Downturn hasn’t ended the war for talent…

There are lots of articles surrounding this issue at the moment but are businesses really planning long term? Many businesses are pulling recruitment and looking to reduce employees hours but are there other ways of doing drastic money saving exercises? Yes there are, even the most affective industry is ignoring the blanket cost cutting exercises… the banking industry have published statements saying they will keep paying bonuses otherwise they will lose talent.

A recent article in the People Management magazine regarding The War on Talent report found that while a quarter of the 705 respondents have had to downsize, 97 per cent have consciously preserved their top talent. A further 18 per cent of firms are actually placing more emphasis on identifying, developing and retaining talent.

It is time that HR professionals show they can deliver what they preach, but helping an employee retain their job through this difficult period also means that they keep them when the recession is over and other businesses don’t tempt them way once the economy has recovered.

As previously mentioned the banking industry is openly stating they will keep paying bonuses despite making a loss and being bailed out by government. However, what if the publicly known retention strategy turns customers away for life? A true HR professional these days has to be aware that things they do affect the business directly, having no customers as a result of a public HR strategy has to be a bad move.

I personally feel that within the banking industry the HR professionals have not thought about the greater impact on the business, yes they will keep the top talent but they might not have any customers!

Could they not have altered their long term thinking and offered an “on hold” policy on the incentive scheme, which would then reward employees more in the future as a way of thanking them? Therefore, their retention strategy would be more affective because when the economy has recovered, their employees could possibly end up being greater rewarded and the business would regain customer support.

When we think of retention we need to remember we need a business to employ the employee.