Business

How to Fight Back Against High Employee Turnover

Published

5 years ago

October 30, 2020

When building and growing an organization, few things are more frustrating or costly than high employee turnover. But with the right approach, you should be able to fight back, improve loyalty, and put your business back on the right path.

Common Causes of High Employee Turnover

Every business is unique, but high employee turnover can almost always be boiled down to a combination of the following factors:

Overworked. Employees are fine working hard, but there’s a fine line between high expectations and unrealistic expectations. As employees become overworked, they become much more prone to burnout. This creates friction and produces challenges with engaging employees and keeping them on board with the company’s mission and goals.

Toxic culture. The marks of a toxic culture include hostile interactions, lack of equality (in opportunity and/or pay), high stress levels, poor motivation, and poor morals. As the toxicity increases, so does the turnover rate.

Boredom. Employees want to feel energized in their work. Too much boredom can result in disengagement and (eventually) turnover.

Lack of opportunity. Employees want to know that they have the opportunity to get promotions and pay raises. If they don’t see other employees moving up the corporate ladder, they’ll become discouraged and look for better opportunities elsewhere.

Bad boss. There’s a saying that says, “People don’t leave their jobs, they leave their managers.” If you have a bad boss who is incomptenent, rude, overbearing, or insensitive, it’s going to hurt your cause. Employees might put up with it for a few months, but it’ll eventually push them out.

Strategic Ways to Reduce Turnover

There are plenty of legitimate reasons why employees leave – including a better offer, starting their own business, or pivoting careers. And there really isn’t much you can do about these factors. But then there are controllable elements. You’re in control over the factors above. Now’s the time to strategically change the way you approach your business. Here are some helpful tips:

Develop a Better Employee Experience

Whether you’ve documented it or not, your company has an employee experience. It’s essentially everything a worker learns, does, feels, or sees at each stage of their employment lifecycle. This includes five key phases: recruitment, onboarding, development, retention, and exit.

If you want to boost retention by reducing turnover, you have to take employee experience seriously. And by focusing on each of the five stages, you’re able to tailor the experience without compromising on the big picture. In other words, you can keep a consistent culture while still providing a unique experience to employees who are just now being onboarded and those who have been on the payroll for years.

Hire the Right People

You can do yourself a massive favor by hiring people who are a good cultural fit for your organization. (Otherwise you’ll face an uphill battle from the very start.) This is accomplished by clearly defining the role – both to the candidate and to your hiring team – and to implement a detailed due diligence process.

Terminate Toxic People

Don’t let toxic people stick around. The longer a toxic employee is in your business, the more likely it is that their behavior becomes contagious. Terminate people who don’t fit as quickly as possible. Not only does this eliminate the toxic source, but it also shows your remaining employees that you don’t put up with that kind of behavior.

Go Beyond Money

Contrary to popular belief, money is not the best motivator. While a pay raise or bonus can work, its effects are usually short-lived. Within a few weeks or months, the employee will begin looking for the next raise.

To motivate employees and make them loyal to the organization, you have to go beyond money. Find out what it is your employees really want. Good motivators include status, autonomy, flexibility, and verbal affirmation.

Create a Clear Sense of Identity

This tip goes hand in hand with the idea of developing a better employee experience. The goal is to establish a clear company identity so that employees have something tangible to hold onto.

In other words, if asked the question, Why do you like working for our company?, every employee should be able to articulate what it is that keeps them loyal to the business. The exact phraseology might vary, but most of the answers should land near the same target.

Build a Sustainable Business

There’s a lot that goes into building successful and sustainable businesses. But it’s nearly impossible to scale if you don’t have a stable team of people who are committed to your cause. Having said that, now’s the time to reevaluate where you stand and build a business that puts people first. In doing so, you’ll establish the foundational cornerstones needed to grow over the next few years and decades.

