Please Don’t Leave Me
Holding onto staff, especially good skilled staff, is a huge problem for many businesses. One new employee in four leaves within the first six months of beginning a new role; one in three within a year and around half within two years according to a new report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Check out details of the report in manufacturer.com.
Industry analyst International Data Corporation says the cost of replacement of staff amounts to a staggering 150% of the departing employee’s annual wage.
According to Gordon Barker, head of consultancy at retention specialist Talent Drain: “After almost three years of fairly static workforce transition (where the worker has a say, that is) any firm that hasn’t given serious thought to the situation, probably ought to just about now.”
Talent Drain research shows that 49 per cent of top performers are looking to move roles when the half-life of the recession reaches a level where the economic world shows no threat of caving in upon itself once again.
Engineering appears to be suffering from a dearth of new available talent. There is the prospect of an alarming skills shortage in the UK when a generation retires towards the end of this decade.
Gordon Barker says: “Some employee turnover is healthy for a business, though. It brings in fresh blood and, with it, new ideas and refreshed vigour for success. And if a senior member of staff leaves then there might be an opportunity to promote somebody within the business who is ready to make the step up. This might mean retaining talent within the business which could have otherwise left to seek the position they feel they deserve.
“If you’ve got an attrition rate of 20 per cent but it’s the bottom 20 per cent that are leaving, that’s a good thing”, says Barker. The trick is hanging onto the right people, the best people ideally, or, at the very least, the ones you cannot afford to lose.
Eve Whitaker, Blumilk’s Development Director says: “We have been talking to a number of high profile engineering and service sector businesses in the last few months about the retention of their workforce as well as the attraction of new employees”.
“Employer branding is certainly a major concern for a least half a dozen household names that we are involved with,” concludes Eve.
Read more: www.themanufacturer.com people and skills.