Motivating and retaining top employees

By Richard Mrkusich, Kensington Swan Lawyers

There is no doubt that the labour market at the moment is extremely tight. Finding skilled staff is becoming more and more difficult, particularly in the construction sector. What this will do is make it important to retain good staff. The proverbial wolf will no doubt be circling in the form of job offers and increased remuneration from your competitors. This will raise two key issues for you:

• How do you keep good staff employed?

• What do you do if they then decide to leave? There are five legal tools that may assist you in keeping staff, discouraging them from leaving on a whim, and protecting your interests in the event they decide to leave:

• The use of a probationary period;

• The use of a restraint of trade;

• Clearly spelt out obligations in regard to confidential information and intellectual property;

• Specifying an appropriate notice period;

• Having the option to put an employee on “garden leave”.

Ideally, the above tools should be properly covered off in a staff member’s employment agreement or contract.

Aside from the legal tools above, there are also some practical strategies that you can put in place to retain employees. The first of these strategies is to communicate with and show an interest in your staff. Encourage your staff to be open and frank with you about their ambitions, goals and plans. This will build loyalty.

Money often talks! More often than not staff are inclined to leave because they are being offered more money elsewhere. Money is, however, only one factor in the big picture. Every person is different, and it is important to understand what motivates someone. Once you understand a person’s motivation you can tailor a strategy to keep them interested and retained. For example, some possible alternatives to simply offering more money include:

• Provide non monetary rewards such as presents. For example, a trip to the rugby, a spa session (for female employees!), something modern and hip like an iPod or digital camera, or perhaps even a good old fashioned boozy night on the town.

• What about a holiday overseas? Perhaps to somewhere exotic? Memories last a lifetime, and a staff member is likely to remember that fantastic holiday you gave them!

• Let the employee decide what they want. Mention that you want to give them something to reward their hard work, and get them to suggest some ideas.

While some of the above incentives may sound a bit extravagant, most (such as the iPod or digital camera) will actually cost less than a pay rise or bonus! A win/win situation, some might say.

Sometimes, however, things just go wrong and it is not possible to retain staff. In the next issue, I’m going to discuss some of the implications of losing staff, and in particular, how you can use the above legal tools to protect yourself when staff leave to work for a competitor.

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