HR professionals look to retain staff for upturn

BUSINESSES are showing greater willingness to be creative and flexible to retain talent during the recession according to a Lancashire based HR expert.

Tina Clayton, a human resources consultant at Moore and Smalley Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors, believes lessons have been learnt from previous recessions when skilled workers were sacrificed to achieve the required cost savings.

Tina, who advises hundreds of North West businesses on HR matters, said she has witnessed a huge increase in companies showing greater commitment to look at alternatives to redundancy, such as shorter working weeks, offering employees unpaid leave, and negotiations over pay cuts to protect jobs and retain skills.

This week it was revealed that British Airways was consulting its staff about working without pay for up to a month in order to bring the company’s debts under control.

Half the companies polled in a recent survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said they had introduced recruitment freezes as an alternative to redundancy, 44 per cent had terminated agency or temporary worker contracts instead of cutting in-house staff, while 15 per cent had introduced short-term working. Further measures included making greater use of flexible working (19 per cent), cutting bonuses (17 per cent) and wage reductions (7 per cent).

Tina said: “We know from history that no matter how long and deep a recession, the upturn eventually arrives only to leave many companies with the prospect of stunted growth because they lost their skilled workers and talented managers in the preceding months.

“Refreshingly it seems that this time around more businesses have been willing to embrace progressive HR practices, looking for alternatives to redundancy in favour of more flexible solutions.

“We’ve seen everyone from major manufacturers to owner-managed SMEs and entrepreneurs reducing the working week, consulting staff on unpaid leave or pay deferrals, or allowing staff to sacrifice pay rises in return for greater job security.”

Tina recommends that companies communicate with their employees at the earliest opportunity if they considering changing working practices.

She adds: “Building a wall of silence about possible changes to working practices only leads to suspicion. We always advise our clients to consult with their employees straight away and many are surprised at how understanding their employees can be, especially during these difficult times.”

Tina’s five top tips for retaining talent in a recession:

1. Identify who you are worried about losing: Are you really concerned about senior manager leaving or is it those with specialist skills in other areas of the business. Talent is found across the organisation. Locate it and decide how you can keep hold of it.
2. Evaluate your employees’ skills: This is useful for ensuring your staff are working in the right place and get the best opportunities to add value to the business. Staff that feel they are not getting the right opportunities will leave.
3. Communicate honestly and early: Putting up a wall of silence about how the company is performing benefits nobody and leads only to suspicion. Be clear about your organisation’s strategy for handling the economic climate, whether in good times or bad.
4. Be flexible and creative: Shedding jobs when the going gets tough should never be seen as the only option. Explore a range of possibilities to avoid job cuts, either by working with your HR team or by getting expert HR advice.
5. Take a long term view: Good HR skills are needed by companies in good times and bad. It shouldn’t take a recession for organisations to get focused on skills. Retaining and developing talent should be a constant objective.