Ways to retain your key staff (and not just with cold, hard cash)

In these challenging times, employers are having to balance their potentially increasing wages bill against negative effects suffered as a result of the pandemic.

However, retaining key employees is vital to any successful business and in the current tight labour market key employees could be lured away by competitors.

But ... salary is not always the key driver for staff looking to leave.

Those who nurture their employees, take time to listen to them, and support their learning and development, will likely have engaged employees demonstrating increased satisfaction, commitment and loyalty.

Another key component of engaged employees is their relationship with their line manager. Interestingly, Gallup (2021) found:

• it takes more than a 20% pay rise to lure employees away from a manager who engages them; but

• it takes very little to poach disengaged workers

We know that employee engagement correlates strongly to employee retention, so if managers can maximise employee relationships, offer their staff valuable learning and development opportunities, and listen to their voice, staff churn can probably be minimised. Given estimated costs of replacing an employee run to 1.5-2.0 times annual salary, this also makes sound business sense.

We acknowledge that some employers are struggling to increase their wages bills in line with inflation. The National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage rates are also set to increase on 1 April as below.

Employers who can only afford to keep wages at or around these minimum levels - or indeed any business who may struggle with wage increases - could find the above retention strategies helpful in retaining their key staff.

	Rate from Apr 2022	Current Rate	Increase
National Living Wage	£9.50	£8.91	6.6%
21-22 Year Old Rate	£9.18	£8.36	9.8%
18-20 Year Old Rate	£6.83	£6.56	4.1%
16-17 Year Old Rate	£4.81	£4.62	4.1%
Apprentice Rate	£4.81	£4.30	11.9%
Accommodation Offset	£8.70	£8.36	4.1%

Source: www.gov.uk

Gallup, 2021. The 'Great Resignation' is really the 'Great Discontent'. Available at: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/351545/great-resignation-really-great-discontent.aspx