Senior Manager Human Capital, Debbie Hollis says this has led most companies to invest heavily in poaching talent especially for top management instead of investing on their businesses/FILE
Senior Manager Human Capital, Debbie Hollis says this has led most companies to invest heavily in poaching talent especially for top management instead of investing on their businesses.
She attributed poor talent retention to lack of career development, lack of work life balance and remuneration.
“I think there is a lot of emphasis placed on talent acquisition. Many organisations still look outside that as soon as there is a leadership gap; they are so quick to recruit,” Hollis said.
The biggest challenge, she says, is that the talent out there is shrinking, forcing companies to spend a lot of money to acquire. “What this translates to is almost having something like a vacuum where people are increasingly competing for the same talent.”
Other challenges include performance and recognition, ethics and integrity and overall job satisfaction which eventually lead to employee turnover.
If individuals within an organisation, she says, are given opportunities to progress and advance their careers within the business, it would highly be effective.
“For example if you want a CEO who was earning close to Sh400,000 and you call them for an interview they will tell you they want close to Sh1.2million. In short, hiring bosses is more expensive than buying a piece of land located in many places in Nairobi,” Deloitte’s Consulting Director Kimani Njoroge regretted.
They were speaking during the launch of the Best Company to Work for Survey 2014. The survey looks at the employees in terms of operational effectiveness and their relationship with immediate supervisor, sense of inclusion in the organisation, overall job satisfaction and career development prospects among others.
The survey also offers the opportunity for firms to develop insights into what motivates people, what attracts them to their companies and also collect hard data required to make these judgments.
Last year, banking solutions software company Craft Silicon Limited was ranked the best company to work for in the survey. It was followed by Proctor and Gamble while Kenya Women Finance Trust was placed third.
