How to Retain the Key Employees

In a bouyant jobs market, retaining key staff is a huge challenge for managers and employers. This situation is set to continue, with a tightening of high demand for skilled employees across most sectors. A jobs market with high demand usually results in an increase in the turnover of staff. Maintaining motivation and loyalty within your team under these conditions can be difficult, but understanding what can cause individuals to look elsewhere in their careers can help.

People will consider moving between employers for a variety of reasons, but these may include:

• Improved salary and benefits package.
• Better work life balance.
• Ready for a new challenge.
• Frustrated at the lack of career development.
• Achievements being unrecognised or unrewarded.
• Falling out with the boss.
• Uncertainty of the future.

If one of your team resigns, the trigger response is usually to counter offer an increase in salary, but in all honesty, by then it is usually too late.

To address this, we've listed a number of methods below that may be beneficial:

1. Encourage a healthy social environment to flourish within the business and allow the opportunity for colleagues to interact outside of the work place. This will help to build a team ethos: it is proven that if individuals have a a strong social network and close friendships within a business, they are less inclined to look elsewhere.
2. Ensure the compensation package offered is competitive within the work place. Incremental elements such as lunch allowances and dental cover can be of considerable assistance in the retaining of staff.
3. Empower your employees and always treat with respect and value their opinions. Provide forums to allow everyone the opportunity to participate. Use their suggestions and encourage open dialogue.
4. Work is important, but allow a work life balance for everyone, whilst fitting the demands of the business. People value being allowed out to watch their child's nativity play or football match and won't take it for granted.
5. Recognise excellent performance and acknowledge individuals' contributions openly.
6. Endeavour to understand your staff and their aspirations. Start this at the interview process with Psychometric testing. Understand individual motivators and be aware of peoples' behaviour patterns and how they act under pressure.
7. Study your own behaviour. Are you approachable? Do your team members explicitly understand their roles and what is expected of them? Do you hold your team's respect? A large proportion of job seekers quote personal differences with their line managers as a motivator to look for a new role.
8. Provide the opportunity for employees to understand what internal opportunities there are now, or may be in the future, within the business. How easy is it really to move around within the business, either cross-functionally or geographically?

These methods may not drastically reduce your staff turnover, but they will help. In a free market economy, never lose sight of the fact that employees are fully aware of their market worth. It is usually the little things that go along way in making employees feel like valued human beings.