The American Management Association estimates that "the cost of hiring and training a new employee can vary from 25 percent to 200 percent of annual compensation. Costs include customer service disruption, emotional costs, loss of morale, burnout/absenteeism among remaining employees, loss of experience, continuity, and 'corporate memory.' "

One way to decrease turnover is to do a much better job of managing expectations with your new hires before they are hired. While it is important to sing your company's praises and to paint a nice picture of the future, it is much more important to first paint a realistic picture of the most difficult aspects of the job. Ask your best (and worst) employees what the most difficult or disappointing part of their job is and make sure that new hires not only know about it but tell you how they are going to cope with it. For example, if prospecting strategies in your industry yield one sale out of 100 conversations, then be up-front with candidates and ask them to submit a written plan to you on what their prospecting strategies will be if they are hired. Sure, you may lose some seemingly "good" candidates in the process, but the ones who last and get hired will stay longer.

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