skip navigation to read the content
NCVER
HOME   SITE MAP
About NCVER News & Events Publications Resources Work in Progress Links Search VOCED - international database for VET research
Students and individuals
Teaching and learning
Industry and employers
VET system
VET in context
Statistics
Statistical Standards
Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY)
News & Events

Home  > News & Events > Media releases > Media releases 2008 > Learning, more than earning, key to keeping staff

Learning, more than earning, key to keeping staff

24 October 2008

Pay increases are not the best way for employers to retain skilled staff in a time of skill shortages, according to research released today by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER).

To have and to hold: Retaining and utilising skilled people suggests that providing employees with opportunities to learn and develop their careers pays better dividends than ever-bigger pay packets.

The research also found that organisations with a genuine commitment to learning benefit by using their staff's skills more effectively.

"With current low unemployment and skills shortages, an important concern of employers is how to hold on to skilled staff and ensure the best use of their skills," said NCVER Managing Director Tom Karmel.

"The research clearly shows that old assumptions about the best way to keep employees don't hold in the current climate.

"Raising pay and improving working conditions are important for making employees feel satisfied, but they don't persuade and motivate people to stay or to give more.

"Employees stay if they feel they are learning and developing their careers through experiences that the organisation can offer them."

The research also highlighted the importance of nationally recognised training.

"Accredited training was strongly linked to an employee's decision to stay with their organisation and with employers utilising their staff's skills more successfully," said Dr Karmel.

"This is good news for registered training providers and the vocational education and training system as a whole, as it further opens the door for working closely with employers."

To download a copy of To have and to hold: Retaining and utilising skilled people, please visit www.ncver.edu.au/publications/2045.html after 9.30am today.  

Media enquiries:
Collen Young, Marketing Manager or Anna Payton, Marketing Officer on +61 08 8230 8400


Media releases 2008

Latest apprentice and trainee statistics released
Trade apprentices nail jobs: National vocational student survey
Training leads researcher to top award
Position vacant: strategic HR role in leading training providers
Learning, more than earning, key to keeping staff
Australia's cultural melting pot adds diversity to workplace skills
Competition drives changes in training
Apprentice and trainee numbers increase
Apprenticeships - training for the 21st century or stuck in the middle-ages?
Disability doesn't always explain educational disadvantage
Apprentices increases again - and they're finishing faster
Regardless of the job outcome, most training pays off
Cooperation - not competition - the way forward for firms in training
Hip pocket reward for post-school study
A hand up, not a hand out – the way forward for disadvantaged Australians
Australia too slow preparing for ‘green collar’ jobs
No Frills highly sought
Forum to provoke debate on apprenticeships for the future
Growth in Australian VET students variable
Market forces key to trade apprenticeship numbers
Stronger role for VET to help regions grow
Latest apprentice and trainee statistics released
Training older workers keeps skills at work
Training important for welfare to work
Faster training could plug Australia's skills gap
Adelaide research centre an Australian 'innovation'
Research messages from 2007 at your finger tips
Latest apprentice and trainee statistics released
More bang for the buck from new research partnerships
Good help getting harder to find: National employer survey

 

Printer-friendly version

To view PDF files
Get Acrobat Reader FREE
 Contact us       Feedback       Accessibility       Data access       Privacy       Conditions of use       Copyright © NCVER    ABN 87 007 967 311