New 2008 Billing Statistics by Industry Just Released – How Does Your Company Compare?
Flashback to January 2008. It started out well but disintegrated dramatically over time to end up in a dismal financial state that has affected all of us in some way. It certainly made HR management much more challenging than it is in normal business settings. We know that millions of jobs were eliminated as the year progressed, with the consequences of significant job losses extending into 2009.
As the economy deteriorated, job security became paramount to employees. Towards the end of the year, employees became much more reluctant to look for another job and had fewer opportunities to do so in the face of fewer job openings. Employers found themselves in the exact opposite position of laying off employees while continuing to hire for specialized jobs. Even so, naturally there was still employee turnover in all industries.
How did your company compare to the 2008 average billing statistics for your industry? Compdata, a company that provides high-quality salary surveys (and whose surveys I frequently use to conduct market price studies for my clients) recently released their 2008 revenue results by industry. Please review the tables listed below, provided courtesy of Compata Surveys. This data was taken from the Compdata Compensation Data Survey.
2008 turnover rates by industry
2008 Voluntary Rotation
All Industries 12.5% - Utilities 7.8% – Manufacturing 10.4% – Non-Profit – 12.6% Real Estate/Construction 13.8% – Services 14.0% – Financial Services 14.0 % Distribution/Warehouse 14.9% – Health 15.7% – Others 15.9% – Technology 17.2% – Hospitality 27.2%
Total turnover 2008
All industries 18.7% – Utilities 11.1% – Nonprofit 16.4% – Manufacturing 16.5% – Financial services 19.0% – Services 19.8% – Healthcare 20.8% – Technology 21.7% – Real Estate/Construction 21.9% – Other 24.0% Distribution/Warehouse 24.4% – Hospitality 36.9%
Note the difference in numbers by industry between the first and second tables. For all industries, voluntary turnover was 12.5% in 2008, with a total turnover of 18.7%, which means that involuntary layoffs were 6.2% last year. It will be interesting to receive the 2009 turnover statistics from Compdata next year and compare them to these tables to further quantify the impact of all the job losses this year.
As you can see, there is a big difference between reported industry turnover rates, particularly those found in the total turnover table. Can you imagine having to replace nearly 40% of your employees every year, like those of you in the hospitality industry did (on average)? That takes a lot of time, energy, and HR staff to keep up with that workload! Find your industry to see how your company compares to these 2008 average turnover rates. You can also calculate your actual revenue for the first quarter of 2009 to see how it compares to last year’s actual numbers, or use the numbers provided in this article as a reference comparison.
Remember that by identifying and tracking patterns based on factual information, you can better forecast and manage human resources for the next 3-6 months. And be better positioned to proactively manage human resources in a positive way!
Copyright 2009 Regan HR, Inc.