Despite the rise in demand for jobs, around 86 per cent of businesses fear that they will be losing their best workers due to the impact of COVID-19.
According to a new survey by Robert Half, a recruitment agency, a significant fear amongst businesses is that they will fail to retain their best employees due to COVID-19.
Specifically, over a third (36 per cent) of businesses believe that they will have this problem as a result of reducing wages and the inability to increase salaries.
Over four in every 10 UK businesses (42 per cent) utilise the location of their business in order to quantify salaries. In comparison, only 28 per cent of businesses worldwide do this. Furthermore, almost a third (28 per cent) of UK businesses set the salary levels based on where the applicant lives.
In light of these problems, the report suggest that employers are turning to giving employees alternative benefits including 38 per cent of UK employers offering 100% remote working or hybrid working in the future.
In addition to this, out of the five countries surveyed, the UK is the most likely to provide mental health resources and assistance with over half doing so (51 per cent), almost half (47 per cent) provide wellness programmes and the same number provide at home office equipment.
Matt Weston, managing director of Robert Half UK, said:
Employees are a company’s most valuable asset for navigating both short-term disruption and achieving long-term growth. In the COVID-19 world, human resources teams have been essential to supporting with redeveloped policies, procedures, and expectations to define new ways of working.
HR and office support professionals recognise the enhanced market value of their skills in this climate. While the opportunities to increase remuneration may be tricky in the coming months, employers should research compensation trends regularly and be prepared to move quickly and negotiate effectively – using both financial and non-financial benefits – in order to retain key employees or hire promising talent.
*Robert Half commissioned research amongst 1,502 respondents using an online data collection methodology during July 2020.This was comprised of 300 interviews in Belgium, 300 in Brazil, 301 in France, 300 in Germany, and 301 in the United Kingdom.
Monica Sharma is an English Literature graduate from the University of Warwick. As Editor for HRreview, her particular interests in HR include issues concerning diversity, employment law and wellbeing in the workplace. Alongside this, she has written for student publications in both England and Canada. Monica has also presented her academic work concerning the relationship between legal systems, sexual harassment and racism at a university conference at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
