Retention

What are the benefits?
Career development:

• Enables you to develop skills internally rather than needing to recruit skills into the business or outsource your core business
• Enables your business to develop by growing your intellectual capital
• Better equips you to make good use of your employees’ knowledge and retain this knowledge within the business
• Aligns individual employees’ career development with the strategic aims of the business
• Enables you to determine what skills will be needed in the future, aiding workforce planning
• Supports the development of succession plans and promotion pathways for high-performing employees
• Empowers and motivates employees who may require greater challenges to achieve job satisfaction
• Prepares employees for advancement to jobs where their abilities and potential can be fully realised
• Enables you to work to the strengths of your employees, ultimately getting the best out of them

During the appraisal process, business owners and managers often start twitching in their seats when employees talk of career development, advancement and training. There are many reasons for this discomfort, but the two main factors are the anticipated costs associated with training employees and the assumption that once you’ve invested in an employee, they’re likely to move on to a higher paid role with one of your competitors.

Research has consistently shown that employees want to work for employers who invest in them. Employees show commitment and loyalty to employers who assist with their career development. Time and time again, money has been shown not to be the dominating factor for remaining with an employer – it is the chance to develop personally and professionally, taking on greater challenges, that hold greater appeal.

Pod Consulting focuses on strategic business aims and devises career development programmes that support the business and individual employees.

What are the benefits?
Training:

• Increases job satisfaction and motivation levels for employees
• Improves efficiencies in processes, resulting in increased profitability
• Ensures that your business has the capacity to adopt new technologies and methods, ensuring that you remain ahead of your competitors
• Increases innovation in strategies, products and/or services
• Decreases employee turnover
• Enhances your company image and reputation – people will want to work with a business who invests in their employees
• Proactively addresses risk management
• Is useful when introducing multi-skilling which enables employees to cross over to other areas of work

There are many reasons why a business may undertake training, including the need to fill gaps where there are a lack of skills or experience; making sure that new employees are suitably inducted and have the necessary skills to perform their job functions; keeping your business at the competitive edge; as part of a succession planning programme or scheme to develop high-potential employees; or ensuring that managers and other senior executives have the skills to effectively lead their teams.

Following training needs analysis, which involves identifying the specific training needs of each employee, Pod Consulting will determine the most appropriate method for improving employee performance – be it mentoring, on- or off-the-job training or classroom teaching.

Training may range from safety training, diversity-in-the-workplace training, effective customer service skills, computer upskilling, assertiveness training, task/job specific skills or induction training.

What are the benefits?
Remuneration and reward programmes:

• Communicate the remuneration strategy to your employees, making it clear the process has integrity and is fair
• Enable effective forecasting, monitoring and control of wages and salary packages
• Provide a level of flexibility which will enable the business to respond to changing conditions

One of the biggest costs to small and medium-sized businesses is employee wages and salaries. For business owners there is a need to limit expenditure on staff, yet there’s also a need to attract the right people with the necessary skills and retain them. To achieve this, remuneration decisions should reflect the strategic aims of the business.

When business owners determine salaries, the figure is often based on legal pay expectations, market comparisons and knowing what it’s necessary to pay in order to keep an employee motivated and committed to the objectives of the business.

Employees clearly want as much money as possible based on their skills and experience, their past performance and their time with your business. They want additional rewards for exceptional performance, a package that enables them to live a decent lifestyle and a salary or wage that’s comparable to that of their colleagues.

There are many factors that business owners need to take into account when devising remuneration strategies and Pod Consulting can assist with this process. Get it right and your business will pay a fair rate to achieve your business outcomes. You’ll also have motivated employees who’ll feel they’re being appropriately rewarded for their contribution to the business goals.

What are the benefits?

Performance appraisals and development plans:

• Ensure that managers have data on which to base pay rises and/or promotions
• Create objective appraisal processes that provide an arena for fair feedback on performance
• Increase employee performance as employees have a clear understanding of what is expected of them and how to improve their performance
• Increase employees’ motivation as the process can provide them with greater challenges

Many small to medium-sized business owners believe that performance management is a process undertaken when an employee is performing poorly and they want to manage them from the business. Some believe that performance management is simply part of a performance review or appraisal that is perhaps conducted on an annual basis. In reality, performance management is something that business owners do every day – it’s the constant supervision and observation of employees to ensure that they’re performing their assigned tasks effectively.

Effective performance management is essential to ensure that a business is operating effectively and is on track to achieve strategic goals. Performance management relies on a clear understanding of what performance standards are expected, what are realistic and which are based on the requirements of a particular job.

Pod Consulting focuses on performance management in relation to performance appraisals. These are a review of performance against pre-determined objectives. They identify the strengths and weaknesses of an employee and address how to improve or develop these areas. They aim to motivate the employee and provide them with sufficient challenges and responsibilities in relation to the business objectives.

Pod Consulting devises appraisal and development plans for each employee and/or area of work. We also provide training for appraisers to ensure an objective and fair process.

If an employee is underperforming, it’s important to determine the reason why. An appropriate action plan can then be introduced to address the problem. Poor performance may be a result of the employee not having the skills required to perform effectively, and training may result. If motivation is lacking, it’s important to establish different ways to motivate an employee to improve performance.

If poor performance continues, it may be necessary to take disciplinary action or discharge the employee. If this is the case, the process should be fair, objective and with minimal cause for embarrassment for the employee involved.

What are the benefits?

Exit surveys:

• Identify opportunities for improvement relating to employment or the business itself
• Allow you to respond to employee issues and elicit information on how to retain key people
• Provide a final opportunity to gather objective insights into what employees see as right and wrong about your business

Even when your selection and retention processes are excellent, there will still be natural attribution. When an employee leaves, an exit survey or interview should be conducted to help you understand why the employee is leaving. An exit interview provides a robust framework for better understanding the expectations, assumptions, motivations and drivers that contribute to an individual joining an organisation.

Pod Consulting can conduct exit surveys on your behalf, highlighting trends and providing recommendations and action plans that focus on continuing with what you do well and addressing areas for improvement.