Kate Ross: What are employees looking for now?

Last year was stressful. Although 2010 is looking so much better, employees have not forgotten that stress.

It is highly likely a number of their colleagues have either left due to redundancies or have transitioned out their team or company for various reasons.

This leaves the employee feeling sometimes overworked and undervalued - and this is not necessarily the intention of the employer.

Employers need to take an open and honest approach to what is happening within their business and gain "buy in" from their employees. They (employees) are looking to be reinvigorated; they don't necessarily want to leave, but they need to feel that the company has a clear direction and they want to be motivated and included in moving forward with the organisation.

I feel the challenges employers face now is recruiting, retaining and developing a high performing team of people. To retain the top performers we have found there is a strong and growing need to offer feedback and communicate appreciation to them now more than ever.

It is not necessarily about the dollar. As managers, it's sometimes just about taking a regular 15 minutes out of your day to engage and find out how the employee is feeling.

Employee retention mechanisms can be very simple and only need to cost the time it takes to sit down with the person and to listen to what they have to say. That conversation could save you a resignation letter, and in turn, a recruitment agency invoice. At the end of the day, we all want to be heard.

Some employers will still face challenges with regards to staff performance. It maybe work stress, an unhappy employee making waves within the team, or personal issues coming into the workplace. Building a positive team is vital to every business.

A new proactive approach can make all the difference and this can be achieved by offering constructive feedback and training and development to retain top performers.

To assist you in doing this a number of recruitment agencies have specialists who offer a value-add service known as Talent Management. This service offers solutions in all aspects of employee selection and recruitment, retention, training and development to help build effective teams.

The current employment market is strong. Positions are coming in daily and vacancy numbers are increasing but we are back to the market being candidate short, which means the good candidates are being snapped up quickly. Employers have to speed up their recruitment processes to ensure they get the best person for the job.

Kate Ross