existing managers who have a poor record at keeping
their staff.
This is not least challenging for humanitarian agencies, where many programme managers
with leadership responsibilities have a predominantly technical background and have often
not had a real opportunity to formally develop people skills (Loquercio 2005). Investing in
training, particularly management development, is therefore also a key priority for
humanitarian agencies, something that should not only benefit employees but also facilitate
the life of managers and help them to gain more confidence. Humanitarian agencies
probably could also make progress in terms of recognition and support, acknowledging
better and more openly success and staff commitment and demonstrating and expressing
more clearly that they care about their staff.

4. Consultation and communication

“Dialogue with staff on matters likely to affect their employment enhances the quality and
effectiveness of our policies and practices.”
CIPD (2005b) recommends to "ensure wherever possible that employees have a 'voice'
through consultative bodies, regular appraisals, attitude surveys and grievance systems."
According to the CIPD, "this helps to ensure that dissatisfied employees have every
opportunity to sort out problems before resigning. Where there is no opportunity to voice
dissatisfaction, resigning is the only option."
As mentioned earlier, one concern of staff is work-life balance, something increasingly
important to individuals. Agreeing on such an issue requires consultation and dialogue to
accommodate individual preferences, instead of developing a culture of 'presenteeism'
where people feel obliged to work longer hours than are necessary simply to impress
management (CIPD 2005).

5. Recruitment and selection

“Our policies and practices aim to attract and select a diverse workforce with the skills and
capabilities to fulfil our requirements.”
Recruitment is one of the key aspects for retention. If the selection process is deficient, it can
lead to employees leaving earlier than their employer would like them to, thus increasing
turnover costs. It could also allow poor performers enter and stay in the organisation, driving
down its performance.
To tackle recruitment issues, Adamsky (2005) gives the following advice:
• Hire better recruiters, because they are the gate of the organisation and are meant to
attract talents in the organization.
• Brand the organization, because employment branding – gaining and marketing a
reputation for being a good employer – allows to more easily hire the candidates you
really want.
• Aggressively pursue top talent and attract them to your organization
• Create better employee referral programs so that employees support HR for
attracting talents in the organisation.
• Look at talent as opposed to workforce planning

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

Induction and transparency

Although "branding" and the concept of the “employer brand” can be used to attract people to
an organisation, it takes more than an ‘image’ to make people stay, especially with non profit
organisations where salary levels can be less attractive than in the corporate sector and
potential candidates are more likely to respond to other factors.
During the recruitment process and in interviews, organisations often raise expectations to a
level that cannot be satisfied, leading people to compete for and subsequently to accept jobs
for which they are in truth unsuited (CIPD 2005b). Organisations do this in order to ensure
that they fill their vacancies with sufficient numbers of well-qualified people as quickly as
possible. However, over the longer term the practice is counter-productive as it leads to
costly, avoidable turnover and the development of a poor reputation in local labour markets.
In the high turnover industries in particular, a great deal of employee turnover consists of
people resigning or being dismissed in the first few months of employment. Even when
people stay for a year or more, it is often the case that the decision to leave sooner rather
than later is effectively taken in the first weeks of employment. Poor recruitment and
selection decisions, both on the part of the employee and employer, are usually to blame,
along with poorly designed or non-existent induction programmes (CIPD 2005b).
The advice here is to give prospective employees a 'realistic job preview' at the recruitment
stage, taking care not to raise expectations only to dash them later. The first week of
employment is crucial in determining whether someone will stay or not. That's why it should
be well planned (Breuer 2000).
This point is also advocated by Loquercio (2005) who recommends investing in the induction
and orientation of new employees in order to facilitate their integration by explaining the
technical language and jargon of the organisation, helping to understand the values, power
structures and unwritten rules of the agency.
Terms and conditions of service
At the recruitment stage, sharing terms and conditions of service can encourage potential
employees to at least consider the organisation. Below a certain level, it might even be
difficult to find candidates.
However, even if it is true that badly designed pay systems can de-motivate employees,
getting pay right does not appear to be a solid guarantee of commitment. Research (Mercer
2004) shows that when looking at factors influencing commitment and motivation, “pay” only
gets 65% of the votes, behind "Being treated with respect” (85%), “work/life balance” (79%),
“providing good service to others” (74%), “quality of work colleagues” (74%) and “type of
work” (73%). “Variable pay” gets only 34%. This implies that although it is necessary to
provide a decent and comparable package, it's not the winning factor, and financial
incentives even less so. By the way, another survey conducted in the UK (Towers Perrin
2003) shows that a large proportion of employees don't think that top performers are better
rewarded than average performers, which might be an explanation. Taking an extreme
position, one could even say that a high salary can encourage people to stay when they are
not committed and the organisation would actually be better off without them. In reality, this is
unlikely to be the case for humanitarian agencies, such as the volunteer based organisation
MSF, where salaries are more modest.
For humanitarian agencies, Henry (2004b) says that for those engaged in the long term,
benefits are more important than pay. They can include tax free salary, health and retirement
benefits, return or end of contract allowances, longer holiday, baggage allowance, per diem,
insurance or facilitating accompanied status.
Growing the pool
Recruitment policies reflect and influence the approach towards the development of staff.
Given that it is both recruitment and retention of experienced managers that remains the
most burning issue for relief aid agencies, we can conclude that the ‘pool is too small’.