Business

Why Multi-Province Payroll Compliance Is the Hidden Challenge Canadian SMBs Face and How Folks Solves It

Published

3 hours ago

November 6, 2025

Matthew Wiles

Photo courtesy of: Folks

Byline: Shem Albert

Running payroll in Canada can feel like crossing a country stitched from many different fabrics. Each province weaves its own pattern of tax rules, leave policies, and benefit requirements, creating a landscape where a single misstep can ripple through every paycheck. For small and mid-sized businesses, the challenge often remains hidden until growth pushes hiring beyond provincial borders or brings remote workers into the fold. What seems like a routine back-office task quickly becomes a test of accuracy, timing, and local knowledge. This is the gap that Folks set out to close, offering a way for employers to navigate Canada’s regulatory patchwork without slowing their momentum.

Provincial Rules Add Complexity

Canada’s payroll environment varies sharply by province. Federal rules set the foundation, but provincial tax rates, deductions, statutory leave entitlements, and benefit premiums add layers of complexity that employers must monitor carefully. Small and mid-sized businesses with staff across provinces or remote employees face different tax tables, reporting deadlines, and leave calculations that directly affect pay accuracy and remittance schedules.

Folks built its payroll module to address these differences. The platform calculates the correct provincial tax rates and deductions for each employee, applying updates automatically so employers avoid misapplied withholdings or late filings. Multi-location tax management allows a company with workers in Ontario, Quebec, or several other provinces to process payroll without creating separate accounts for each jurisdiction. Bilingual functionality in English and French and secure Canadian data hosting support compliance while keeping employee records accessible across language and regional boundaries.

Unified Records Improve Accuracy

Payroll errors often stem from mismatched employee data. Changes in pay rates, banking details, or benefits eligibility may not align between HR and finance systems, creating incorrect deductions or delayed payments. Smaller teams juggling separate platforms spend valuable hours reconciling information instead of focusing on strategic work.

Folks resolves these issues by combining HR and payroll in one platform. Updates to wages, hours, or tax information entered on the HR side flow directly into payroll without re-entry. This single, verified record strengthens the accuracy of every payroll run and ensures employees receive the correct pay and deductions. By removing the need for repetitive administrative work, HR staff can redirect their time to tasks that support growth and employee engagement.

Automation Keeps Provinces in Step

Each province sets its own requirements for holiday pay, pay frequency, and statutory benefits, making manual calculations both time-consuming and error-prone. Businesses that expand or hire remote employees must keep pace with shifting provincial regulations or risk penalties and audit issues.

Folks address these demands with automation designed for Canada’s regulatory landscape. Pay statements, deduction calculations, and custom pay schedules follow the applicable provincial rules without extra configuration. The system’s automated updates mean that a company hiring staff in British Columbia or Quebec can meet local payroll standards without adding new layers of setup or monitoring. Employers gain the ability to expand into new regions while maintaining accurate, on-time pay.

Reporting Strengthens Compliance

Changing tax rates and reporting requirements require ongoing attention from HR and finance teams. Companies that rely on disconnected systems risk missing a provincial update or submitting incorrect remittances, which can lead to fines and interest charges.

Folks provides detailed reporting tools that compile payroll, deductions, and benefits information across all locations. Employers can generate clear remittance and deduction summaries, simplifying the process of meeting provincial filing requirements. For organizations that want additional guidance, Folks also offers a payroll management service that brings in-house specialists to assist with configuration, compliance, and regular updates. These reporting features help companies stay audit-ready and avoid costly compliance gaps.

Scalable Payroll for Expanding Businesses

Many small businesses begin in a single province, where local tax and payroll demands can be learned over time. Growth into new provinces or the decision to hire remote staff adds a level of complexity that manual processes cannot handle efficiently. Errors multiply, compliance risks rise, and payroll teams spend more time correcting mistakes than supporting expansion plans.

Folks provides payroll that scales with company growth. Provincial tax logic, automated deductions, bilingual support, and secure Canadian data storage are built directly into the platform. By maintaining an accurate employee record and applying province-specific rules automatically, the system allows Canadian SMBs to expand with fewer administrative surprises and more predictable payroll operations. Companies gain the stability of compliant payroll across provinces while controlling the time and costs that typically accompany multi-jurisdiction growth.