Background
An apparel factory in China had a high turnover rate of almost 20% per month. In an effort to better communicate with their employees and reduce turnover, managers decided to implement WOVO.
Progress
Within 6 months of implementation, managers at the factory had already noticed a change in their ability to understand the needs of their employees. Senior management observed “a direct link between turnover rate in a department and the number of employee questions and complaints from that department.” Through the platform’s streamlined communications functions, management was able to quickly identify causes of turnover in each department.
Outcome
In one department, with a turnover rate of 35% per month, there were a lot of questions and complaints about paychecks, but often before the paycheck had been issued. When senior managers carefully reviewed the worker feedback from this department, they were able to discern that the department manager was threatening workers, saying he would reduce their paycheck if they did not obey his orders, when in fact, he did not have that authority.
Senior management was able to conduct an investigation and quickly remove this manager. Consequently, turnover was cut in half. In another department with a high turnover rate, managers noticed that many of the messages they were receiving were related to working hours. When they examined the issue, they discovered that on average this particular department had more overtime hours than the other departments.
While employees liked the extra pay that comes with overtime, they felt that the amount of overtime was more than they could handle. Although managers could not reduce the number of overtime hours, they were able to shift workers around, so that the same workers were not always on this line. The overtime was more evenly distributed, and the workers were happier.
The factory saw a decrease in the number of overtime complaints and an overall decrease in turnover of 30% across the factory