Reducing an Employer’s Turnover Rate in a Practical, Efficient Way

by Frank Gibson, Workforce Development Advisor, retired from The Ohio State University – Alber Enterprise Center

I recently attended a local economic development meeting at which one of the structured on-the-job training (“SOJT”) projects I have been following was a subject on the agenda. Two members from Custom Glass Solutions LLC (“CGS”) human resources department presented a short update on the SOJT programs underway at their Fostoria, Ohio and Upper Sandusky, Ohio facilities.

These projects began in the latter part of 2019, right at the beginning of the Covid – 19 experience. Their lead technical consulting company, Proactive Technologies, Inc, focused on setting up for SOJT programs for nine job classifications at the Fostoria facility and 10 job classifications at the Upper Sandusky facility. This included 320 incumbent workers and many more new hires.

When the project initially began, one of the main concerns of the CGS upper management was the challenging high level of turnover, exacerbated by the Covid – 19 events and aftermath. At times it seemed as if turnover reached the 20 to 25% level.

After the SOJT programs were underway, each incumbent worker’s inventory of tasks mastered was established to baseline each worker for the tasks they have previously been trained on and management and the employee believed they had mastered. Customized SOJT programs were developed for each based on where they were in their development (to avoid wasting time and money training workers on what they could already do) and what was necessary to close the “task mastery gap.”

New-hires were set-up on their own customized SOJT program, starting at a level of zero tasks mastered, and therefore given a complete SOJT checklist binder. Both groups were, and continue to be, driven towards “full job mastery” in what is called an “accelerated transfer of expertise.” Each employee receives certificates of task mastery for reaching the 50% of tasks mastered mark, and certificates of job mastery once they have mastered the entire job classification.

In the case of Custom Glass Solutions, management’s planned wage increases (in attempt to retain workers) were pegged to the reaching of the 50% and 100% marks. The company is able to document exactly why an individual’s wages were increased; because the worker increased their capacity through SOJT. The list of tasks they have mastered and can perform correctly and in compliance to meet the company specifications. Therefore, the employer could derive a larger return on worker investment for each worker employed.

Upon reaching the certificate of task mastery stage and job mastery stage, the employee was able to receive a portfolio and a certificate signed by the companies upper management, by Proactive Technologies, Inc., and a partner local educational institution – in this case Tri- Rivers Career Center – Adult Education, RAMTEC Center. RAMTEC stands for Robotics and Advanced Manufacturing Technical Education Center. The first CGS certificate ceremony was held August 31st, 2021

Although not a requirement, it appeared that the monetary incentive coupled with the customary credentialing incentive caused many individuals to remain employed at CGS. When I asked the CGS representatives if the company noticed any reduction in turnover, I was told  “yes, we now only have a few open positions.” The updated and posted monthly charts confirm each worker’s progress toward job mastery.  These reports also detail a slowing of turnover and an increase in overall worker capacity; each person in each job classification, the average for the job classification and across all job classifications participating in the SOJT program A noble accomplishment – especially given the disruptions in labor, the supply chains, and society during the COVID-19 experience.

And given the fact that the SOJT infrastructure that was built addressed a major underlying concern – as with most employers, employees had very little guidance on what tasks they were expected to master and supervisors had limited information as to what the employees they were charged with supervising were responsible for (especially supervisors new to the area) – this project provided, and continues to provide, returns far beyond its narrow initial focus.

The CGS SOJT program for the original 19 job classifications is still underway and, based on the outcome of the first phase of the project, the company has decided to expand the SOJT program to 14 job classifications at the Fostoria facility, and 25 job classifications at the Upper Sandusky facility – nearly 500 employees. CGS also has plans to begin registering each of the job classifications as apprenticeship with the state of Ohio.

If you would like to know how this approach might work at your firm, and how a pilot project may be the best way to introduce this approach to your organization, contact a Proactive Technologies representative today to schedule a GoToMeeting videoconference briefing to your computer. This can followed up with an onsite presentation for you and your colleagues. A 13-minute promo briefing is available at the Proactive Technologies website and provides an overview to get you started and to help you explain it to your staff.