Turnover, not to be described and associated as a lightly toasted, flakey filled pastry with a decadent warm inside, is rather in the medical industry a frightening statistic.

Turnover can be expensive. In fact recent surveys report that a poor-performing employee takes up about 17 percent of a manager’s time. That equals one wasted day per week. Now, factor in the time it takes to train a replacement and you’re looking at a lot of lost hours.

Statistics will also tell you that 84 percent of new hires do not live up to the new employers expectations. With the time and money associated with the hiring process this can be a daunting and discouraging fact.

You’ll hear people discuss the high rate of turnover frequently, but when did you ever hear them talk about the exact cost of turnover? After all it doesn’t hit your profit and loss statement and it won’t be found in your annual budget.

Employers who spread the extra workload across existing staff to fill in gaps can quickly see a drop in productivity. Employees working long hours and wearing too many hats can quickly become overwhelmed and unmotivated.

Whether you are seeking direct hire, temp-hire, or temporary per diem services there are numerous advantages to partnering with a staffing agency. According to statistics, the average time from interview to offer is 22 days. Take into consideration the time it takes to advertise the position, accumulate resumes, scheduling interviews, pay advertising costs and check references and you have quickly lost a large amount of time. To adequately screen an employee in a frequently challenging competitive market such as the medical field you will need drug screening services in place, perhaps local and federal background screenings, health screenings, education verification’s, competency testing, employment reference checks, and extended time for credentialing. It seems like a lot to write, now wait until you have to stop in the middle of a busy work day and actually apply these to a “potential” new hire. Each level of the hiring process costs time and money.

Then there is the Lost Productivity Factor –calculate the cost of lost productivity at a minimum of 50 percent of the missing employees total compensation for each week the position is vacant, if there are people filling in for that employee. (This is due to fact that these workers may not understand the process involved and may have little or no training.)

Or consider Bad Hire Cost – making a bad hire can cost anywhere from 1.5x to 3.5x or more of that person’s annual salary.

One of the most commonly quoted benefits of using a recruitment or staffing agency is time management. For anyone looking to hire an employee, time is of the essence. In a continually thriving market you need to stay ahead of the curve, move quickly and maximize your chance of finding a qualified candidate. Partnering with an agency will help you manage your time by matching employees to your needs based on your criteria and skills.

A staffing service can provide you with a predictable cost per hire, as well as providing you an employee that will fall under the company’s unemployment and workers compensation claims. This will quickly decrease costly overhead and employee turnover, not to mention the ever growing expense of employee benefits and liability.

Whether you need a temporary employee to cover a vacation, medical leave, or you are experiencing an increase in work load, having an established partner can quickly provide you with additional resources. Established staffing agencies work with professionals who are open to short term, project or part time work and have strong backgrounds in their field. You must admit that having experienced talent that can quickly come in and adapt to your position quickly saves you time and renders more flexibility.

If you’re reading this and wondering how I came about this knowledge and these statistics it’s very simple; I spent numerous years as a practice manager and administrator for large dermatology groups, rural healthcare clinics, pediatrics and internal medicine facilities. My knowledge was learned and beaten into me through 60 hour work weeks running overtime and on a short staff. One cough on a Monday morning sometimes leads to 2-3 staff members out by Friday. My white lab coat hanging next to my desk was a constant reminder that on any given day I was triage nurse, front desk assistant, phlebotomist or even x-ray tech. Pediatric offices are always subject to more germs than you can run from, as sticky little fingers touch everything and noses continue to run and drip through the hallways. Call in’s and weekends became part of every dinner topic in my house and home life.

Let’s face it, almost all of us could use a little more time in our day. Recruiting, screening and hiring a new employee takes a significant part of your day, your week, and your dollars. Small to medium sized businesses are usually more leery of using staffing agencies but can benefit the most from them since they typically are wearing ‘many hats’ and may not have the ability to add yet one more task to daily activities.

Change is inevitable and the world around us in doing just that. Manage your time and limit your turnover cost’s. Take a few minutes out of your day and enjoy that flakey warm pasty, after all you work hard to meet the needs of your patients, clients and staff.

Dawn M Rivera is Building and Development Specialist at Arbor Medical Staffing. She can be reached at dawn@arborstaff.com.