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

This is illustrated by the example of Darfur, where "agencies have become more desperate
and began to make compromises in their recruitment. This has resulted in dropping selection
criteria over time, interviews only being conducted over the phone, and less importance
placed on security and political competencies. Exceptions were made and a high percentage
of first timers were recruited" (EPN 2005). The impact was that inexperienced people were
allocated tasks and positions beyond their current abilities. Correspondingly there were high
expectations placed both on themselves and by others for them to perform. This is not
unique to Darfur, and it can be seen in other humanitarian responses. Of particular concern
is that people can accept positions beyond their competency level almost as if tempted to go
beyond their ability (EPN 2005). This in turn can mean that good people are put in positions
where they are destined to fail. And staff shortages and difficulty in recruiting lead to
increasing pressure on the staff on site to stay, almost to the point of manipulation (EPN
2005).
One of the main HR headaches in the humanitarian sector is described as follows: whereas
aid workers usually enter the sector when they are young and still mobile, they are often
faced after a few years with personal choices, mostly related to family issues that can force
them to leave the sector or at least make them a lot less mobile. As a result, humanitarian
agencies are confronted with difficulties in filling middle management positions with
adequately skilled and experienced staff (Loquercio 2005). Agencies can thus be forced to
compromise when recruiting or increase the speed of internal promotions without allowing
the necessary time to build experience. Loquercio observes that difficulties are worse for
smaller agencies who have less possibilities to offer internal promotion to their staff and are
therefore more likely to lose them to other agencies. Similarly, agencies who strongly rely on
volunteers often end up losing them to other agencies or sectors of activity (Loquercio 2005).
Trying to retain these programme managers is one option, but there is maybe also
something to be done in terms of recruitment policies. If finding the right person is a problem,
a possible solution is to consider potential and transferable skills rather than actual
experience or skills in the requisite role. Recognizing transferable skills acquired in the
corporate sector, agencies should work harder at providing entry routes in the humanitarian
sector instead of insisting that applicants have previous field experience (Loquercio 2005).
Indeed, if all agencies had such an approach, where would experienced aid workers come
from?

6. Learning, training and development

“Learning, training and staff development are promoted throughout the organisation.”
One of the major reasons why people resign is when they feel that they have stopped
learning and developing personally or professionally. The employer obviously has a key role
to play to ensure that its employees are faced with new challenging tasks and equipped with
the skills necessary to deal with their work.
CIPD (2005b) recommends to maximise opportunities for individual employees to develop
their skills and move on in their careers, advising to take sideway moves that vary
experience and make work more interesting.
The traditional approach is through career progression and advancement. This is however
not always possible and can be accepted by employees, as long as the selection process for
promotions is seen as fair (CIPD 2004). Other options include redesigning job descriptions,
promoting laterally, when promoting vertically is not possible. Offering more possibilities for
development and training of staff, including by encouraging taking a year off in order to go
back to university is another option (Loquercio 2005).
As mentioned by Henry (2004b), humanitarian agencies need to have a coherent training
policy and invest in training, even though high turnover can dissuade those who are
responsible for making investment decisions from doing so.

