Employers ignore staff needs
Employers do not properly understand what motivates their staff to continue working for them, according to a report by one of the world’s largest recruitment and HR services companies.
Randstad ranked the main factors driving people to stay at UK companies as their brand, culture and the benefits packages on offer. This was in sharp contrast to what employees ranked as the most important factors: level of remuneration, training and development, a good career path and flexible working conditions. The report also found that over 50 per cent of people feel their skills are under utilised.
Among the most disillusioned were those that during the economic downturn have improved their skills to cover additional responsibilities, often because organisations have not hired new staff.
This group represents a third of permanent staff and a fifth of interims and contractors and has been dubbed “Generation R”.
The report highlights that there is growing gap between what organisations think will motivate their key talent to stay with them and what their employees actually say will retain them. Brian Wilkinson, head of Randstad UK, said: “It is important that organisations act now to resolve this gulf in understanding, otherwise they risk losing talented people who have up-skilled during the recession and made themselves more valuable.”
Wilkinson added: “While organisations are focusing on the realities of today, they must not lose sight of the long-term trends which point towards skill shortages, particularly as the number of people of working age declines and the population ages.”