Employer survey good news for workers wanting more

July 3, 2007

Employer survey good news for workers wanting more money

A new survey released by Hudson today is good news for employees – for many New Zealand companies, financial rewards are the most popular and effective way to hold on to good staff.

The findings, from a survey of 1,567 New Zealand employers, are published in the latest Hudson Report: Finders, Keepers: Attracting and Retaining the Right People.

The survey shows that nearly one-third (29%) of employers surveyed said financial rewards were the most effective way to keep staff, followed by flexible work options (22%), formal coaching (11%), leadership development (10%), and succession planning (10%).

But Hudson’s executive general manager, Marc Burrage, cautions that financial rewards alone are not enough to ensure job satisfaction for employees or for employers to hold on to good staff.

“Financial incentives will very rarely be the one-and-only solution. Employees may think that more money will make them happy in their current job and employers may act on that perception – but money alone will not be enough to keep someone in a job.

“Good retention is not about trying to hold on to all staff. It’s about holding on to the organisation’s current and future stars – those who are a good fit with the organisation’s values. If companies are not holding on to those people, it’s most likely unrelated to pay packages and more related to the entire employment offer,” said Mr Burrage.

Mr Burrage said a contributing factor to employees wanting and being able to get financial incentives to stay in positions may be that employers have less power to say ‘no’ in a skills-short market.

Employers from a cross-section of industries were surveyed including financial services, healthcare, education, manufacturing, information technology, telecommunications, tourism and hospitality and transport.

Mr Burrage said the report’s findings confirmed the need for organisations to be flexible about the way potential and existing employees can work for them, especially in the current climate where there was a lack of skilled workers.

“As a nation we value family life and our lifestyles. Providing people with quality flexible work options is a sound way to attract and keep good staff.

“Poor retention results in low staff morale, damage to an employer’s brand, compromised service delivery and an undoubted impact on the financial bottom line.”

Five recommended ways to retain good staff are:

* Align the company’s recruitment strategy with the business plan to ensure employees are a good fit with the organisation and its goals

* Provide leadership training and succession planning to create future leaders

* Train managers in interpersonal skills so they can understand who to recruit

* Use formal coaching to help employees be more successful in new roles or existing ones

* Offer a variety of retention initiatives to hold on to good staff.

Industry Highlights
Flexible work options are more widely used by government and education employers than financial incentives.

Almost a quarter (24 per cent) of government organisations surveyed offered flexible work options and 11 per cent offered financial incentives. More than a quarter (27 per cent) of government healthcare organisations surveyed offered flexible work options and six per cent offered financial incentives.

Of the education organisations surveyed, almost a quarter (24 per cent) offered flexible work options and 16 per cent offered financial incentives.

“There may be a number of reasons for the popularity of flexible work options within government,” said Mr Burrage.

“These could include political sensitivity around using financial incentives to retain staff and the lead central government has taken in recent years to promote flexible work options.”

Regional Highlights
Employers in the South Island are better at retaining staff than the North Island. The South Island has the lowest staff turnover followed by the upper North Island, then the lower North Island. Just over half the South Island employers surveyed (51 per cent) have a turnover of 0 to 10 per cent, compared with one third (33 per cent) of employers in the lower North Island and 40 per cent of employers in the upper North Island.

Low turnover for South Island employers may be because people sometimes take up roles there for lifestyle reasons, so are less likely in turn to leave their jobs,” said Mr Burrage.

ENDS

About the Hudson Report
The Hudson Report is an initiative from Hudson and based on nationwide research. Part one of the bi-annual Hudson Report uncovers and analyses the hiring expectations of New Zealand employers. Part two of the report provides insights into a range of topical human resource issues currently affecting business. This is part two of the report.

Hudson recruitment professionals personally surveyed 1,567 participants to collect the data for the survey on staff retention, Finders, Keepers: Attracting and Retaining the Right People. The Hudson Report combines the expectations of key employment decision-makers from all major industries across the spectrum of organisation sizes.

About Hudson
Hudson delivers specialised professional staffing, outsourcing, and talent management solutions worldwide. From single placements to total solutions, the firm helps clients achieve greater organisational performance by assessing, recruiting, developing and engaging the best and brightest people for their businesses.

Hudson is a division of Hudson Highland Group, Inc. one of the world’s leading professional staffing, retained executive search and talent management solution providers. The company employs more than 3,800 professionals serving clients and candidates in more than 20 countries. More information is available at www.hudson.com

ENDS

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