Employee turnover, staff retention, competitive hiring markets--we've all heard the buzz. Just how long does it take to replace employees? According to a recent Accountemps survey of 1,400 chief financial officers, it takes an average of 16 weeks to replace an executive. It takes about 10 weeks to fill a middle management job, and seven weeks for other staff positions.
The IT (information technology) industry has taken a particular beating in the employee retention war. Brenda Wilbur, chief operating officer of CompuWorks, an Inc. 500 computer-systems integration company, shares these staff retention tips in Compaq's ProfitPAQ newsletter:
Five crucial
1. Give personal and team recognition. CompuWorks presents a "Wizard of the Week" award to an employee who "goes the extra mile."
2. Offer flexibility. The company deposits 10 hours of free time into employees' time-off accounts every month.
3. Involve employees in decision making. Approximately one-third of CompuWorks advisory board members are employees elected by peers.
4. Communicate, communicate, communicate. The company president answers anonymous staff questions on the company's intranet.
5. Train like crazy. CompuWorks teaches staff how to read key financial statements, challenges them to work on fictitious ones, and tasks them to develop their own departmental scoreboards.
Net connections:
http://www.accountemps.com
http://www.inc.com/compaq
Reprinted from T&D Extra. Copyright 1999, the American Society for Training & Development (www.astd.org). Reprinted with permission.
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