With increasing demand for services, and a limited pool of talent to recruit from, the challenge to attract and retain the right staff is growing.

High rates of staff turnover impact on the perceived and actual quality of services delivered, affect the morale of those who stay, and impose significant costs for the organisation.

Organisations need to be proactive to retain their high quality staff members. We know competition amongst organisations for high quality staff will only rise moving forward. It is imperative organisations take action to provide an environment staff want to be belong to.

Of course to do this you need to decide what makes a ‘high quality’ staff member.  There would be a lot of debate around which factors to include and their relative importance.

With all other things equal, I think it would be reasonable to say that regardless how you defined “higher quality” and “lower quality”, you would like to attract and retain more “higher quality” staff.

When reviewing your retention of staff, ask your staff:

• What currently makes the organisation a good place for your staff to work in? Keep doing this.
• What areas could the organisation improve on to make it a better workplace for your staff? Do more of this.

Organisational factors influence retention more than personal factors.

Organisational factors include job satisfaction, job security, having a positive work environment, culture, management and supportive co-workers, opportunities for career progression, succession planning, flexibility and choice of hours.

Staff will choose to stay longer in a more supportive and positive work environment.

Contributing to the positive work environment, a key factor for staff is their perception of their own personal safety in their workplace.

From the Home Care, Community Care and Outreach Staff Safety Survey, staff were looking for the above support following an incident.  The larger the writing, the more important that type of support is for staff.

What can you do to provide a more positive work environment for the staff you wish to retain?

We can all agree it is critically important that organisations invest in their most important asset, their people.

Opening the discussion with your staff to ensure you are providing a positive work environment will go a long way to ensuring sustained success for your organisation, your staff, and the people you support.

Travis Holland
Managing Director
Holland Thomas

Should you wish to discuss strategies to improve your staff’s safety in their work environment, please feel welcome to contact Holland Thomas.

Our goal at Holland Thomas is to create safer workplaces that enhance wellbeing for all concerned whilst also delivering improved operational and financial performance.

This blog draws on our years of experience delivering our M.A.B.™ Staff Safety Training (Contextualised Prevention and Management of Aggressive Behaviours) across Australia and the development of My Safety Buddy, our smartphone app and web portal based lone worker safety solution.

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