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Top performers, key staff continue to be treasured despite economic downturn


Johannesburg, 18 Apr 2016
Melanie Trollip, CEO of PE Corporate Services. Photo: Vernon Reed
Melanie Trollip, CEO of PE Corporate Services. Photo: Vernon Reed

Despite the tough economic times, key staff and top performers are unlikely to fall foul of HR strategies designed to minimise costs.

This is one of the main findings of a survey conducted by PE Corporate Services in the first quarter of this year.

"We were trying to determine how HR leaders are coping with the challenges of the current economic climate, and what strategies they are adopting to manage the impact on their organisations," said Melanie Trollip, CEO of PE Corporate Services.

"The common theme is that companies are revising pay increase forecasts in response to the economic downturn, but top performers and key staff continue to be treasured," she said. Salary freezes are fairly common at present, and where salary increases are granted, they are more conservative than in the past. However, an exception is invariably made in the case of critical and scarce skills.

The key concerns for HR leaders, the study found, were containing salary and wage costs within a tight budget (95% of respondents), retaining essential skills in the business (92%), upskilling the existing workforce (86%) and addressing workforce composition and BBBEE compliance (72%). At the same time, 64% of companies were concerned about addressing pay parity to manage union and workforce relationships and 63% of companies are redesigning jobs and changing the staff mix to align with a shift in the company's business strategy.

This, Trollip says, is largely in line with international trends.

"Restructuring and rightsizing with the inevitable retrenchments have historically been the response to an economic downturn, but modern economies are a great deal more dependent on skilled and professionally qualified staff. They comprise the backbone of the knowledge-based and technology dependent industries that drive these economies. Retaining and developing these skills is recognised as a competitive strength and thus accepted as critical in an economic downturn - no matter how severe."

Strategies to retain top performing and key staff normally include a greater emphasis on training and career development, which is a strong focus in first world countries as well (46% in Australia and 44% in New Zealand). Other strategies include the introduction of financial incentives and bonuses payable on completion of agreed on periods of employment, more structured career path planning and changes to incentive schemes to improve retention effectiveness.

"Leading organisations and especially those in the IT space are also starting to consider the changing world of work and how to respond effectively. The exponential growth of digital connectivity, devices and information is driving changes in the way we work and impacting organisational productivity, efficiency and effectiveness. In order to survive in an increasingly competitive world, companies need to rethink everything from culture to tools and work environments."

IT organisations and departments will play a lead role in driving this change, Trollip says.

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Ansie Vicente
PE Corporate Services