News & Events
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.
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Collen Young, Marketing Manager or Anna Payton, Marketing Officer on +61 08 8230 8400
