Businesses ''should focus on staff retention''

Despite the large numbers of people seeking employment, companies should not be complacent and should focus on staff retention, an employment institute has said.

The Chartered Management Institute said firms should not "throw money" around in order to ensure retention of top workers, but should look at the employee benefits available, including training and development opportunities.

Mike Petrook, head of public affairs at the institute, said: "What staff are saying is they want to develop their skills now in order to build up their abilities for the future."

He said that many firms had lost key employees to redundancy and staff were leaving posts due to perceived insecurity, as they search for more settled positions.

One of the core elements to key-staff retention was job rotation and giving employees new projects to work on to help develop their skills, Mr Petrook added.

He was responding to research by GfK NOP, which last week indicated that almost a quarter of UK employees plan to leave their current job within a year. Back