Could flexible benefits aid retention when budgets are tight?

Companies may find retention increasingly difficult if they expect their staff to do more work for less pay.

According to Badenoch & Clark managing director Lynne Hardman, employers will need to think creatively if they want to keep their staff now that the UK is emerging from recession.

In-house research found that 77 per cent of British staff who took paycuts to keep their job during the downturn have not returned to their former salary level.

"Where budgets are tight, employers need to find other ways to incentivise staff to keep them engaged and to prevent them from looking for new opportunities," Ms Hardman remarked.

Implementing flexible benefits could be one cost-effective way of boosting retention, motivation and head counts.

Allowing staff to choose their own hours or operate from home occasionally could form part of this type of package, along with offering personally-tailored maternity or paternity leave deals to parents. Back