Staff retention: getting it right

For business leaders in companies of all sizes, the hunt for the best talent in the available pool can seem never ending. For those looking for people with specialised skills the problem is not just a hassle – it impacts the bottom line as well as other members of the team.

In fact, with the increase in available jobs the CIPD recently found that nearly 80% of businesses find the current talent shortage increasingly worse. Whilst this might be a good position for job seekers to be in, businesses are being faced with the challenge of choosing the quickest course of action for the least amount of money, with the ultimate hope this will produce the best results. When this doesn’t immediately happen it can often feel like hitting a brick wall – at this stage it’s important to change strategy, continuing with the same course will only lead to frustration on everyone’s part.

Something to consider is the power of your internal recruitment processes. Nurturing your own talent and promoting from within is often a very cost-effective solution. An unexpected result of this strategy is that it can become a major draw for external candidates and, in particular, at the ‘mid-tier’ level of professionals who are looking for organisations not just to work for but also to develop skills within.

Developing this kind of retention strategy ensures you can determine the skills you are looking for and understand the staff who are most valuable to you. From there you can also truly understand the levels and requirements you need from an external resourcing programme with the process of recruiting internally often providing HRDs and business leaders with a more robust 360 understanding of the short term and long term needs of the business. There is also the benefit that having such a retention plan in place creates added interest for the best candidates you are looking for outside the business.