If your employees are silent – beware. Your best and brightest may be on their way out.
We’ve all heard this message through one medium or another, but what can be done? The good news is that many effective strategies are right at your fingertips.
After seeing this area of concern and pain for many small business owners, HR Coach conducted a five- year research project identifying critical pressures on the business sector within SME’s of 2 – 200 employees. Some of the findings identified an overconfident business market in relation to market and profit as well as a growing concern regarding productivity, performance improvement and employee retention. Unfortunately, the results showed us that staffing issues were getting worse.
With 42% of Australia’s private sector employment currently employed in the business sector, the corporate sector will always ramp up efforts to poach employees, creating a harsh reality that some small businesses face – being forced out due to staffing issues. But business owners who proactively address their people and process issues can survive and even flourish within this environment and culture.
So how do small businesses compete and rise to the great business challenge of retention and engagement? Some simple yet key areas to focus on would be:
- Addressing people and process issues
- Planning
“You Cannot Manage What You Don’t Measure”
This age old business adage rings true and the question is posed; if effective employee management and retention is so critical to a businesses success, then why aren’t HR Plans with relevant measurement tools being developed? The most simplistic answer is most SME’s don’t know how and unfortunately this lack of knowledge can limit a businesses growth substantially.
At this most simplistic level, effective HR Planning must start with measurement, some examples to start with could be:
- Employee productivity
- Employee and Employer Satisfaction
- Workflow effectiveness
- Employee retention and turnover
With these benchmarks in place as well as a comprehensive framework like the STAR Workplace Program a HR Plan can then be devised to address critical issues, simply and effectively!
To find out more about Employee Retention, STAR Workplace Program or Team Satisfaction Processes for employee retention and improving performance and profitability, contact Katrina Haynes on khaynes@hrmatters.com.au or call 0403 576 797.
If you want to know more, why not request our White Paper about Retaining Employees.
