Engagement ‘needed for retention of staff’

Managers and HR professionals have been reminded of the importance of engagement in the workplace if they wish to retain staff once the recession is over.

Failure to engage with employees could see them deciding to go to the nearest competitor, one sector commentator has claimed.

Julia Robertson, chief executive of Impellam, said: “It’s really important to re-engage with your people about what the company is, especially now.”

Speaking at the REC National Convention, she added that leadership, values appropriate to the business, clarity on what is required and consistency through good and bad times about what behaviours are acceptable were needed to create a positive business culture.

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However, recent research by Hay Group revealed that employee engagement levels currently stand significantly below normal – 59 per cent against normative levels of 72 per cent.

Furthermore, more than a third of employees (36 per cent) are unhappy in their current role, while some two-fifths (39 per cent) of workers feel their employers have broken an unspoken contract of loyalty with their staff over the past 12 months.