Why staff retention is so important for SMEs

People play a vital role in the success of any business, both large and small, which means keeping talented members of staff is absolutely essential.

This means a focus on salaries, job satisfaction and work-life balance is needed as a new report from the London School of Business and Finance suggests bosses need to do more to keep staff content.

Some 47% of those questioned revealed that they want to change their jobs but stay in the same sector, while one in five said they wanted to switch careers altogether.

This suggests that they are not satisfied with their employment and that small businesses should take action to remedy the situation.

The reason for the high level of dissatisfaction is because workers feel they can find better salaries, workloads and satisfaction if they move elsewhere.

Workers aged between 18 and 24 were those most likely to look for a career change, as 68% said a different career might appeal to them.

The figure was marginally lower among 25-34 year olds as 65% said they were considering a new role.

A desire for change was found to reduce with age, as only 19% of those aged 55 and over desired a job switch.

The report suggests that an increase in the number of job options available is one of the major reasons for the high levels of people wishing to change jobs.

Small businesses should take note, as they may be able to boost happiness among their workforce by implementing some basic changes within their business.

Recruitment processes for small firms can cost a considerable amount, while added training and staff development outlays can also place pressures on finance.

Losing skilled individuals can impact on the rest of the workforce too as they could easily become dissatisfied and productivity could drop as a result.

This could have any number of negative impacts in the long term and could leave a firm requiring business rescue in the severest of situations where finances are not managed properly.

Given the high proportion of workers looking to switch roles, employers may wish to consider ways of keeping their staff on-side such as by offering perks or bonuses for example.

By Phil Smith

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