Employee Retention

So now we see organisations wiping the sweat from their brow as they see off the scourge of the ‘Global Financial Crisis’ (GFC), however there appears to be another problem looming for organisations, and that problem now  seems to be that employees are deciding its time to move on!

Reflect upon the initiatives introduced by Companies: pay cuts and/or scheduled increases withheld; programmed leave taken (with or without pay); and/or reduced working hours. Further, employees saw colleagues and friends being made redundant which meant those remaining were loaded up with more work and more pressure!

In a survey completed by employees who quit their roles during 2009, it was found that employees were increasingly unhappy and there was a notable increase in job ‘insecurity’ and work stress.  Also a lack in pay, conditions and career development contributed to their resignations.

Given all of the above, it is a wonder any employee would have been happy, but remarkably some reports suggest that organisations just don’t seem to be aware of it.

The issue for managers then is that they will have to reflect upon what they did [to employees] during the GFC rather than what they are doing now… and what is becoming evident is that the things that used to motivate employees to stay have changed!

Adding pressure to this is that managers now need to consider how skills shortages in trades and professional services impact on employee retention.

Many organisations are considering what they need to do to arrest this problem and it seems their strategy includes identifying critical people in key positions and thus implemented retention plans that include incentives (financial or otherwise) to retain its people.

Often strategies for retaining talent can come down to either altering the workplace environment or changing something regarding your people, and in some cases recognition of employees is a good place to start.

To help organisations address the potential for employees to move on, the following may be of assistance…

1.       understand your employees, their skills and job satisfaction, and consider up-skilling and/or job rotation to change/increase responsibilities;

2.       conduct employee engagement surveys and/or discussion groups that allow an opportunity for the team to provide feedback/suggestions;

3.       ensure your induction process appropriately prepares all employees for their position within the company;

4.       ensure learning and development programs actively support employee growth and provide some personal challenges;

5.       communicate company strengths and/or future growth strategies suggesting security for individuals as well as promoting opportunities;

6.       retain a ‘retention budget’ that allows the organisation to fund some of these, and other, strategies;

Employee retention is a key strategy for any organisation and as such should be seen as a priority. No Company should idly stand by and allow its experienced employees to take their skills and knowledge to another!