• Lower costs—Studies indicate that it can cost up to 2.5 times each employee’s salary to replace lost workers. The expenses associated with turnover include the hard costs of time spent screening candidates, verifying credentials, checking references, interviewing and training new employees, not to mention lost customers and damaged workplace morale.

• Increased customer retention—Employee retention may lead directly to higher rates of customer retention. Long-term employees usually get to know your customers and learn how best to serve them. But if you must continually train new employees, they likely won’t be able to deliver as high a level of customer service, which may result in lost customers.

• Better employee morale—A high-turnover workplace takes a toll on employee morale. Employees who see their coworkers leaving one after the other are likely to become disenchanted and unmotivated themselves, dragging down morale and creating a poor workplace atmosphere.

• Experience and expertise—It’s hard to put a dollar figure on the experience and expertise that are lost when long-term employees leave. These employees not only know the best and most efficient ways to accomplish their jobs, but they are also the ones who generate the kind of ideas that make a big difference in your company.

“Once employees are up to speed and making positive contributions, you need to do everything you can to keep them because you have a huge investment in these employees,” says Dave Dibble, director of human resources for Presidion Solutions, a professional employer organization that provides benefits and administrative services for small and mid-sized companies. “Plus, there’s a real comfort zone among employees in small companies, and constantly bringing in new people can upset this.

“To grow your business, you need experienced employees who can work independent of the owner and bring fresh new ideas to the table,” Dibble continues. “Even if you replace an employee with another one with equal skills, there will be a period of non-productivity while the new employee learns your procedures and how you do things. Turnover is always disruptive, at least for a time.”

Ironically, an economic downturn gives employers the opportunity to take a fresh look at creative benefits and perks. Employees aren’t expecting perks from their employers during tough economic times. So you can engender employee loyalty by providing unexpected perks and extra benefits.

Your employees will be pleasantly surprised by your goodwill. When the economy turns and the talent market once again put workers in control, the loyalty you build now may be repaid to your business by grateful employees.