Warning for Christchurch Businesses as Rebuild Delayed

Save yourself cost and headaches – look after your staff.

That from Christchurch based Business Strategy, HR and Executive Recruitment company Decipher Group, who say retaining good staff and making sure they are happy, are two key strategies for companies waiting for the rebuild to fully get underway.

Decipher partner, Sarcha Feary, says they are working with a number of companies, some of whom are essentially treading water.

“Some businesses and their staff are exceptionally busy but many are also in a “holding pattern” and not doing a great deal, just waiting for the work to start. As a result, we are seeing the potential for significant movement of good employees between companies and businesses, before the rebuild fully gets underway,” says Feary.

That could be a major problem for companies if they find they are having to recruit and retrain staff as the work comes in and both Feary and her business partner, Leanne Crozier, say businesses should use this pre-build time effectively to put strategies in place to ensure they retain good staff.

“Staff retention should be an important focus for local businesses at this time. The key to that includes maintaining engagement and communication with employees, and ensuring they are happy in their workplace,” says Crozier. “As the demand for good employees grows, more of them will be asking “what’s in it for me?” and businesses have to be ready for that.

Feary and Crozier say the costs to a company of having to recruit and retrain new staff can be significant, and retention programmes do not have to cost a company a great deal of money, if anything at all.

“During this lull before the storm, businesses should consider diversifying within their core business to keep staff busy and engaged. They could also look at offering paid holidays to employees they cannot afford to lose. This can be a good investment in the staff and business in the long term, and may be well worth considering,” says Crozier.

Decipher Group says some companies are starting to become busy before others, and as a result may be able to offer more excitement, challenge and career growth which will result in the poaching of staff, particularly at an executive level – the level at which Decipher works with a number of national and local companies.

“We see head-hunting as one of the biggest threats to business stability in the coming months and years. Look after your staff now and you will be in a better position to manage the massive amount of work we know is on the horizon,” says Feary.

ENDS

Please contact Ali Jones on 027 247 3112 for more information or to interview Sarcha Feary or Leanne Crozier.