SMEs facing wage rises and staff retention problems

By Zilla Efrat

Post COVID-19, it’s become even more vital to retain your staff members, but how do you do it when business costs all around you are rising?

Australia has been experiencing a crippling skills shortage across Australia in the wake of the pandemic and there’s also been what’s called the Great Resignation. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that almost 10 per cent of the Australian workforce – a whopping 1.3 million people – quit their jobs last year.

And, in a survey of over 1500 HR professionals from Australia and New Zealand, ELMO Software and the Australian HR Institute found that the cost to hire an employee more than doubled in 2021, rising from $10,500 in 2020 to $23,860 per worker.

The easiest way to keep staff, of course, is by paying them more, but is money everything?

Research by professional services group PWC found that remuneration and reward were valued most – by 25 per cent of employees.

But a close second – coming in at 22 per cent employees – was wellbeing. That includes mental health support, benefits such as gym membership, lifestyle benefits, work-life balance, health and wellbeing and financial support through training and courses.

PWC says it’s not hard to see why wellbeing scored highly. The pandemic saddled employees with additional domestic responsibilities, families living on top of each other and blurred work-life boundaries.

Employees also experienced stress created by the volatile nature and prolonged uncertainty of the pandemic and worried about their job security.

PWC’s research also found that people’s priorities also change with age. For example, Gen Z highly values work-life balance and rates career pathways, on-the-job learning and workplace perks more favourably than other generations.

Millennials were the only generation to have pay and financial incentives as their number one concern and showed greater preferences for working from home, learning and career pathways.

Gen X and Baby Boomers both rated working alongside enjoyable co-workers at the top of their lists, with both also showing much stronger preferences for office location, workplace safety and autonomy.

These findings suggest that there may be other ways to keep your staff without breaking the bank and that there are opportunities to tailor different options to different staff members.

Here are some suggestions to ensure your workplace is a happy one and your staff are more engaged:

• Recognise and praise employees when they perform well.
• Offer employees flexible working options – for example, the opportunity to work from home, switch their hours around or choose their own working hours instead of the typical 9 to 5
• Give employees time to work on their own projects or to volunteer on causes they are passionate about.
• Reward staff by giving them an extra day’s annual leave, a half a day off or a longer lunch break.
• Offer opportunities for professional development through on-the-job training, courses, industry events or workshops.
• Reward employees with more responsibility. Some may be looking for bigger challenges or new experiences.
• Arrange fun events at work – for example, a trivia lunch, lunchtime walks or Friday afternoon drinks.
• Ask your employees what they’d like as a reward rather than deciding for them.

If rising costs are hurting your business, please give us a call to see how we can help.

Feel free to contact us for anything that relates to your business finances so we can help with your success.

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