It goes without saying, but there are many reasons why companies should try to avoid a high turnover of staff.

From the costs of recruiting and training new staff, to replacing leavers and the disruption caused by loss of expertise: the issues caused by high staff turnover are numerous.

Nevertheless, some industries and job types have a naturally high turnover of staff, and other businesses have internal issues that may cause a higher turnover - such as a disengaged culture or lower pay than competitors.

A high turnover of staff is predominantly seen as an issue for the HR department to deal with. Still, the impact that it has on the overall business is often underestimated. One such area is the loss of knowledge around business processes and cybersecurity.

How high turnover impacts cybersecurity

Every business should be aware of the risk that cybersecurity breaches and, in turn, so should every member of your team.

Cybersecurity awareness training is increasingly commonplace in businesses as they look to limit their vulnerability to security breaches. This training, however, is a defence that is critically weakened by high staff turnover.

More experienced staff will usually have undertaken regular cybersecurity and data protection training. As such, when they go, they take that knowledge with them while new staff entering the business often do so without any cybersecurity awareness training in place.

Without the experience of dealing with attacks like phishing scams, and no chance to read internal communications related to cybersecurity, new starters are a serious gap in your cybersecurity defences, albeit through no fault of their own.

How to mitigate the cyber risk of high staff turnover

Your first goal should always be to, where possible, try to keep your experienced team members from leaving your organisation. In this case, your starting point should be to understand why so many employees want to leave. You can find out this information through staff surveys or interviews when people leave the business.

Should your efforts to reduce staff turnover fail, or you’re in an industry where high turnover of staff is unavoidable, then it’s important that you ensure that staff receive comprehensive, high-quality training from their first day on the job.

Ideally, their training should begin before they join as part of their induction training programme, and they should continue to receive regular security training.

Bob’s Business provides comprehensive cyber awareness training that helps to protect businesses from cyberattacks. We ensure all of your staff, including you, have the required knowledge and skills to handle cyberattacks in a safe, controlled manner.