Retention Works: Research indicates successful strategies

What can companies do to better recruit and retain professionals? Paul Deighton, Shipley UK‘s Director highlights his company’s research into the subject.

The ability to recruit and retain top talent has always mattered in business, particularly when the demand for that talent outstrips supply. Post-pandemic workplace demographics have undoubtedly shifted – with many experienced professionals deciding to reduce their hours or leave the workplace completely.

This has put pressure on employers to recruit and retain effectively, as they try to fill the gaps left by often much more experienced professionals.

Shipley’s 2024 research project investigated current recruitment, retention and development strategies across 44 global companies for staff in traditionally higher-pressure sales, business development and bidding roles.

The project sample including a significant presence from the United States (41%), followed by Australia and New Zealand (20%), the UK and EU (16%), Korea (12%), India (4%), and the Middle East (2%). A majority of these companies had an annual revenue exceeding $100 million. 57% of respondents were at Executive Leadership level in their company, 39% were Project Managers and 4% were listed as Individual Contributors.

Recruitment – a significant obstacle

According to the research, when it comes to retaining top talent, just over half of the employers (53%) reported minimal retention issues. However, recruitment appeared to be a significant obstacle for many businesses, with only around a third (32%) having minimal issues in attracting new professionals into their organisations.

The data showed that that the most successful recruiting organisations were doing things differently to others, and suggests that:

• Candidates should be told about their advancement opportunities at interview, beyond the immediate role they were being recruited for – so that they can see development routes ahead
• How candidates are likely to be recognised for their achievements in the workplace should be clearly set out at interview
• Retention practices also varied, with the research suggesting the most effective retention practices were:
• Allowing staff the autonomy to manage their own work patterns, that is which days might be shorter, which might be longer, and whether they worked from the office, home or elsewhere
• Ensuring that staff were clear on what was expected of them, to provide a level of accountability to match autonomy provided

The research also showed that:

• Companies believed that 25% of their staff were not reaching their full career potential whilst they were with them, which is a significant volume of latent talent. It is not a big leap to suggest that someone who is not reaching their potential is more likely to look to a new employer to achieve that potential, impacting retention
• To address the specific latent talent issue, the findings suggest that employers should encourage their employees to achieve expert status is their field, and not to necessarily settle for being “solid practitioners” – even in (or perhaps especially in) busy, pressured work environments – where this would mean taking the time out to invest in those expert skills, rather than only being focused on immediate tasks
• Learning from mistakes is tough at the front end of the business, where high-value contracts can be lost though those mistakes, but leaders are finding ways to allow sales, BD and bidding staff to learn from those mistakes “away from the customer’s gaze”
• Financial incentives were not found to be a significant factor in supporting overall recruitment and retention, as long as people felt they were being compensated fairly
• Overall, the single biggest factor in supporting recruitment, retention and career development was found to be giving staff the authority to prioritise tasks and, as far as possible, make their own decisions at work

The research also found regional variations which, although not statistically significant, when combined with the anecdotal experiences of the UK, US and Australia research team, do tend to confirm that companies in the US find retention more difficult than the UK and Europe, and Australia have the fewer recruitment challenges than any other region in the survey.

The talent challenge

These findings illustrate the challenges faced by companies of all shapes and sizes to recruit, retain and develop top talent, and it seems to be more difficult than ever, particularly where skills demand is out-stripping supply, and where those entering the workforce today are perhaps more likely to leave an employer to develop their careers than ever before.

When assessing a business’ overall ability to sustain and grow, we look at when and how it interacts with its customers, company leadership and organisation, the effectiveness of its methods and tools, its supporting information and infrastructure, and how it develops its people –  from having basic skills, to developing organisational competencies to being able to operate under pressure in high-performing teams.

This project has brought us up-to-date on the most effective strategies for business leaders to recruit, retain and develop their people – we would like to thank our clients around the world for their participation.