A Buoyant Job Market – How to Hang on to Your Biggest Assets…

Lots of surveys tell us that as we gradually move post pandemic the UK job market is pretty buoyant – plenty of opportunities and in particular plenty of opportunities for good people.

We often say that it is absolutely crucial for the ambitious SME to hold on to their best people if they are ever to achieve their full business potential. So the smart MD or owner/ manager needs to take a long hard look at their staff and look at the world as they see it.

With regard to the quality people in business teams it is crucial that management understands them and more importantly what motivates them. Contrary to what could be perceived as popular opinion from many businesses, money isn’t the prime motivator for these people – they are far more concerned in their personal and career development and to be engaged in a company that has a vision in regard to where it is going and to understand clearly how the quality work that they produce assists the business achieve its greater goals

So why do so many good people leave businesses for pastures new – there are a number of reasons:

• They don’t feel as though anyone in the business is interested in what they want from their career
• Their motivators have never been discussed at all
• They have no idea and have never been briefed on what the vision and goals of the business consist of
• They have no idea how their job helps the company achieve its objectives
• They have never received any training to assist them in building themselves
• They don’t see any objectivity in how people are assessed and haven’t had any personal goals set by the business
• As a result, they feel they are just doing a ‘job’ and not performing a role

The all too often outcome from these feelings is a departure to pastures new where they feel they might get something more than what’s on offer…

It is tough for a SME to devote the time and resource to develop and help and support people but if you want to keep the best you must strive to be the best in your market with regard to how people are developed. Some simple things you should fix:

• Take some time to write a Company Operations Manual – put it online and ensure that all employees have access to it and read it
• Define (if you haven’t already) your vision for the business and bring your people in to help you develop it if it doesn’t currently exist
• Make sure that you have Job Descriptions for all roles in your business and that all employees get adequate training on how to perform these roles effectively and how they contribute to the big picture
• Ensure that your management structure enables regular meetings with key staff to see how they feel, what they seek and how your business can help and accommodate this (to do this well you need to ensure that Managers with people responsibility have the skills to handle such meetings

It’s tough leading a business in today’s fast changing markets, if you feel like you need some help getting your motivation right to ensure you keep your best people, get in touch with us at ignite@tinderboxbusinessdevelopment.co.uk. or call us on 01162325231.

The Tinderbox Team