A recent study from DocuSign showed that, alongside recruitment, talent management was the main priority for 56% of UK firms this year, and it’s not hard to see why. While rising costs are, of course, a pressing issue, there are so many challenges for firms that come from the underlying issue of retaining your best talent.

So, whether it’s attracting great talent to join you, or the retention of your great performers or getting the best performance from your existing team, almost every challenge that business owners currently face falls into at least one of these talent management areas.

Here are just some of the things our clients are introducing with our help and support;

• Two salary reviews because after we awarded one, it was apparent that the cost of living was continuing to increase and so we gave an overall 8% salary increase last year, in two stages.
• As we worked through a very challenging summer last year, we decided that we also wanted to say a massive thank you to all of our colleagues who had to work exceptionally hard and so every colleague received a £1,000 bonus.
• We also gave five extra days leave last year so colleagues could get some time off at the right time.
• This year we have awarded a 9% pay rise across the business to help support everyone.  We also offer superb bonus awards and profit share entitlements because we have performed well, and we want to give back to our colleagues.
• We introduced a Sharesave scheme last year for the first time which was extremely popular, and we were really proud to win awards for the scheme.
• We have introduced a Colleague Forums to give everyone the opportunity to have their say and give feedback to the business. We’ve had some terrific ideas from this!
• Introducing a system of regular “check-ins” to build relationships with your employees, provide them with regular feedback on how they are doing and coaching them to develop their skills.
• We have introduced stay interviews in key areas of the business, to help us identify potential issues in the business from a people perspective, which gives us the opportunity to resolve them before they become a real problem. Its early days, but we are already seeing a downturn in our attrition rates.

These are just some of the ideas and innovative ways of looking at how to retain your staff in a buoyant recruitment market, where everyone is fighting in the war for talent, and you don’t want to lose your A players to your competitors!

If you need some help to win this battle, then why not book a power hour with Emma to come up with the strategy that could help you to win the war on talent?  Book your power hour with Emma here.