The Great Recession has certainly pushed the battle for workforce talent off the front pages … at least temporarily. But surely we haven’t forgotten that the population of the U.S. is still aging. Fortune 500 companies expect to lose 50% of their senior management within the coming decade. And the pipeline of college graduates with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) degrees is still far short of projected demand.
Recent political advertising notwithstanding, the economy is continuing its snail’s-pace recovery. As the economy, and hopefully hiring, picks up steam your organization’s heroes will become prime targets for would-be suitors. Consider the findings from a study sponsored by eePulse.com. The following workers are most likely to leave you:
- Employees between the ages of 41 and 45
- IT and Marketing staff
- Directors, Managers, and Supervisors
- Employees at firms whose overall performance is average or below relative to industry peers
Any of these apply to your workforce?
During the darkest days of the recession, we all had a small group of employees who thrived on change, who embraced the chaos, who multi-tasked and never lost their focus on client needs. These are our heroes. If today these heroes are feeling under-valued, they are almost certainly looking for their next job or they’re openly receptive to overtures from other firms.
If you believe it’s easier to search out, recruit, and train new heroes you can stop reading here and enjoy the rest of your day. If, however, you’re wondering about the most efficient ways to retain top talent I suggest you:
- Build a list of your heroes. Sounds obvious, but can you easily lay your hands on such a list? These are the people with the best opportunity to bolt. You should be able to shine a light on them.
- Make your heroes aware of their status and future with your company. Even if it’s non-monetary, give them some formal recognition of their contributions and their prospects.
- Recognize and reward exceptional performance. I’m talking game changing, standard setting performances here.
Whether recognition comes in the form of monetary gifts or company-wide recognition, your top performers are more likely to stay put when their hard work gets noticed and appreciated.
PayReel’s clients, who are some of the biggest companies in the world, are constantly immersed in the chaos of producing multimedia content or executing live events. PayReel makes sure they have the right contractors at the right time in the right place, and that everyone gets paid properly. And, most importantly, they handle every last detail perfectly while making sure their clients think nothing of it. Relax. We got it.
