Why should I thank my employees for coming to work? Why do we need employee appreciation events like lunches, dinners and parties? I gave them a job, which they are lucky to have these days. Isn’t that enough?

You may have heard these sentiments expressed by CEOs and business owners. Or perhaps you’ve had similar thoughts yourself. Isn’t every two-hour lunch event decreasing your employees’ productivity and costing your business money?

The answer to that is yes. But if these events help keep your employees happy and prevents them from leaving, you are saving money. A lot of money when you consider the high cost of turnover for filling any one of those jobs.

You can find out just how much that cost is with this Turnover Calculator  from The Predictive Index, a workforce assessment company.

This six-step calculator takes into account items such as the cost of covering the position during the time it is vacant, the hiring manager’s time, advertising for the position, resume screening, company time spent interviewing and background checks.

Other costs include the time to onboard the new hire and time for that person to obtain full productivity.  (To obtain the full report on this site, you will have to give your name, company and email at the end. There are other online calculators available as well.)

A study done last year by the Society for Human Resource Management, the 2016 Human Capital Benchmarking Report, concluded the average cost-per-hire is $4,129. And that doesn’t include the additional cost associated with onboarding the new hire.

Whatever the final figure is, it’s indisputable that losing an employee is expensive. So, next time you find yourself concerned about the cost of yet another employee outing or party, remind yourself that if that event helps keep people happy and engaged, it’s a bargain for your business.

The good news is the biggest thing you can do to help retain employees is also the simplest. Show appreciation. Say thank-you. These simple gestures can contribute to your bottom line as well. In an  article in the Wall Street Journal about showing appreciation at the office, it was reported that more than half of human-resource managers say showing appreciation for workers cuts turnover, and 49 percent believe it increases profit.

To read more about how appreciation helps and recognition needs to extend beyond the paycheck, please see my blog Any Time of Year is Good to Express Appreciation.

Here’s some further reading on ways to retain your employees.

How Loyal Employees Contribute to Your Bottom Line
This is a two-part series on the importance of developing and maintaining loyal employees. Part one explores why every company should focus on having loyal employees and how doing so contributes to its revenue. Part two offers tips of how to develop loyal employees.

Work-Life Balance Key to Recruiting, Retention
This two-part series is on the growing importance of offering a work-life balance to employees in your company. Having a work-life balance was ahead of money, recognition and autonomy for more than half the people surveyed in a study done by Accenture in determining whether or not they have a successful career. Part two, Work-Life Balance, the #1 Thing to Offer, discusses the one critical component your workplace must have to keep employees.