HR and employment law clinic: Keeping key staff loyal

At Taylors Solicitors, we work closely with employers to help build and protect value in their businesses. Implementing measures today, designed to limit damage tomorrow.

By Peter Byrne, Taylors Solicitors.

Given the increased competition for talent, one area keeping us busy is the development of key-employee retention strategies.

Ask yourself:

• Which of your employees are most valuable to your business / make the greatest contribution / likely to be the most difficult or costly to replace?
• Are they properly rewarded and incentivised to stay and continue to perform well?
• Are they fully engaged?
• Do they understand and share your goals?
• Is there a need to change the way you or your managers engage with them ?

These statistics demonstrate the importance of getting these issues right:

• Highly engaged employees are 87 per cent less likely to leave
• Employees who primarily feel ignored by their managers are 40 per cent more likely to be disengaged and leave
• Employees who feel their managers notice and focus on their strengths are only 1 per cent more likely to be disengaged than others

Sounds like common sense?  Of course it does. It is.

Stay ahead by speaking with your legal team about:

• Preparing bespoke contracts of employment, reward schemes and / or share option schemes
• Designing and implementing effective policies and procedures
• Providing training courses in order to equip your managers with the tools to manage well

Of course, some key employees may move on anyway. You can still take control of the employee’s exit (and rely on the protective measures such as effective garden leave, confidentiality and post termination restrictions). We give clients the freedom to manage their employment law risks as they see fit and not to allow legal risks alone to manage decisions for them.