What’s on my mind? Talent Retention.
 
While my editor is in Paris (sigh) on business (so he says), I am stuck in my cubicle pining for a chocolate croissant. As I hold down the fort, I know when he returns next week it will be with gratitude and hopefully a Parisian delicacy. A lesson in talent retention (and, yes, perhaps bribery).
 
 
 
Debbie Bolla
Online Editor
 
Talent retention are two words you’ll hear a lot in the HRO space in 2010. 2009 was abysmal for many companies and in turn their employees. There is some hope for the coming year: from the slightly sad albeit somewhat exciting .3 percent drop in unemployment for January (from 10 percent to 9.7 percent). To a recent Towers Watson research study that reported 65 percent of companies that froze salary budgets in 2009 will unfreeze them in 2010. Other good news from the same report, the median salary increase for employees will be about 3 percent in 2010 ¾ an increase relative from 2009 at many companies. And a recent Hewitt survey reported that 80 percent of organizations that suspended or reduced their 401K company match in 2009 are planning to restore it in 2010.
 
This brings us to talent retention. Hopefully organizations will actually step it up for their current employees who received little or no additional compensation in 2009, while putting in extra hours to make up for reorganization—or they may lose them. According to Towers Watson research, 70 percent of companies are very or somewhat concerned about losing key talent as a result of the cutbacks made during the recession.
 
Some strategies?
· Say it. It’s easy and cheap and goes a long way…especially if expressed in front of other colleagues.
 
· Show me the money. According to Towers Watson, 2010 will see an increase in the varied forms of compensation to keep top talent: 49 percent of employers plan to use straight salary increases as a retention tool in the recovery; 32 percent plan to issue cash retention awards; and 25 percent will use higher bonus payouts.
 
·  Talk future. Less than 25 percent of employees are happy with their growth opportunities noted SourceRight Solutions’ 2009 emerging workforce study, Forging Ahead: Workplace Strategies for a New Time. Employees are more likely to stay at a job where they have a growth plan in place. If their contributions are strategically aligned with company goals, they are more likely to feel they are working toward something bigger.
 
Or they just may find it somewhere else.
 
What are your thoughts? Email Debbie Bolla