Nick Hood, the senior London partner at Begbies Traynor, the UK’s largest independent business rescue firm, looks at how bosses can retain key staff who may be looking to set up on their own.

A recent survey by Begbies Traynor revealed that out of a total 500 respondents, one in five admitted that they were contemplating starting out on their own. Of the 100 who were thinking of setting up on their own, everyone had produced their own business plans, proving that for many the wheels are already in motion. Most had even approached their bank or family and friends for the start up capital.

While the survey shows the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well, for employers and their HR teams, it must cause concern because it is likely to be the high flyers that are looking to spread their wings and go-it-alone.

In this instance employers can be faced with the unpleasant prospect of having to recruit and train new staff, which, as any HR person knows, is inevitably expensive, time-consuming and highly distracting for senior management. They must also find the same quality of staff as replacements – people who are similarly driven, bursting with ideas and keen to make their mark. If they fail to find these people, they will be left with some challenging skills gaps.

So how does your company keep ambitious employees from leaving, and make sure their talents and drive are applied to your business rather than theirs? The seemingly obvious solution of throwing more money at key staff is rarely the answer. This is likely to cause resentment among other employees who will find out they’ve been paid to stay, and it will also add costs which for smaller businesses might be hard to meet.

But the single biggest reason for not offering staff more money to stay is that it does not work. Entrepreneurs are looking for larger challenges and highly diversified roles which give them more satisfaction, as well as the chance to earn large sums of money. That said, it does make sense to ensure that their pay is in line with the market rate, it might be worth, therefore, reviewing salaries in case they have fallen behind the average.

Looking at the way budding high flyers are remunerated is important. These are potential risk takers who want to improve their lot. They react well to salary structures that recognise their personal involvement, so make sure your package gives plenty of upside for outstanding performance. As an employer, you will also benefit. Your fixed costs are reduced and you will have incentivised staff to help share the burden of driving the business forward.

Ensuring that employees are party to decisions that affect the business is a good start to improving motivation. According to recruiters Hudson, three-quarters of employees would like to be more involved in decision making. Staff meetings where ideas are solicited can work well. If staff offer opinions or suggestions, it’s important that they are taken seriously and reasons given if they are rejected. People will understand if the firm cannot action an idea, but they won’t continue to offer ideas if all they get is radio silence. One unexpected benefit of greater employee involvement may be that they will realise just how hard it is to start up and then run a business.

Another positive step to retaining key talent is maintaining good levels of communication about how the business is progressing. This approach fosters a good ‘esprit de corps’ and makes everyone feel valued. Unfortunately, obsessive privacy about plans and financial results is characteristic of far too many senior management teams in the UK. There is no need to bare the entire corporate soul, but a judicious sharing of financial and commercial data will pay handsome dividends, especially if it can be made relevant to the particular departments or units in which staff work.

Remember, in the modern dynamic business environment, things constantly change and staff can soon feel left behind or be upset by surprise news as the enterprise develops. Within reason, the more they know, the more they will feel involved and they will be less likely to head for what they might think is greener grass on the other side of the business fence.

Work-life balance is an increasingly important issue for employees and employers alike. Some entrepreneurs misguidedly believe that by creating their own business they will somehow be freed from the daily grind of long hours and little praise. This could hardly be further from the truth. But by ensuring that staff take regular holidays, that work is evenly delegated and that employees are thanked and rewarded for their hard work, far fewer of your most talented people will head for pastures new.

Keeping in touch with the ambitions of employees is essential. Senior managers will always struggle to allocate adequate time for staff appraisals and many consider any formal system to be a luxury reserved only for major businesses. Regular assessments of the skills and attitudes of staff through open discussions can be very revealing. One useful tactic when you identify that you have people with the energy and skills to run a business is to consider creating a new business unit within the company for them to run. It will demonstrate that there are genuine career progression opportunities within the fold. Far too many SMEs leave business development entirely to the founder or the MD, when there is real but frustrated talent elsewhere in the organisation.

And if there is a determined entrepreneur who is hell-bent on setting up their own business, employers can consider using their own experience and advice to help them to succeed. Ultimately, it might even be possible to provide them with some of the initial capital to back their venture in return for an equity position. This way, even if a valued staff member is to be lost, there will be much potentially to gain from their success.

Businesses will never keep everybody and an element of change is beneficial. But losing the good ones, especially at unexpected times, can hamper growth and threaten success – after all they may well become your competitors. So devising an HR strategy aimed at retaining ambitious staff will be well worth the effort.