Employee attachment – brought to you by TMS

TMS Asia-Pacific General Manager Australia & New Zealand, Ainslie Hunt has again cautioned the staff-strapped travel and hospitality industry it will continue to struggle to maintain its competitiveness against other industries next year unless it begins to implement rapid change.

Addressing a key audience of senior industry management in Sydney last week, Ms Hunt said employers had continued to be affected by staff retention issues throughout the year – and the trend look set to continue unabated in 2008.

“Staff retention is now the number one factor affecting our industry across the board,” she said.

“The sector has continued to struggle – and will continue to struggle in 2008 – against other industries with the capacity to offer higher wages and other benefits.

“And unless it is able to implement the systems it needs to motivate, engage and ultimately, retain its employees, it will continue to suffer.”

Ms Hunt said it was encouraging to see more and more industry employers instilling initiatives to alleviate the retention issue.

These in the main revolve around the introduction of more work-place friendly flexible work alternatives and financial incentives – all of which had met with some success.

But these, she said, would have even great chance of success as part of an overall staff engagement strategy implemented when an employee first starts with a company – as opposed to leaving it too late.

“Invariably this is what happens when employers realise they have unhappy employees but by that time, it’s probably too late and its highly unlikely employees will stay.

“It’s not just about losing a member of staff – this affects other staff, productivity, the company’s ability to deliver, and overall, the bottom line.

“Addressing the employee attachment factor from day one is essential at all level’s of business if employers are to succeed in holding on to their staff,” she said.

TMS is currently working closely with HR and employee engagement specialist Anthony Sork*, one of Australasia’s leading experts on the ‘Employee Attachment Phenomenon’ (EAP).

EAP is the factor employees experience in the first 120 days of their start with a company.

According to Mr Sork, who will be presenting at a nationwide series of TMS seminars in early 2008, the employee attachment process comprises a series of elements or ‘drivers’ which, when successfully implemented, have achieved great success for employers.

“Critical to all businesses in the modern age is the strategic human capital challenge of finding and keeping the best talent in the market,” he said.

“Senior business leaders have listed employee attraction, recruitment and retention as being in their top business challenges and of the highest priority for HR.

“It is widely recognised that people are a company’s greatest asset. Beyond this they are also a company’s competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive market.

“Whether through growth, high turn-over or both, most businesses have experienced significant increases in the costs of recruitment over the last decade.

“Cracking the code of reducing turnover and recruitment costs is top priority for HR professionals and not just in Australia, but worldwide.”

“Recruitment costs are not just associated with advertising or agency fees.”

“Add to this the time investment of managers, lost productivity during vacancy, low productivity for new employees, training and the impact on client relationships and the cost become enormous,” he said.

*Anthony  Sork  is  one  of  Australasia’s  Leading  Human  Capital  experts.  He  is a consultant,  author  and  speaker and has  qualifications  in  Psychology,  Sociology,  Human Resources  and  Adult  Education.  With  over  15  years  consulting  experience  in  Human Capital,  Anthony  is  engaged  by  organisations including JP  Morgan,  Commonwealth Bank,  Mortgage  Choice,  O’Brien  Glass,  Boehringer  Ingleheim and  NSW  Lotteries.  

For more information on Anthony visit www.SorkHC.com.au  

A special TMS report by The Mole