Attract, Retain, Sustain!

In my last LinkedIn post, I explored the top 5 management habits that drive your best employee’s out the door. If you haven’t already read the post, you can view it at HERE

In this week’s post, I will look at the top drivers for employee attraction AND retention, providing an accurate list of exactly what employees want from their employer.

Whether it’s a start up or a long established corporate entity, the importance of attracting the right staff for the job will always be an ever changing and uphill struggle. However, many organisations fail to effectively retain their staff.

To provide some clarity, I have conducted sample research to see what employees believe are the top factors influencing their employment decisions. I asked employees to rank 8 factors in order of importance when it comes to seeking a new opportunity or remaining with their current employer. The results are, to an extent, what you would expect:

Now it’s no surprise that base salary is coming at #1 - I don’t think this will ever get knocked off the top spot. However, #2 and #3 give an intriguing insight into what is truly affecting employee's decision to stay put or jump ship. Longevity in employment is probably the most important factor to employees when it comes to their career. This is closely followed by #4 Professional Development, which ties in closely with the longevity of the opportunity. After all, in today’s ever changing workplace and technological landscape, any employee who wants to stay at the top of their game will want to keep developing themselves professionally and personally.

So what’s my point I hear you ask? None of these points are a surprise to us employees, right? Correct. But what if I told you that I asked employers to carry out the exact same task, but to highlight what they think is important to employees? Surely, if it’s so obvious then the results should be virtually identical? The results are below:

 
Comparing these two tables there is some correlation between the employee and the employer views. Both parties have highlighted the importance of base salary and career progression opportunities, but these were the obvious factors that we highlighted before. Performance recognition is view equally by both parties at number 5. But that’s where the correlation ends.

It’s clear that employers are very much reliant on current business factors (reputation and complexity of the work) to attract candidates in and sell the position to them. But in today’s business landscape, it is difficult to distinguish one company’s service offering and reputation from the next.

At the bottom end of the table, professional development and job security have ranked low with the employers, but of significant importance to the employees. For me, this crucial difference plays a significant role in today’s workforce and why employers fail to retain their top staff.

In today’s modern age, employees are constantly online and connected with the business world, being tempted by new and exciting opportunities on a regular basis. It is in the interest of both the employer and the employee for businesses to listen to the needs of their workforce and deliver a culture of longevity, development and a degree of performance recognition.

I invite you to try this for yourself. Highlight what you feel is important to your employees in your organisation, then identify what the most important factors are for your career. How do the results differ?

Andrew Morris

andrew.morris@fm-voice.com