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

Offering career opportunities

The CIPD (2005b) recommends providing as much job security as possible. According to its
report, employees who are made to feel that their jobs are precarious may put a great deal of
effort in to impress, but they are also likely to be looking out for more secure employment at
the same time. Security and stability are greatly valued by most employees. In this sense,
letting employees know from the beginning that they can grow in your agency is an
encouragement to stay.
When talking about offering career opportunities, humanitarian agencies have several
problems. First of all, it is difficult to track the performance of field staff and match their skills
and profile with a new position. Indeed, even if they are ‘followed’ by HR at headquarters,
they are based in the field and led and appraised by their field based line manager, a person
that also changes on a yearly basis. Given that the quality of appraisals is not always
consistent, it makes the task of the HR managers all the more difficult (Loquercio 2005).
However, more could certainly be done in succession planning, with agencies' tendency to
start recruitment “at the last minute” being criticized (Henry 2004b). Starting to discuss the
next assignment 3 to 6 months before the end of mission could facilitate planning and signal
to field staff that their agency is interested in further collaboration. When that doesn't happen,
perceived job insecurity can push employees to start looking elsewhere in order to find
another job.
In terms of succession planning global networks have an advantage with their internal job
market which allows more mobility to their staff, even though this possibility is not always
used to its full potential (Henry 2004a)
Short term contracts / agreements
But some serious thinking needs to go into the standard duration of contracts or agreements
with staff, because “traditional resourcing practice, with many staff employed on short term
contracts… [has] …inhibited skills development, individual and organisational learning."
Indeed, rapid staff turnover, especially amongst expatriate staff, and the widespread use of
short term resourcing is one of the main constraints on both staff capacity building and
organisational learning and has ultimately negative effects on the quality of humanitarian
relief programs (Richardson 2005).
This practice is not only damaging in terms of staff retention but also for learning. Indeed, It
discourages people from investing in learning because job insecurity is forcing them to rather
concentrate on finding the next job. Obviously, everyone needs time to learn how to do its
job, and then time to perform it well. But when staff are moved on or ‘rotated’ too quickly, the
opportunity to do this disappears. Frequent changes or high rates of turnover also make it
impossible to ensure systematic handovers between incoming and out coming staff, with
resulting loss of knowledge and frustrations on all sides.
It is argued that the duration of missions is limited by funding constraints (project based
funding), the necessity to include periods of rest and the fact that for international aid
workers, staying away too long from their home environment would adversely affect their
market value (Henry 2004a). However, Loquercio (2005) suggests that the duration of
assignments should be raised to a standard minimum of 12 months, and more for key
positions such as programme managers or senior management. The author also cites
examples of agencies who give longer term contracts unrelated to a specific destination. This
gives more flexibility to the agency and more benefits for the aid workers. Donors are also
requested to look into the problem and provide more predictable funding frameworks that
would allow giving longer term contracts.

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

7. Health, safety and security

“The security, good health and safety of our staff are a prime responsibility of our
organisation.”
Health, safety and security issues are probably more acute for aid workers than in the
corporate world. Health aspects can cover both physical and psychological aspects.
Expatriates working in tropical environments are especially exposed to health related
problems such as malaria, diarrhoea, AIDS and other diseases. Good briefing, relevant
vaccines, adequate support to avoid staff getting sick (water filters, cooks well trained for
hygiene,...) and quick and good treatment can help to reduce health related turnover
(Loquercio 2005).
On the other hand, quick and adequate response to the different types of stress field staff
can be exposed to is also a mitigating factor. Avoiding presenteeism, learning how to better
manage time, providing adequate living conditions, work/life balance, rest and relief,
appropriate support and emotional debriefings when confronted with traumatic events can
make a difference between burnout and remaining fit for another assignment. During
emergencies, it can help to have HR staff coming from the HQ as part of the emergency
response team to strengthen recruitment and assist in the support of both national and
international staff (EPN 2005)

Can retention work in the humanitarian sector?

In other words, we can look at the diagram overleaf cited from Richardson (2005). Not only
does it shows the different elements that can lead to longer term careers and improved
humanitarian capacity, it also reminds us that Oxfam, by adapting a voluntarist strategy to
tackle its turnover problem managed to cut it by more than half, a sign that there is still
potential for improvement in the humanitarian sector.

