Retaining talent with creativity and thought leadership

Recruitment is a process many businesses would like to make as easy as possible. There are hidden costs everywhere and the cost of choosing the wrong candidate can be enormous.

To avoid this, businesses must reduce turnover costs and ensure they retain and recruit the best talent possible. According to a recent Mercer report, this can be achieved through creative employee benefits.

Being competitive is still an important consideration, but more emphasis must been placed on employee benefits and self-promotion of the business.

In Mercer's report of 353 organisations, businesses with sufficient employee benefit plans had a much lower turnover rate (12 per cent) compared to the general market. In fact, both voluntary and involuntary turnover was lower in these companies.

Employees with benefits were also found to be more willing to work longer hours with 43 per cent of senior management work longer than 50 hours per week. This compared to just 25 per cent across the open market.

Leader of Mercer's Talent business for the Pacific, Garry Adams, explained the process can be described as 'give a little, get a little'.

"Today's workforce holds the attitudes, values, and goals of four generations, which presents a massive challenge for employers to engage and retain workers to achieve business success," he said.

"Offering stock standard competitive employee benefits will become a thing of the past and we are seeing this happen already."

Mr Adams stated businesses must do more than just copy what other companies are doing.

"Our analysis has proven you are much more likely to create a positive business impact such as increasing productivity and reducing staff turnover, by offering innovative benefits that address a specific outcome," he concluded.

Another way to improve turnover rates is to invest in efficiency software and productivity solutions that are designed to help your employees stay focused and reap the spoils of their efforts.