Employers Boost Retention Strategies for Fleeing Workforce

November 16, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and CareerJournal.com found that 49% of organizations have implemented special employee retention tactics compared to 35% in 2004.

In its press release, SHRM said 76% of employees are looking for new jobs according to the 2005 US Job Recovery and Retention Survey. Sixty-five percent of HR professionals say they are concerned about voluntary resignations at their companies.

HR professionals say competitive salaries, career development opportunities, qualified employee promotions and flexible work schedules are among the best employee retention strategies, according to SHRM. Salary increases are considered the most valuable strategy, but are also the most difficult to provide due to companies’ caution to increase spending.

Creating programs that help employees see their potential for growth within an organization, working with managers to develop career paths for non-management-level employees, creating a more favorable work environment and implementing better work/life practices such as flextime and telecommuting are strategies other than financial incentives SHRM listed for employers to improve turnover rates.

The survey found that employees and employers agreed on the top reasons employees left their jobs. They are:

  • Better compensation elsewhere – 41% employees, 50% HR professionals
  • Career opportunity elsewhere – 34% employees, 51% HR professionals
  • Dissatisfaction with potential career development at current organization – 25% employees, 31% HR professionals.

In addition, 23% of employees said that being ready for a new opportunity was an important reason for searching for a new job.

The survey yielded 435 responses from HR professionals who are members of SHRM and 465 employee responses from CareerJournal.com visitors.

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