Half of the UK workforce want to change jobs by Christmas?

Employers have been urged to review their staff retention programmes to ensure that their best employees don’t jump ship as the economy begins to pick up.

The call came after a pan-European survey of more than 7,500 workers, by consultancy Aon Consulting, revealed than nearly half (47%) of the 1,000 UK respondents were planning on looking for a new job before the end of the year. The research showed that men (48%) are marginally more likely than women (47%) to look for a new job.

Peter Abelskamp, executive director of health and benefits for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Aon Consulting, said the austerity measures taken by employers to counter the recession have created discontent among employees, meaning the risk of of losing key personnel was “definitely very real”. ”This could seriously undermine an organisation’s competitive position once the recovery takes hold,” he said. “Without doubt, if you consider an employee to be valuable, the chances are that your competitors will too. Now is an ideal time to rally the troops and incentivise talented personnel.”

Can we help? Contact us at enquiries@skillsventure.com or 020 7871 4485 to find out more.

Skills Venture and corporate social responsibility

This month, HR Magazine in the US devoted two articles to the hot topic of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Both emphasised the increasing sophistication of CSR strategies, and their value to the company, the individual employee and society in general.

In ‘Ground Force’, the magazine emphasises the importance of well-designed CSR programmes in developing future leaders. At IBM, for instance, the ‘Corporate Service Corps’ challenges high-performing staff to find solutions to real-world problems all over the globe. Stan Litow, President of the IBM International Foundation and Vice President of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs, comments that the benefits go three ways: “There’s the individual benefit of the most extraordinary leadership development program, which many describe as the experience of a lifetime. There’s a benefit in the community, the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of business consulting services and each engagement really helping people solve problems, grow jobs, and improve their economy. Finally, there’s a benefit to the company in growing a generation of leaders who have a much more grounded understanding about growth markets and culture in the communities where we see our future.” He goes on to talk about the wider benefits in terms of retaining top staff by offering them these kinds of programme, and the recruitment benefit of being able to offer prospective staff similar opportunities in the future.

The key point here is that CSR is about so much more than curbing the harm that your organisation does, or undertaking some token community activity that will look good in your annual report. It needs to be integrated with all of your business processes – most crucially with the HR function, but also with business development – so that the wide range of benefits described above are realised. When you are growing a new generation of leaders who need to be able to see the world differently and to innovate in a climate of constant change, these well-designed CSR initiatives are the best weapon in the corporate armoury.

In ‘You Get What You Give’, the CSR initiatives of several other major players are examined. For example, AMD has recently created the Community Corps, a skills-based volunteerism initiative. “Employees are placed in a non-profit organisation so that their skills are shared and they do something good in the process – and then whatever they learn is brought right back to the company, so it’s a benefit for AMD as well”, says Allyson Peerman, Vice President of Public Affairs.

The recession has tested the CSR function, and has not found it wanting, as the Global Director for Corporate Citizenship at Dow Chemical Company, Bo Miller, suggests: “Over the past five or six years we’re really seen corporate citizenship driving further into the business and seen it become more aligned with our business strategy at Dow. So when businesses like ours found ourselves in pretty challenging times and budget cuts were required, we felt that same pressure equal to any other function or group within the company, wherein the past it would have been disproportionate – and not in our favour. It’s been a test environment really, and proves the function is understood by senior management.”

It’s clear that corporate social responsibility is here to stay, and that a well designed, and aligned, strategy will pay real dividends for shareholders, consumers, and society as a whole, now and in the long term.

Africa: emerging market of the 21st century

As the Economist recently reported, Africa has in the last ten years gone from being the ‘hopeless continent’ to something of a powerhouse of economic growth.

Annual output across Africa grew by 4.9% between 2000 and 2008, twice as fast as in the 1980s and 1990s and faster than the global average of 3.8%. Foreign direct investment is higher in Africa than in India and is rapidly approaching levels seen in China. And growth has happened outside the natural resources sector, in services and agribusiness.

Economic growth is pushing up standards of living, to the extent that around 200 million Africans will enter the market for consumer goods in the next five years. It is hardly surprising that the world’s largest consumer good firms are pouring into the continent, which for them is simultaneously a source of cheap labour and a growing base of consumers. As discussed in previous posts, innovation is thriving in a continent where few markets are saturated, and where products and services can be consumed in new, more efficient ways: a source of valuable lessons for the West.

There is a lot that Western companies and individuals can learn from Africa. Let us help you to learn it directly!

Investing in internal talent: how we can help

It seems counter-intuitive that, with around 2.5 million people out of work in the UK, employers are finding it hard to recruit people with the right skills and experience. However, this is undoubtedly the case, and it is unsurprising that employers are therefore focusing on developing, and retaining, their internal talent. But where are the numbers to back up this assertion, and how can an overseas assignment help in this context?

