Business leaders are concerned about losing highly valued staff once the economy emerges from recession, a report has shown.
A survey by business advisory firm Deloitte found that 65% of businesses are extremely worried about losing critical talent or leadership from their organisations once the job market begins to recover.
More than half of businesses anticipate an increase in staff turnover in the year after the recession ends, the survey showed.
However, firms can take steps to counter this by modelling employee retention initiatives on the strategies used by consumer brands to keep hold of their customers, Deloitte said.
Eddie Barrett, a director in Deloitte’s human capital consulting practice, commented: “A strong employer brand strategy that goes beyond recruitment campaigns and a desire to simply be seen as an employer of choice will be crucial if companies wish to engage and retain employees that generate a disproportionate amount of value and organisational strength.”
According to Deloitte, business leaders should look to improve the key areas of their organisations which matter most to employees, in the same way that consumer brands manage the ‘touch points’ with customers.
The moments of truth for a strong ‘employer brand’ include training and development opportunities, the presences of strong leadership, delivering on promises and access to social responsibility programmes, the report found.
Barrett added: “Successful companies are deploying ever more sophisticated techniques to attract, engage and retain talented individuals.
“As with previous recessions; any upturn in the economy will unleash pent up demand by employees acting on their desire to move on. Companies really need to be thinking about this and seek to attract and engage those already within the organisation.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2009