Employee retention a challenge.

• Author: VAILLANCOURT, TRACY
• Position: Brief Article

Employees are quitting, others are on stress leave; your business is just not as productive as it used to be. If this sounds all too familiar, Linda Duxbury, a professor at the school of business at Carleton University in Ottawa, may be able to shed some light on the problem.

Duxbury, director of research and education on women and work, recently completed a comprehensive study on balancing work and family and shared her research with business owners, employees and health professionals at a one-day seminar in Sudbury, through the Sudbury and District Health Unit.

According to Duxbury, the number of women in the labour force has increased by 45 per cent over the past decade, which means more mothers are working outside the home. The studies also show that there are more stress leaves and time-off requests due to overload and burnout.

Employees are now working overtime at home in order to meet household obligations, which complicates the situation, she adds. Out of 30,000 people surveyed, 80 per cent have e-mail and cell phone and pagers that they use on a daily basis at home, and while off-duty from their jobs.

According to Duxbury's research, employees are not only looking for a job, but they are looking for a good opportunity, excitement in their job, respect and also a challenge. If the job doesn't have those key factors the result is frequent turnover.

"People these days are willing to quit very easily, so businesses are having a hard time (retaining employees)," Duxbury says. "The cost to retain an employee is twice the cost to keep an existing employee."

One of the most important aspects of running a good business is having good management. Management is the key to keeping your employees.

According to research, businesses are facing an increasing number of problems because they are hiring managerial staff strictly on their technology skills. Productive managers need to know how to approach people, promote teamwork and have extensive background on product knowledge, she says.

There are three types of managers: a "supportive manager" who recognizes and praises the employees, respects them and values their input, the "mixed manager" who is not consistent with. praise, respect or good listening skills and the "non-supportive manager" that concentrates not on what the employee has done well, but what he or she has done wrong and publicly criticizes, devalues employee input and lacks concern for the employee.

People with supportive managers...