Friday Financial Footnotes from Kevin Mclaughlin

This week’s message reminds all of us about the costs of hourly and salary staff turnover

As we enter the highest turnover season of each year in community Living I felt it best to point out some key factors that can be considered “hidden costs” of staffing and the true expense of turnover.

While we all know the impact that staff turnover can have on our Residents, it’s extremely difficult to put a price tag on what that expense would be. In most cases of turnover it is immeasurable as our Residents typically resonate in a personal way towards our staff.  Whether it be front of the house or back of the house, management or hourly, our staff have direct impact on our operations and ultimately our Resident satisfaction scores.

While many of our staff our entering the work force for the first time it is very important to on board effectively and consistently.  To show you the cost of what it costs for turnover, I have included the following example.

Average Hourly Wage Rate               $10.00
Fringe/Taxes/Benefits @ 36%            $ 3.60
Total Hourly Cost                                $13.60

Scenario

You have a 30 hour per week server resign their position without notice.  The server works 6 hours per day, 5 days per week.  With your server leaving abruptly, you have an immediate void and you need to pay OT to a server to cover the shifts.  The OT rate is now $15.00 per hour plus the fringe totaling $20.40 per hour worked.

You immediately post the positon on My Opportunity and it talks 8 working days to backfill the vacant server position.  So far you have payroll expenses above your normal amounts of 8 days server hours @ 6 hours per day equals 48 hours multiplied by the rate difference (regular to OT) which equals $6.80 per hour worked.  48 hours x $6.80 = $326.40 excess payroll.  Normal payroll would have been 48 hours x $13.60 per hour equaling $652.80, your new expense is $979.20.

This scenario is also compounded by the 3 day training expense you will incur after you onboard a new server.  3 days server training at 6 hours per day.  This expense is 18 hours x $13.60 is $244.80

To recap 

The base amount of normal server wages without turnover would be $652.80
The new amount will be an additional $326.40 + $244.80 = $571.20
Total expense increase for this scenario depicting server turnover is 87.5%,

The 87.5% amount is real and occurs each time we have staff turnover.

Hire correctly as the turnover expenses can be staggering. 

Thanks

Kevin J Mclaughlin | Regional Director of Operations