We are a manufacturing company and have recently lost several long serving skilled employees to competitors. We have surveyed the local companies that they are leaving to go to and although we are not offering the top level of pay we aren’t too far off the mark. The people that we have lost have left us difficulty in trying to recruit people with these skills as they are quite specialist and people are normally in secured jobs. When surveyed why they were leaving, money was not the only motivating factor & security was an issue, (since the takeover from our US parent we have gone through some redundancies an event that was previous unknown to us). Whilst we do not envisage further redundancies in this area, and typically now we are short staffed our order book is full, we do not hold a crystal ball either. What I am looking for is any ideas for retaining the remaining staff in this department. If we increase their hourly rate to the top premium of other local companies this will in turn affect our overtime and shift costs. We were looking at introducing a skills bonus for these people but if we did that how can we ensure commitment from these people? Does any one have any experience of retainer contracts/payments or skills bonsues, alteratively any advice on target based reward in a manufacturing environment would be appreciated.
kirsa edwards