Oxfam’s resourcing and reward model (Richardson 2005)

Improved humanitarian
capacity

improved Investment in Improved Support for

management staff capacity organisational partner and
skills building learning sector-wide
learning

longer term careers

pay and benefits long term common improved

enable global contracts grading structure to succession
mobility enable world wide planning, career
career development dev & training

improved workforce planning assessments

Performance to
identify staffing and
Management talent
skill needs
Management,
to redeploy
staff at end
of assignment

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

5. Alternative approaches to retention

Retaining knowledge
As we move towards an increasingly service and knowledge based economy, the
management of knowledge workers is becoming a key issue. Research and development
departments are now by far not the only place where crucial knowledge is stored in an
organisation. It is therefore important to make sure this knowledge is retained within the
organisation (CIPD 2005c). This can imply putting greater emphasis on the capacities of
employees to interact and share their knowledge with their team-mates so that the risk
associated with a potential departure is reduced. This can be supported by communities of
practice or providing space and opportunities for sharing. It can also mean putting more effort
into retaining individuals with key knowledge assets through retention measures such as
career development or better work/life balance (CIPD 2005b)
Following this line of thought, Loquercio (2005) underlines the possible role of learning and
knowledge management in mitigating the negative impacts of excessive turnover and staff
rotation. The emphasis is put on helping to map learning needs through the identification of
knowledge domains and knowledge sources, both explicit and tacit. Among the key learning
processes, the role of organisational induction, briefings and handovers is underlined. Peer
support, communities of practice and mentoring are also presented as useful tools. Finally,
the paper draws attention to the often underutilized capacities of local staff who have a much
better and comprehensive institutional memory of the history and action of their agency in a
given context. The paper warns against the dangers of designing a predominantly IT based
knowledge management strategy and underlines the importance of knowledge transfers
through people and social processes.

Building local staff capacity

When looking at the problems associated with the turnover of expatriate staff, one cannot
escape the question of their usefulness, or at least their numbers, when compared with
national staff. Henry (2004a) addresses this points and notes that while expatriates might
sometimes be necessary, their presence is also associated with problems such as high
turnover, poor knowledge of local realities, lack of cultural sensitivity and tensions resulting
from expatriate lifestyles.
Mukasa (1999) covers the issue more extensively, analysing what added value expatriates
bring to international development NGOs, and what potential problems their use can create.
The first basis in questioning their utility is the comparatively high costs they incur compared
to national staff, especially considering that often, their presence is donor rather than needs
driven. The author says that often, expatriates fail to transfer skills to national staff and are
often concerned with short term outcomes that will impress their HQ, rather than long term
benefits. In her case study, the author describes how frequent turnover of expatriates could
result in a lack of cohesion among project activities or their continuity, as new activities were
often added to reflect the interests and expertise of new expatriates rather than following an
analysis of local priorities. Frequent change of expatriates was also said to make it difficult
for staff to clearly understand their role, as it would change from one expatriate to the other.
As a result, ownership was also weaker. Further problems related to the presence of
expatriates were mentioned as their limited cultural awareness and lifestyle, which could
alienate them local support.
On the other hand, the development and increasing use of advanced IT technology is
allowing easier and more affordable real time contact between Headquarters and field
offices. In a sense, this could mean that support and control from Headquarters need not
necessarily to take the form of a large expatriate presence in the field, but could allow for
more flexible management at a distance. If expatriates are probably to stay, their interaction

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

and relations with national staff could probably be improved and make better use of the local
capacities and its ability to act as a longer term institutional memory, thanks to longer
commitment to the same location and agency.

6. Conclusions
It has been widely stated in recent years that companies should prepare themselves for a
‘war for talent’. But is this the case for humanitarian and emergency relief agencies?
Arguably not, for with aggressive competitivity, the global performance of the sector will
suffer with increased turnover and poorer performance. It would also likely result in the
concentration of resources within a core group of agencies, putting the diversity and
independence of humanitarian agencies at risk.
Agencies and donors need to assume their own responsibilities, with a coordinated effort to
alleviate the constraints that the system, and the lack of qualified and experienced managers
incurred by high turnover inflicts on the performance of the sector.

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 Turnover and retention - A summary of current literature

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