Recruitment
Strategies for Attracting Staff Attracting and retaining staff is at the forefront of all Finance Managers minds due to the global candidate shortage resulting in an extremely competitive market. Hiring and retaining qualified employees is a challenge all companies face. Having the right staff directly impacts an organisations ability to maximise productivity and achieve business goals. More often than not companies are not aware that approximately 52% of its finance department are actively or passively seeking looking for a new job at any one time according to a recent survey held by Robert Half International. The impact of staff leaving can have a detrimental affect on the business as a high turnover of staff drain resources and undermine efficiencies. The survey also states that 42% of finance staff had been in their role for under a year and only 43% had tenure of one to three years. The theory remains that it costs a company three times the candidate’s salary to replace them. This includes a loss in productivity not just in their role but also in the role of their colleagues as they are often affected by staff, a loss in knowledge and to the Manager a loss in time spent in the core business as their focus is diverted to hiring and training. Back filling a role in most cases is counter productive versus recruiting additional staff. There are a number of reasons why employees leave an organisation and to a large extent it is this analysis that will empower the employer to be a company of choice to attract and retain its staff. The top ten reasons are:
In the current climate you can not rely on the above ten factors alone to differentiate yourself as an employer. It is common that good candidates will be snapped up within days of looking and will have multiple offers to decide upon. Companies are now in a position where they will need to be creative with their over-all package to employees. The key to securing the candidate at offer stage is by offering a transparent remuneration package including individual performance related bonus and non-wage incentives and other perks. Organisations are more likely to ‘seal the deal’ and retain its staff if they not only have a clear strategy in place to attract and bed down staff but if they also think outside of the box. Examples include:
Introduced in the recent years by some of the big four were benefits packages as a part of your over-all remuneration whereby you were granted a certain number of points to ‘go shopping’ with. Each benefit was worth a number of points and each employee was allocated points as a part of their package. The system worked well as each employee is motivated by different things and this system catered for that. For example someone who wanted 30 days holiday would use up more of their points versus someone who wanted 20 days holiday but allocated the other points into maybe a superannuation fund or school fees. Staff retention continually becomes a number one priority for most companies. The reality is that by offering further incentives or paying above the market rate will be a differentiator however, there are a number of less tangible concepts that impact staff retention. Firstly, one of the deciding factors is to work for a company where the employee feels like they can add-value and assist in the growth strategy of the organisation. This means that organisations need to be demonstrating their vision and communicating this across the layers of management and down. Companies must be committed to invest in either reinvesting in its current streams of business, new product/services launch, geographical expansion or M&A. Secondly, it is the person you work for and the people you work with that creates a culture conducive for the staff to want to come to the office. The opportunity to work with a proven Finance Director or CFO whom an employee feels they can work with and learn from is paramount. This is how your high performers manage their career and how you can attract and retain high potential into your department. Nicole Gorton |
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