Tempting staff to stay

By Selwyn Parker

Give us the money - and the rest.

It's not mere filthy lucre that holds staff, according to current research in recruitment trends, but a smorgasbord of other benefits including flexible hours, training, incentives, sabbaticals and public recognition.

At least, that's the way it is in America. A series of surveys by the American Management Association strongly suggests that a competitive financial package doesn't buy loyalty from skilled staff because it's almost taken for granted in a seller's market.

What does buy loyalty is a variety of "retention tools", chief of which are lifestyle benefits that allow employees to give their best to the company while still retaining space for themselves and family. In particular, these include flexible work hours and sabbaticals which "are more effective retention tools than cash payoffs", according to the American Management Association's latest human resources research.

As skilled staff grow scarcer, retention has become a major management issue. Sixty per cent of those polled in a survey of 352 human resources executives across the United States said that skills were in short supply - up from 51 per cent last year - and therefore retention was a "very serious" issue.

Predictably the hardest staff to retain were those under 30, dubbed Generation X. And information technology specialists were the category most likely to depart for fresher fields. Also hard to keep were general managers, sales and marketing specialists.

Still, increasingly more companies are trying to hold the staff they have - and it's surprising what works. Employees rate technical training, employability training and customised hours as more important than dollars and cents, sometimes even above the much-vaunted stock incentives and bonus payment systems.

"Investment in employees' futures is more important than immediate compensation", says Eric Rolfe Greenberg, AMA's director of management studies. "Programmes that improve work skills and future career development are seen as particularly effective."

Ernst & Young in the United States, which sponsored the AMA's study, agrees: "Our database shows that companies with flexible work arrangements which reflect employee needs and concerns have a real advantage," adds Deborah Holmes of Ernst & Young, which has an office of retention, unlikely as it sounds.

Companies that are serious about retaining staff send them on conferences and seminars - the opportunities which rank highest among employees, pay their tuition fees, develop their management skills, support degree programmes.

But retention strategy need not stop there. As well as flexible work arrangements, good staff are likely to stay if the company offers a package of training programmes in such areas as interpersonal, technical and employability skills. Also ranking high are employee empowerment, extended parental leave, job rotation and paid time for volunteer work, which is very big in the US.

Money may not rate up there among conferences and seminars, but it clearly still ranks, albeit disguised as something else. For example, financial planning assistance, stock grants, childcare assistance benefits, matching charitable contributions and legal assistance benefits, loans for computers in the home, subsidised cafeteria, meal and transportation costs, and pay for performance programmes are still on most employees' wish list.

One retention tool is "re-enchantment of work", the title of a new book by American author Gail Dutton which lauds those companies that make their people feel like, well, people. Thus the chief executive who budgets a quarter hour or so to meet new staff, who writes to employees on their anniversary with the company, and who publicly rewards outstanding work, is seen as the new model to which managers should aspire.

This is all part of creating a family feeling. If this appears to be a modern version of paternalism, it doesn't seem to matter. Family feeling works.

American human resources expert, Sally Ford, lists a few things employers can do to make staff feel valued:

* Post a person's name on a bulletin board with a description of their accomplishment.

* Assign temporary, more challenging or visible jobs.

* Have an employee attend a meeting or seminar with higher management, perhaps as a presenter.

Ford also suggests a few ideas that would only impress the impressionable, such as rewarding staff with a reserved parking spot and sticking a nameplate on their office door. But there's no doubt that in a tightening skilled job market, retention strategy isn't just another buzz word.