Many businesses are inevitably facing challenges in the current economic climate and, as a result, it’s vital to have talent that you can rely on. In order to be successful, companies must recruit the best possible candidates and, when they find them, they need to be able to keep them.
However, the Reed HR 2012 Salary and Market Insight Report, suggests that this isn’t easy to do. 1,500 employers and employees participated in the survey, with 40% of respondents saying that they were worried about losing talent from their organisation. Adding to this, one in five were concerned about the migration of staff to other sectors or countries, and perhaps they’re right to be anxious.
If talented individuals leave a company it will undoubtedly lead to skills shortages, and 39% of respondents felt that there were skills gaps in their organisations. This in turn is having an influence on performance and the growth of the business, with half of senior managers recognising a negative impact as a result.
So what’s being done to tackle the issues? There were several responses to these problems, including investing in training, focusing on internal promotion and recruiting new talent externally. However, shockingly, 38% said their organisations aren’t doing any of these, which suggests that businesses need greater advice on staff retention.
Given that the findings from the report suggest that skills shortage may get worse before it improves, it is fundamental that we tackle this issue. Whilst 61% of respondents are satisfied in their current positions, many are looking to move on. In particular, this is a problem at junior management level, where 46% were either actively looking for a new job or are planning to start the search within the next year. Companies invest a lot of time with people in this role, and they are heavily involved in an organisation’s day to day operations. Therefore, if junior managers leave, it not only causes short term disruption, but creates talent gaps for the future.
At a&dc we understand the importance of staff retention in order to minimise skills shortages. In order to do this, it isn’t just about raising salaries or offering promotions – these often only treat the symptoms. Instead, we see engagement as the key, which we define as ‘a positive state in which an individual experiences a sense of enthusiasm, meaning and absorption in their work, and identification with their organisation’. Research supports this, as individuals that are engaged have been shown to be 87% less likely to leave an organisation.
Enhancing engagement not only improves retention but has also been shown to improve employee performance, customer satisfaction and productivity, benefitting your business as a whole. This has been demonstrated in our own research, where we found highly engaged employees were rated by their managers to perform 67% better than disengaged employees.
Motivating and engaging your talent will help you to get the best out of them, as well as minimise the skills shortage. If your talent feel like a genuine part of a team, they are likely to perform better and are less likely to look elsewhere.
