Can Employee Retention Be Improved in Field Operations Teams?

Maintaining employee retention is a pressing issue for employers and managers everywhere. After all, businesses lose $11 billion annually to employee turnover!

But did you know that field employees tend to be more stressed and hence 20-50% more likely to quit their jobs? 

According to a study by Manila Recruitment, a new employee takes about two years to match an old employee’s productivity. Therefore, you can imagine the need for retaining good field employees. 

Sure, you can apply several HR techniques to keep seasoned field employees. But as with most things, digitization of field operations will take you to the next level. Wondering how? We’ll tell you exactly how to retain field employees with a workforce management software system!

Why Does Employee Retention Suffer in Field Operations Teams?

Field employees are often the frontmen who drive businesses. It is how they deal with customers and potential clients that tends to make or break an organisation. However, they are generally at the bottom of the hierarchy. Therefore, the responsibility-to-power ratio tends to be slightly lopsided. This results in the following situations that make them quit:

• Hectic Schedules

Without proper management, field executives tend to have a very hectic schedule, especially when they have multiple sites to visit. The transit, coordination, document handling, and quality compliance are too much for individuals to handle without software aid or top-notch management.

• Unorganized Tasks

Without a proper system, tasks can be all over the place. Executives don’t know when tasks will be assigned, where they will be, and when they have to fulfil them. Managers might assign tasks in locationally impractical places. For example, sites for tasks A and C could be nearby but the executive has to go to site B in between that is 1 hour away!

• Unrealistic Accountability 

Improper communication leads to 44% of project failures, 31% lower morale, and 25% low compliance with deadlines. Since field executives are the face of the company to end users, they are under pressure to perform their best even with proper aid. They can be unrealistically accountable to meet requirements that haven’t been communicated well, leading to extra stress.

• Lack of Good Training 

For field functions, executives need to know where they lack individually and how they can improve their productivity. Functioning out of sight makes it impossible to manually and accurately track their performance. Therefore, most executives have to go through generic training that might not apply to them. Impersonalised training can stunt growth making employees dissatisfied with their jobs.

• Overhead Expenses 

Field operations require executives to travel a lot. More often than not, executives take care of this transit on their own, which is always expensive. These travel expenses should ideally be reimbursed by employers. The failure or delay in doing so leads to additional unnecessary stress for field executives.

• Underappreciation 

At least 66% employees quit their jobs if they feel underappreciated and field executives are no exception. Field employees are incredibly important in an organization and since they’re so low in the hierarchy, they often feel underappreciated, making them want to leave.

• Safety Concerns 

Travelling on the field can be risky at times. For somebody who works the evening or night shift, the concerns only escalate. Field employees leave when they know they cannot get immediate help while working on the field.

What Employees Do Instead of Quitting

Even through all these issues and more that the executives feel on the field, not everyone can afford to quit their jobs. Therefore, they might resort to other ways through which they could feel better in the organization. Obviously, all those problems are highly detrimental to the organization’s productivity and hence, managers need to look into ways to avoid such burnout.

• Time Theft: Logging in on time from an app but not showing up at task sites, so logging out way later than when the work was actually done. 

• Moonlighting: Working on hustles other than the job at your organization in or after working hours, leading to exhaustion and low motivation. 

• Misbehaving on the Field: Venting their frustrations with the organisation onto the clients, ultimately leading to the organisation losing business. 

• Missed Deadlines: Tasks are not done on time and hence cost the companies their goodwill with customers. 
• Fake Expenses: In firms without reimbursement cycle issues, employees may show fake or extra expenses for some extra bucks.

How Does Employee Retention Software Reduce Turnover

According to studies, a burnt-out employee with an average package costs companies about $16,000 a year. Letting go of these employees seems to be the easier way out but it is not always the ethical thing to do. The right way is to take steps to help these field executives and make their lives and jobs simpler within your organization. This way to retain talent! 

With the help of Field Force Management software, you can do that easily through the tools it has to offer. Let us see how you can well operate your team with software aid.

• Smart Task Assignment 

With field force management software, all scheduled tasks are assigned in advance to let the employee plan their route in advance. Most tasks are assigned keeping in mind the executive’s location, route, schedules, and skills in mind. If an off-route task exists, managers will be able to check if it is more suitable to assign it to someone else.

• Simple Attendance Logging

Executives do not have to travel from the field to the office and back to the field just to mark attendance. Workforce management software will not just online attendance logging options, but also fault-free ones. Now, executives do not have to worry about marking the attendance from their end, but it not getting logged into the system.

• Active Progress Tracking 

Instead of having to give manual updates to managers, executives know that their live location and task updates are being tracked. Their to-do lists are automatically and faultlessly maintained, giving them the clarity that their work will be recognised.

• Performance Management 

Workforce management software will actively track and develop performance and productivity reports for each executive. Therefore, managers can have a clear view of each executive’s forte and weaknesses. This way, training can be more directed towards what employees need. Better training lead to higher growth, something that is sure to retain employees.

• Travel Reimbursements 

The best field employee tracking software is designed with expense management systems. Therefore, executives do not have to play the guessing game, hoping for their extra expenses to be reimbursed. Instead, they can log whatever expense they make on the system and the company shall reimburse the exact amount. In case of any conflict, they can rest assured that everything is in writing.

• Emergency Alerts for Maximum Safety 

To help executives feel safe on the field, software like TrackoField collect employee movement data accurate to the T, even when the employee is offline. The app also has SOS alerts or live communication channels. Therefore, if employees feel that they need urgent help, they can quickly and easily inform their managers. In any case, the employee can be tracked to maximum precision at all times.

• Everything is Documented

An important aspect of using an employee management software system is that everything about field functions is documented. From expenses and attendance to productivity to leaves, there’s no fringing around the system. No matter where a problem is identified, it has to be solved because of transparency.

Make Your Team Last With Field Force Management Software 

It is the little things that add up to become a big problem in one employee’s life, and then that dissatisfaction spreads like wildfire. Since field executives are so important for an organization, it only makes sense to make things simpler for them and retain them, right? 

You should use field force management software like TrackoField to reduce employee attrition rates from your field operations teams. Tools like task, document, and expense management with extensive on-field reports make working at your organization so much better for employees!