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Discover This Month – October 2022

This month we discuss something that is a big topic for nearly all businesses and leaders – how to keep staff and retain the talent in your business, we are also focusing on counter offers and what to be mindful of to ensure that you keep the people integral to your organisation.

New research post covid tells us there is a lot more to keeping employees happy and productive than just remuneration. Other perks and benefits are important and for some they are more important. Read more to check our insights into what’s happening in the last quarter of 2022.

To offer or let go

In the current market where candidates and employees have a great deal of choice, the counter offer has become more prevalent.

Every employer over time will be faced with an employee advising that they intend to resign. Several questions arise for the employer in the the current market where finding talent is not easy to find. Here are some factors to consider when deciding if you should make a counter offer or not.

Investment:

  • How much time and money has been invested in the employee?
  • How many years of tenure does the employee have?
  • What is the downtime likely to be before you find a replacement and they are up to speed?

These factors will all be dependent on the person, or business and they will vary. These are all aspects worth considering and the impact of losing a staff member can be extremely costly in more ways than a person in the team.

Morale:

  • How does the employee contribute to morale and general working environment?
  • Are they part of the leadership team?
  • Do they have many years of industry experience they bring to the table?

Losing a very well-loved, long-term employee can be a considerable loss and result in the team becoming disillusioned which could also be contagious, leading to further resignations.

Timing:

  • Does the timing suit the business?
  • How much time will be needed to find a suitable replacement?

Finding good, skilled talent is proving difficult, you need to assess if your organisation can withstand a long period without a person in that role.

Skills:

  • Does the employee have a unique skill set?
  • Are there skills that can be passed on?
  • How difficult is it to train these required skills?

The whole work force is currently underskilled and without overseas workers this issue is getting worse. Analyse the skills for the role carefully.

It should be noted that it is most likely going to be less expensive for you to retain your existing employee vs finding another suitable, reliable and qualified person.

The advantages are that you know the person, understand their traits, strengths and weaknesses.

If you decide to make the counter offer here are a few things to keep in mind:

  • Employees are sometimes more wary and feel less secure in their current roles after they accept the counter offer
  • There is a period of adjustment with the employee wondering why the increase in salary was not offered to them from management instead of needing to resign to achieve it
  • Employers also know that there were elements of the role that made the employee unsatisfied or unhappy encouraging them to seek work elsewhere
  • Often the business needs to sweeten the deal with an increase in pay, benefits, perks and flexibility and this is a cost on the business
  • Employees sometime feel that they have more control over the employer/employee relationship dynamics after the counter offer has been accepted
  • Many employees move on after the counter offer has been accepted regardless
  • It could be possible that your employee is bluffing and using this opportunity to obtain and pay increase.

Our advice is to have open and honest communication. Don’t just wait for employees to find work elsewhere to increase perks and benefits and provide encouragement and gratitude. All employers should have in place a robust performance review process which allows both sides to air greviances, seek and an increase in renumeration and explore options for training and improving skills.

If you need help setting up a performance process, creating a package of benefits for your employees before they look elsewhere. Recruitment Central can help you with all these important aspects of retaining talent within your business.

We have employee templates, documents and a very good understanding of what other companies are doing to ensure they don’t have valuable employees walk out on them.

Message from the CEO

We know for employers it’s really tough out there at the moment. With a downturn for many over the covid pandemic, adding to your payroll or increasing the number of staff members is the last thing you may want to consider.

Planning ahead will help relieve some of the pain. Understanding what is normal within your industry, what others are offering. Value adding aspects of employment that may not be a financial cost to the business are things that can be implemented quickly and all add to the mix of what makes your workplace a great place to be.

Flexibility doesn’t have to cost any money, job sharing, flexi hours and working from home should all be on the table, many of these are now becoming a minimum expectation for new workers.

Office perks like a fridge full of health drinks, snacks, team lunches, yoga lunchtimes etc are all low cost and can add to the moral of the workplace in a positive way.

If your employee rejects your counter offer and decides to join another organisation, don’t worry, having them leave on a good note with positive vibes is the best way to go, you never know they may realise that the grass is not always greener. Anything is possible.

If you do get caught short or want to put some measures in place in the longer term to ensure that your company is not vulnerable and exposed, we can help with fixed term contract, temp and permanent staffing solutions.

We have an extensive database of ready to work skilled people that can help you get through a rough period or be your next rising star.

Here at Recruitment Central, we are here to support your business and partner with you.

Take Care

Sandra

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