The increasing shortage of skilled workers is motivating more businesses to work harder to obtain the right people for the right jobs -and keep them there. It's also forcing many private companies to take action to retain their skilled, trained workers.
A recent survey of more than 300 fast-growth private company CEOs found that the bulk (52 percent), believed that improved retention of key employees would be advantageous for their company's business performance over the next 12-18 months. The average company usually has four or more programs for combating employee turnover, some of which are customised.
However, while these CEOs recognise that the workforce is their single leading expense, they don't necessarily have a consistent, systematic approach for ensuring retention of key employees.
The surveyed companies reported that they rarely manage retention of key employees through funded programs, rarely have regular discussions on retention issues during management team meetings and have little knowledge of why key employees leave.
Another dilemma companies are now confronted with is the shift in the labor force in which many Baby Boomers are now exiting the workforce with fewer next-generation workers to replace them, as well as a rise in the employee turnover rate. Companies need to recognise the importance of workforce management and retention programs, which not only help improve employee satisfaction, but also help with business sustainability, productivity and developing the organisation.
In summary, people management is the next challenge for obtaining and generating more value from company assets. The most important challenges for private companies in particular involve greater needs to:
- Attract, develop and retain their right talent necessary for a productive, fully engaged workforce
- Develop a way to forecast workforce needs
- Know how the workforce supports the business goals
- Understand workforce agility
According to workforce engagement surveys, compensation and benefits are not often the main issues influencing employee turnover. Frequently, issues concerning relationships with immediate supervisors, opportunities for career development and training, as well as personal and professional growth, are the major reasons employees leave a company.
Employee satisfaction is really about developing the individual and having the appropriate pathway for that individual to grow within the organisation.
While the president or CEO is ultimately responsible for retention rates, managers are the individuals who are accountable for training their staff and managing their development. Managers need to be committed for any retention strategy to be successful.
Ideas based on Robert Tate ( Financial Executive 2007)
How Online Climate & Job Satisfaction Surveys Can Improve Your Employee Retention
An internal online Climate Survey offers companies access to important information about the views and opinions of staff and how they view their workplace. Climate surveys measure the internal climate, or general feel of how people view their managers, their work, and the workplace. The information collected using the climate survey assists managers to make informed and effective decisions as well as provides 'alerts' to areas in the organisation which might be demotivating and require urgent attention.
Best practice in climate surveys is to conduct an online survey (usually by a third-party to increase objectivity, remove privacy and confidentiality concerns around the use of results) to gain the thoughts and opinions of staff about the working environment provided.
Please contact Psych Press - Talent Management Consultants to learn more about how can we assist companies to develop and deploy climate / job satisfaction surveys, statistically analyse the data and generate comprehensive reports.
How Online Exit Interviews Can Support Your Talent Retention Challenge
Learning how to retain valuable employees by identifying why people leave the organisation as well as capturing knowledge and insights that might otherwise be lost when valuable employees leave is a challenge.
An online exit interview is an effective tool to ascertain the reasons why employees are leaving and identify changes that can be made to the company to improve employee retention. In the traditional face-to-face exit interview, employees may feel uncomfortable and intimidated, reducing the opportunities for constructive feedback. However, through a less confronting online exit interview, employees are more likely to offer honest feedback regarding the work environment - aspects of the work place they found most and least satisfactory. Other advantages to the use of online exit interviews are speed of process and elimination of geographical barriers.
The data collected in online exit interviews offers management an effective tool to initiate improvements in the company, management style and work conditions. This leads to an increase in job satisfaction, reduction in employee turnover and increase in employee retainment.
For further information on how we can assist your company in developing online exit interviews to improve employee satisfaction and retention, please contact our Psych Press - Talent Management Consultants.
