BUSINESS, TOGETHER
ATTRACTING AND RETAINING TALENT The question I hear from every business I visit (no matter the industry) is, ‘How do I get good staff?’
T
he talent shortage has put a massive strain on businesses. So how do you attract and retain good staff? I visited one business so scared of losing valuable staff members that they gave them pay increases up to four times a year. While I am sure the employees would have loved it, it is not sustainable. It doesn’t help with future staff and may not even be what drives the employees’ contentedness in their role. We now have five generations on the global workforce, and they all want different things. The tables below outline the different attributes of each of the generations. If you are a baby boomer and employ a millennial, you need to know that the same things do not drive them. You worked long and hard to establish your place in your career and were driven by salary. Millennials need constant feedback and personal relationships to strive. They will not leave a position simply because they will get paid $5000 more somewhere else. An environment that gives them flexibility and knowledge across several facets of the business will encourage them to stay. When given the right tools to succeed, they will
work smarter (not necessarily harder), which can have a big impact on your business. Another big shift in the labour market is the number of careers a person will have in their working lifetime. A baby boomer would generally have 1-2 careers in their working life, whereas now we are seeing a shift of 3-8 careers. You should expect that younger staff will leave. Therefore, businesses must create the right processes to bring in new people. Also, be open to taking someone from a different career path initially – they are out there and looking to make a change. They are also incredibly smart and technologically savvy and can help take your business further if given the opportunity. There are a few points that you can think about actioning to help with retaining staff in a new and different labour market: • Give adequate training and access – 40% of employees will leave their jobs in the first year if they don’t receive the necessary training to be effective in their roles. • Be aware and accept the new realities of the labour force.
• Create purpose – It is more
important than paycheques. • Ensure flexibility and agility in
working conditions. • Provide opportunities for
continuous learning. • Coach rather than be a boss. • Have ongoing discussions about
performance and development – don’t just leave this for annual reviews (if you even do this). • Focus on strengths, not weaknesses. • Maintain and encourage a healthy work-life balance. Leaders need to shift from control as a leader to mentoring as a leader. Richard Branson put it perfectly when he said, “Train people well enough so they can leave; treat them well enough, so they don’t want to.”
Roylance Watson is a chartered accountant and associate at Vazey Child Chartered Accountants in Hamilton. Email: roylancew@vazeychild.co.nz Phone: (07) 838 5988 Website: vazeychild.co.nz
Generation
Born
Attributes
Career Goals
Mentoring
Retention
Workplace
Traditionalists
19251945
Loyal, obedient, dedicated, sacrifice
Build legacy, one company
Not required
Loyalty
Office only
Baby boomers
19461964
Optimism, work ethic, team orientation
Build a single career
No negative feedback
Salary
Long hours – office only
Generation X
19651981
Positive attitude, goal orientation, Transferrable multi-tasking, think globally career
Think globally
Security, salary
Office/home – desires flexibility
Generation Y (Millennials)
19821994
Confidence, sociability, morality, diversity, technology savvy
Multiple careers, multiple industries
Generation Z (Digital
19952012
Diversity, social responsibility, global connectivity, technology sophistication
Prefers communicating through social networks and instant messaging and considers email to be ‘yesterday’. Just starting to enter the workforce.
Natives)
124 New Zealand Trucking
September 2022
Constant feedback
Personal Office/home relationship flexibility
