Retain your staff and save the pain

If your company is starting to experience staff turnover, it is time to refine your employee retention strategy and implement positive changes to minimise financial loss and strain on your business.

Reward, recognition, bonus and incentive schemes are often a great way of engaging and retaining employees.

After almost two years of fairly low staff turnover rates for many businesses as a result of the uncertainty surrounding Covid-19, there is now considerable movement in the employment market following the easing of restrictions and the return to our ‘new normal’.

Many businesses are feeling the pain of higher staff turnover and stronger competition in the employment market. This is resulting in increased recruitment costs, loss in productivity and higher employment costs. In other words, business profitability is once again at risk of decline.

So, what steps can be taken by businesses to ease the pain?

The key is employee engagement. How this is achieved will be different for each business.

Each business is unique and so are its people. As such, the solution is often multi-faceted and may involve a combination of many factors. These typically include remuneration, reward and recognition, flexible work arrangements, clear career pathways, training and development, transparent and honest communication and positive work environments.

Rarely is the solution based on remuneration alone, but it does play a significant part. Many employees saw little or no pay increases during the pandemic. With the return to our new normal, employees are now expecting pay increases and these expectations are being supported by what is currently being offered in the market.

BDO partner Kerri-Anne Smee.

Reward, recognition, bonus and incentive schemes are often a great way of engaging and retaining employees through either monetary or non-monetary rewards. They can be used to motivate employees, increase morale, drive the right behaviours, achieve goals and increase productivity. These schemes do not necessarily need to come at a cost to the business. If setup correctly, businesses can achieve a return on each remuneration dollar spent, making these a cost effective part of your employee retention strategy.

If your business is starting to feel the impact of employee movements, it is time to refine your employee retention strategy and implement positive changes to minimise financial loss and strain on your business. It is far more cost effective and beneficial to retain and optimise your existing workforce than it is to recruit, on-board and train new employees. Implementing effective solutions, such as reward and incentives schemes, may mean the difference between retaining and engaging the right people, versus wasting precious time, money and resources in an endless search for talent.

Kerri-Ann Smee is a business services partner at BDO in Brisbane.