In recent months there has been a noticeable pickup in employment “moves” – ie employees who have been employed under job-bridge programs, or employees employed under temporary contracts being offered permanent positions. Likewise, employees who stayed in positions during the downturn that they would not otherwise have stayed in, are now looking for positions that they feel will be more satisfactory for their career aspirations.
This now creates both a challenge and an opportunity to employers who have been able to retain employees in positions over the last number of years without too much competition from the jobs market.
First of all, the challenge is that employers now need to be creative in retaining the employees that they have developed and invested in over the last number of years. The loss of these employees in terms of knowledge of the business can be significant, and sometimes will be more apparent after a successor is hired who takes a number of months to get up to speed. In some cases, the loss of a key employee is only really noticed when it takes more than one person to replace them or when there is an unsuccessful hire subsequent to their departure !!
Companies need to focus on how effective their employment retention process is for their key employees. Is there a career path is offered ? Is there “flexibility” in terms of hours worked etc ? Is the reward system fair and transparent ?
The current environment also offers companies the opportunity to structure their organization for the future by asking itself the following questions:
- Do we have the right competencies within the company ?
- Do we have the right organization structure for future ambitions ?
- Do we have the right engagement and commitment levels throughout ?
The HR function needs to be a key driver of the company’s overall business strategy, HR needs to be commercially astute in developing its policies for recruitment / acquisition, retention, development and engagement of employees.
All of the activities undertaken by HR should be measurable as part of the company’s monthly KPI’s reporting process.
OSMS can assist companies in aligning its HR policies to the overall business strategy – for a free consultation please email mmolloy@osms.ie or call 087 278 3860.