A universal issue employers face is how to retain staff members. Avoiding losing employees to direct competitors and staff shortages are two challenges employers must juggle. From our work with YouGov, we found the top priority for employers right now is addressing skills gaps and staff shortages in their organisation.

While some staff members may enjoy having a set routine of tasks, with little to no change over the years, others will desire change. Progression has typically been seen as something which is vertical, with a staff member moving up a hierarchy of roles, each one carrying more responsibility. But in today’s changing workforce, career pathways can also be a series of developmental opportunities with various forms of career movement, both vertical and lateral, to encompass new skills, experiences and perspectives. A lateral role change may offer the progression an employee is looking for.

Employee retention is not just about minimizing damage to the organization when employees leave. It also offers opportunities to improve company performance across a number of key metrics. 
The following are significant benefits organisations with high retention of staff typically experience. 

  • Reduced spending on recruitment
    Glassdoor estimates it costs on average £3000 to recruit a new staff and takes roughly 27.5 days to go through standard recruitment process that includes promoting the role, assessing applications and then interviewing candidates. This is a significant investment in money and time, for no guarantee that you will secure a suitable individual. 

    Retaining employees means you don’t have to incur this cost on time and money. Instead, organisations and staff can focus on other important tasks. 
  • Increased Productivity
    Productivity in the workplace or workplace productivity, is the measure of an employee’s output in their role. 

    The CIPD found that staff members who stay and develop with their skills at an employer see their productivity increase by 45%, their innovation by 34% and their overall performance by 47%. 
  • Organisational Expertise
    Development staff is costly for organisations. According to BE Offices, the average company in the UK spends £1068 on training an employee every year. This is a large sum of money to spend upskilling staff who leave often. This also ignores more informal training that staff typically receive during their induction to a role, a hidden cost when you factor in the hours a pre-existing staff member takes to shadow, support and upskill a new member of an organisation.

    Having longing serving staff members removes many of the issues listed above. Put simply, the longer a staff member is in post for, the more likely It is that they would be accustomed to the role and developed the right level of skills and experience. 

    When looking ahead towards progression, an employer also maximises their chances of securing successful candidates, as within the organisation will be internal candidates who have already familiar with the organisation and have proven they have the relevant work ethos and skills. 
  • Reputational Impacts
    If your serious about developing talent in-house, those looking to progress elsewhere but unable too will notice, as employees often share their experiences in person and online. With talent so in demand, having a visibly positive approach to career development will give your organisation an edge in attracting new people, as well as encouraging staff already working with you to stay, as they can progress with you more than they can progress elsewhere. On the flip side, you don’t want to be the organisation losing your employees to competitors seen as better places to work and progress. 
  • Improved client/customer experience
    Over time, staff build rapports with clients/customers, as they become recognised for their service and support. Having employees who have strong relationship are incredible assets to an organisation as they clients/customers are more likely to continue engaging with a service if they have a repeat positive experience. 

    Having high staff turnover prevents these relationships from developing, and so decreases the likelihood of someone developing brand loyalty through relationships with staff members at an organisation.