Talent waste occurs when an employee leaves an organisation prematurely due to the business not being able to retain them.

Nationwide’s reported turnover for 2020 is £3.8bn, according to their annual report, meaning that talent waste amounts to about £380m a year.

Speaking on the Talent Waste Podcast, Jon Hull, Nationwide’s head of resourcing delivery, said: “The contact centre was a little bit on fire when I joined; turnover was poor, and recruitment was poor in terms of fulfilment. Our finance teams worked on it, and for every percentage point of turnover, the cost to the business was £100,000 to the bottom line.”

“But,” Hull added, “by driving better recruitment and fulfilment, you can cut that cost. Turnover did drop, engagement went up.”

Hull shared the three actions that he implemented to turn the results around and lower the cost of talent waste at Nationwide. They were:

• reviewing the recruitment process outsourcing agreement including the contract and what the RPO is measured on. Ideally, Hull said, it should be measured on fulfilment and quality for longer than 90-day attrition. 
• helping to define career paths and offering aspirational opportunities as part of the employee value proposition.
• working with operations to build confidence. Taking small steps, implementing rigorous communication and taking feedback from employees.

The Talent Waste Podcast is hosted by Lee McQueen, founder and CEO of Phoenix51 and winner of series four of the television reality programme The Apprentice. A statement from the programme said that McQueen was actively exploring the issue of talent waste and how much it costs organisations.

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