There is no doubt that a high turnover of staff is extremely expensive. Recent studies have estimated that the cost of replacing a member of staff, including recruitment and training, is at least 150% of the annual salary attached to the post, and nearer 200% to 250% for managerial and sales positions, where more comprehensive training is needed.

However, many organisations could be accused of having put staff morale, and therefore retention rates, at the bottom of the pile over recent months, as they have struggled to adapt to leaner economic conditions. Fewer people have had to do more work, with the result that levels of job satisfaction (and thus loyalty to the employer) are at an all-time low.

Talent management strategies that deal holistically with the goals of developing staff through learning and leadership programmes, and rewarding and motivating high performers, are increasingly seen as the best way for organisations to stay on the front foot in the battle for talent. Skills Venture’s overseas assignments provide an excellent way of inspiring and rewarding staff while developing them in new directions – read on to find out more.

Kenya: the engine room of innovation?

Everyone’s talking about emerging markets these days, especially since growth rates in the developed world slipped into or near the red. The BRICS are still a hot topic, and Africa is mentioned frequently, but generally in the context of high-risk, high-reward. Yet, as an increasing number of studies (and news stories) are showing, many countries in Africa, with Kenya at the vanguard, are at the cutting edge of innovation in serving the huge, relatively untapped market at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’.

What practical examples of this growth are there in Kenya? The most frequently cited case study is the inexorable rise in mobile phone usage, and the novel ways in which this technology is being put to use to ‘leapfrog’ older technologies that never made it to most of Africa, such as fixed telephone lines (and, to some extent, fixed power lines). Kenya has seen blistering growth in mobile phone ownership: from just 200,000 users in 2000, there are now more than 17.5 million people with mobile phones out of a population of 38.5 million.

First came reports of fishermen using mobile phones to work out which villages along the shore were running low on stocks, and therefore would give them the best possible price for their catch. Similar stories of efficiencies – in fact, of markets finally working efficiently – came from the agribusiness and services sectors further inland. Then came M-PESA – the revolutionary system that allowed anyone with a mobile phone to transfer money by text message, without a bank account. This has recently been followed by M-KESHO, an alliance between Safaricom and Equity Bank, which allows Kenyans without conventional bank accounts to have a ‘branchless’ bank account, receive interest and even access loans.

In amongst all of this ingenuity, a multitude of micro-entrepreneurs are building up businesses that mix traditional models with newer ways of doing things – some completely untested. Many fail, but some succeed – and how. It’s an intoxicating place to do business. Why not see how your employees can learn from, and be inspired by, this hothouse of innovation and dynamism? Click here to find out more.

Time to give your employees some TLC?

Your best people have had a tough time over the last 18 months. They’ve stuck with you, and got on with the job. But they’re not exactly motoring ahead with a full tank. The warning signs of employee burnout are all there: lower productivity, higher levels of absenteeism, a lack of spark and happiness in the office. More deadlines missed. Unhappy clients, unhappy staff. Fresh thinking absent.

You are well aware that your employees need a chance to rediscover their passion for the job, to get back some energy and some motivation, so that they will come back to work refreshed, reinvigorated, and full of new ideas. At the same time, wouldn’t it be nice to find a programme that was cost-effective, didn’t take people out of the office for too long, and recharged your employees while giving them valuable leadership and team-working skills AND helping to meet the company’s social responsibility goals?

More and more people want to have the chance to travel widely, to see new places and meet new people, and to try to make a difference while they are there. Skills Venture makes this possible.

Rather than a conventional short-term volunteering project, where professional people waste their talents by building schools or clinics (much to the bewilderment of the locals), Skills Venture matches each employee with one or more African entrepreneurs, whose needs match the skills and experience of the volunteer.

The volunteer provides practical mentoring support and advice to the entrepreneurs, and helps to grow a business, create more jobs, and so to lift people out of poverty. All in as little as a week. It’s a great way for your employees to rediscover their energy and enthusiasm, while developing themselves and making a real difference into the bargain.

Why Skills Venture makes sense in a downturn

As the economic situation becomes increasingly gloomy, setting up an overseas volunteering programme may not appear to be a top priority for many businesses, but maintaining a rock- solid talent base has to be a priority at all times.

Many will be looking to cut costs by downsizing, outsourcing, cutting budgets and slashing short term spending. A large number are facing the prospect of redundancies and are struggling to maintain levels of motivation and morale among remaining staff.

These circumstances will tempt many employers to cut back on their investment in employee engagement and development programmes. This can produce seemingly attractive short-term savings, but in the long term the increased turnover rates and lower levels of productivity will cost much more than the initial savings.

In fact, the harsher economic climate means that employers need to invest more in their staff, to bolster their morale and their productivity and to ensure that employee turnover is minimised, thus avoiding the expense of hiring and training new staff members.

