People Dynamics Newsletter - People Matters
Issue 41, July 2008 | Back to Newsletters Index
PD News
Welcome to a New Financial Year!
I’m sure like us, you are busy finalising end of year accounts and gearing up for this financial year. Our exciting news is we are about to launch a campaign advertising on state of the art LCD screens in elevators, which will start mid July in Melbourne CBD and go to Brisbane and Sydney later in the year. The campaign focuses on helping people become “unstuck” with their HR issues. Let us know if you see us!
The other news is our long awaited upgrade of our EPMS (Employee Performance Management System) which allows you to do your appraisals on line is about to be launched. This will also be ready for mid July. Current clients will experience a faster, more robust and friendlier system. We will be in contact with you about this.
Turnover Nightmares
The current situation with retaining talent in organisations is getting worse, with recent surveys indicating staff turnover has increased by 5% in Australia, with an estimated cost of $20 billion dollars to the economy. Some companies have armed themselves well with proper employee retention strategies in place, where HR is reporting to the CEO.
Others are struggling. Most don't know what to do about the situation as even if they have identified there is an issue, no one has been assigned responsibility for the proposed retention strategies.
One suggestion for improving retention is to make the shift from spending money on recruitment to that of retention. Other suggestions are to improve your induction process— it has been found by some surveys that almost 47% of people leave within the first 90 days of employment with a business. Other suggestions are to improve employee communications, look at offering greater learning and development opportunities and career planning. No matter which way you develop your retention strategies, make sure you have a budget allocated to this area, and assigned responsibilities. (source, HR Monthly, March 08)
We offer a number of retention tools from simple cultural assessments and staff surveys, to profiling providing a greater understanding of how managers can motivate their staff the way staff want to be motivated. Contact us for more details.
Legal Update
The Productivity Commission is to review Paid Maternity leave, taking into account factors such as the impact on small to medium sized businesses, how it will affect the employment of women and how it might help the financial pressures families face. The commission is expected to report on their findings early next year.
Further information can be found at www.pc.gov.au