It’s easy to get caught up in the pre-Christmas rush. But this year, you need to take time out to focus on your staffing requirements. Why? Because your most important people may be thinking about leaving you!
All they want is a holiday
Typically, there are very few resignations this side of Christmas because staff want to take their holiday entitlements. But come the new year, many of your people will be looking at their options. So now is the ideal time to follow our 4 step staff retention process:
Step 1: Who are your top performers?
To answer this question, you need to look around your operations to identify which team members are critical to your success. Don’t assume you know. Every organisation has it’s quiet achievers as well as its high profile performers. The difference between the two is, you may not understand how valuable a quiet achiever is until they leave your organisation.
Step 2: What are the costs of losing your top people compared with finding replacements?
This step can be a real eyeopener for many business owners and managers. Every time you lose a high performing staff member, you lose all of their acquired experience, expertise and client management knowledge. You also lose someone who fits and understands the culture of your organisation. In addition, their departure could disrupt the productivity and morale of other staff.
Then there are the costs of recruiting, training and onboarding a new staff member. Not to mention the time it will take to fill the role given the current labour shortages. On a positive note, new people can bring new skills, experience and perspectives.
All of these things makes it a challenging business decision.
Step 3: What will it take to keep them?
If you can possibly do it, talk to every high performer in your team before they go on summer leave. Or at least start the conversation and ensure you continue talking early in the new year. Things you can expect to hear are:
“I want a pay rise to help with the cost of living.” That’s why it’s important for you to consider the costs of losing them compared with the costs of replacing them.
“I want more flexible working arrangements.” If you can manage it, this is where you can stand out from your competitors who may be getting ready to poach your best staff. Things to consider are:
Offering longer work days (say 9.5 hours per day) in exchange for staff working 4 days a week.
Offering rostered days off with the flexibility to accumulate hours over a few weeks to take a day off when each staff member chooses.
Encouraging and assisting staff to build their skill base by providing extension programs, mentoring or subsidising external training courses.
Day-to-day work challenges or problems with other staff members. These dissatisfactions can build up over time and lead to resignations. Yet often, the issues are easy for management to resolve once they know about it.
Flexible work and hybrid working arrangements which are still important but are currently being overrun by the need for higher salaries as inflation rises.
Step 4: How can you accommodate staff requirements into your operations and budget?
Everyone is dealing with rising costs – whether you are a business or an individual. So it’s challenging to find additional resources to offer pay rises or modify your operations to accommodate staff requests. But finding replacement staff is also challenging and time consuming, even when you obtain help with recruitment. So while you may find this a simplistic answer, the reality is, you need to find a way.
We’re here to help with every aspect of your people management
When it comes to managing your people, we are here to guide and advise you through every stage of their employment with you. From recruiting and onboarding to performance management and retention.
If you would like help to identify your top performers and find ways to retain them throughout 2023, get in touch with End2end Business Solutions by calling 02 8977 4002.