Even in a downturn, the most talented people are capable of seeking out a better deal, and in recent years skills shortages have persisted at a high level even during periods of relative slowdown. Organisations faced with tougher trading conditions will be desperate to recruit and retain the best talent to enhance their performance and competitiveness, but the cash required to achieve this will be limited. HR professionals will need to find new, innovative and cost-effective ways to increase retention rates.

Skilled volunteering  assignments – whether in the form of short-term team trips or longer-term individual placements – are an excellent way to improve productivity, build skills and bolster retention rates. In many cases they are also an inexpensive and long-term alternative to implementing redundancies.

On skilled volunteering

Many organisations offer ‘adult gap years’, where participants spend time in Africa or elsewhere painting a school or undertaking basic conservation work. While such projects are often beneficial to the participants and rarely do any harm to the host community, many are vulnerable to the accusation that the work could have been done better by a local who needed the money.

Out of 25,000 Britons who volunteered overseas in 2006, some 62% were post-gap year. Until now, skilled volunteering opportunities have either been limited to people in certain careers (such as teachers, engineers or doctors), or have required a time commitment or a year or more (as with many VSO placements).

There is a clear need to ensure that the benefits to host communities stay at the forefront of volunteering projects. One cause for concern is that few short-term voluntary assignments aimed at the post-gap year market make any attempt to capitalise on the skills that these people can offer. A Tourism Concern survey suggested that 69% of UK volunteering organisations do not ask for any relevant qualifications from prospective volunteers. The majority of projects offered are in unskilled areas such as construction, where it is arguable that the job could be better done by locals who need the employment and income.

For those who are looking to volunteer overseas with some degree of work experience, this begs the question of whether the skills that they have acquired can be used productively during their trip. Plenty of opportunities exist for teachers, doctors, engineers and the like. But what about people who have a generic business background – perhaps in HR, or marketing, or financial management? A VSO survey indicates that 37% of people in the UK want to use their business skills to help people overseas.

Working with businesses is the best way to share skills, and it also creates long sustainable employment and wealth within local communities. Volunteers might be providing a specific consulting input, or more generalised mentoring support. Opportunities exist to volunteer for almost any timeframe, from less than a week to a year or more.

A skilled volunteering placement that allows employees to use their business skills in this way is a unique way of developing staff that also has significant benefits in terms of motivation, loyalty, recruitment and retention. It is a powerful way to demonstrate that your company is at the cutting edge of innovation in terms of corporate social responsibility and talent development.

On employee engagement

Much is spoken about employee engagement, but what does it mean in practice?

Look for a definition of engagement, and you find the ‘harnessing of organisational members’ selves to their work roles’, and the notion of ‘flow’: the ‘holistic sensation’ that people feel when they act with total involvement. In effect, it is a modernised version of job satisfaction, and thus of morale, with the implied level of commitment to the job that accompanies it.

The academic literature is full of evidence of the links between levels of engagement and desirable business outcomes such as retention of talent, customer service, individual performance, team performance, business unit productivity, and even enterprise-level financial performance:

• Employee engagement scores account for as much as half of the variance in customer satisfaction scores. This translates into millions of pounds (or dollars) for companies if they can improve their scores.
• Studies have statistically demonstrated that engaged employees are more productive, more profitable, more customer-focused, safer, and less likely to leave their employer (employees with the highest level of commitment perform 20% better and are 87% less likely to leave the organisation).
• Another study found a 52% gap in operating incomes between companies with highly engaged employees and companies whose employees have low-engagement scores.

And yet, the literature suggests that only 29% of employees are actively engaged in their jobs. How to improve this?

Of course, the answers to this question are endless. But have you considered novel ways of investing in your employees, of showing that you value their contribution and that the values of your organisation are aligned with theirs? Read more about the benefits of a Skills Venture mentoring assignment to find out how we can help.

Do 25% of top employees want out?

The business world’s rising stars are increasingly disengaged and actively seeking new employment opportunities, according to a recent employee engagement study.

The study, from the Corporate Executive Board, found that 25% of employer-identified, high-potential employees plan to leave their current companies within the year, as compared to only 10% in 2006. In addition, 21% of employees today identify themselves as highly disengaged. This group has increased nearly three-fold since 2007.

CEB’s ongoing employee engagement research, which included a recent survey of 20,000 high-potential employees in more than 100 organizations worldwide, also found that nearly 40% of internal job moves made by people identified as high-potential employees end in failure. These compelling findings suggest an urgent need for companies to retool their talent management programs to ensure the successful development and retention of high-potential employees during the economic recovery.

The study identified six tips that companies can use to identify, re-engage and more effectively manage high potential employees. Of these, three are directly addressed by a Skills Venture assignment:

1. Stimulate. Emerging leaders need stimulating work, recognition and the chance to grow.
2. Challenge. High-potential employees need to be in positions where new capabilities can be acquired.
3. Recognise. High-potential employees will be more engaged if they are recognised for their achievements.

Contact us to find out how we can help you!