Latest news with #retention
Finextra
4 days ago
- Business
- Finextra
How Artificial Intelligence is Empowering SMEs to Prevent Employee Turnover: By Dmytro Spilka
Employee turnover can be a highly costly burden on small to medium-sized enterprises, but could emerging technologies like artificial intelligence prompt improvements in retention rates? With the average employee costing an estimated £12,000 to replace for SMEs, instances of high turnover can be severely damaging to operational efficiency. With around 70% of employee turnover coming as a voluntary decision, it's a significant challenge for enterprises to manage engagement and satisfaction rates in a way that prevents the rigmarole of continuous job listings and onboarding strategies. For HR professionals, countering turnover is a frustration that can threaten the long-term growth of businesses. However, there are many measures that can be taken to limit the negative impact of turnover. Calculating Turnover Calculating your staff turnover can be a useful way to monitor for emerging trends within your SME while helping to report on current rates. To do this, find the average number of employees for the period you're observing while excluding temporary or seasonal staff members for the sake of accuracy. By adding the number of employees at the start of the observation period to those at the end, and then dividing them by two, you can calculate the average number of employees within your business. Now, to work out the turnover rate, you'll need to divide the number of employees who left the company by the average number of employees. Finally, multiply the result by 100 to calculate staff turnover as a percentage. With CIPD suggesting that the average staff turnover rate in the UK is 34%, any figure higher than this should be a suitable cause for revising your employee retention strategy. The emergence of artificial intelligence has also paved the way for unprecedented control in improving the engagement of enterprise staff, helping to improve the long-term satisfaction of employees. The AI boom carries some significant implications for employee turnover, and there are many ways in which the technology is already helping to prevent staff from looking elsewhere for work. With this in mind, let's explore some of the growing use cases of artificial intelligence in action: Predictive Analytics Artificial intelligence is capable of performing predictive analytics to forecast potential staff turnover by identifying trends and patterns at a rate that human HR professionals can't replicate. For instance, AI could find a correlation between the different management approaches of team leaders and employee disengagement. This can help to refine your SME's management styles to improve satisfaction levels and offer proactive training or support to your management team. With 92% of employees recognising the importance of working for an enterprise that values their emotional and physiological well-being, AI tools can also use predictive analytics to monitor work patterns and identify early signs of dissatisfaction before adapting the workloads of affected workers. These predictive insights can help stamp out instances of burnout, boost engagement, and lead to higher productivity among the workforce. Appraisal Accuracy Crucially, 69% of employees claim that receiving regular recognition from their employers would motivate them to work harder and stay longer in their respective roles. This means that optimising your appraisal system should be a priority if your turnover rates are too high. Artificial intelligence tools are helping to improve retention by empowering HR teams to craft personalised engagement strategies that improve the quality of feedback and recognition for employees. These real-time feedback loops help to alert management to instances of outperformance, and the ability of AI systems to identify and reward employees for their efforts can help to create a fair reward system that can help all workers enjoy seeing their hard work acknowledged accordingly. Additionally, artificial intelligence can help to drive more engagement among employees by creating bespoke development plans that match the individual skills, preferences, and career goals of workers to a program designed to enhance their strengths and overcome any weaknesses. This can help to provide a sense of purpose that can prevent instances of 'quiet quitting' or turnover. Personalized Training Employee training and upskilling can also be a key factor in retention over long periods of time, and AI's ability to generate personalised, engaging, and accessible learning experiences can form the cornerstone of a more engaged and productive workforce. By delivering tailored content recommendations based on the monitoring of prospective skill gaps and preferred learning styles, artificial intelligence can deliver relevant and effective training materials. Because skill gaps can be a leading cause of employee turnover, mitigating these shortcomings can significantly reduce instances of staff quitting SME roles. AI can also deliver interactive experiences and simulated environments that offer far more engagement than simple text-based training, and the ability to access bespoke models at the click of a button means that employees can enhance their skills in between workloads. The implementation of AI training can help employees feel more valued and equipped to grow within their roles, boosting their contentment and longevity in their positions. Boosting Retention Retaining employees can be a challenge for SMEs with ambitions towards balancing budgets and sustaining growth strategies, but the emergence of artificial intelligence tools can help to deliver greater levels of efficiency in retaining talented staff for longer. Through predictive analytics and a personalised approach to employee management, training, and appraisals, more SMEs can improve their employee retention, preventing harmful and expensive turnover rates and building a consistent level of productivity into the future. Embracing AI tools today can make a significant difference in shaping your plans for tomorrow, and building an employee-first culture with the help of technology gives you the best chance of overcoming the challenges that all ambitious enterprises face as they continue to grow.
CBC
20-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
New immigration minister must address low Atlantic Canada retention rates, expert says
Social Sharing An economist in New Brunswick says Canada's new immigration minister needs to consider how to keep immigrants in Atlantic Canada, a region that has historically struggled to convince newcomers they should stay for more than a year or two. Lena Metlege Diab, a member of Parliament from Nova Scotia, was recently appointed as Canada's minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship. Herb Emery, who holds the Vaughan Chair in regional economics at the University of New Brunswick, said Diab's Atlantic roots mean she is likely to have a better understanding of the challenges the region faces, especially its difficulty retaining immigrants. Atlantic Canada has lower retention rates for immigrants than the rest of the country, with a Statistics Canada report in December 2024 noting: "Immigrants who left their intended Atlantic provinces were increasingly likely to settle in Ontario." P.E.I. specifically has the lowest retention rate in Canada, though the situation is slightly improving, according to the province's population framework released last year. The three-year retention rate for immigrants to P.E.I. rose from 33.3 per cent in 2017 to 43 per cent in 2021. Better pay key to retaining newcomers Emery said the solution to improving these numbers is straightforward: create better economic opportunities. "You need to provide opportunities to earn a good living. When you look at the wages and median incomes of newcomers, they're quite low in the region," Emery told CBC's Island Morning. "What we've tried to prioritize is filling the lower-wage jobs that Canadians don't want to fill, and if you want to be a professional after a couple of years, the opportunities to integrate are better in other provinces, where they have better resources for settlement, they have more opportunities for working in your profession." He said the region has relied on immigration to address immediate labour shortages, particularly due to its aging population and high youth out-migration to other provinces like Alberta and Ontario, but it hasn't focused enough on building a long-term sustainable workforce. "A lot of that reflects the industries we have in the region, which is seasonal, and in a lot of cases, they don't have high margins and they are labour-intensive." Support for existing immigrants Emery added that during the pandemic, there was "a complete lack of control" over the number of immigrants coming into the country. "We weren't doing a good job of integrating the newcomers into our labour market and our wider society," he said. That's why he thinks more effort should be placed on supporting immigrants who are already in the region by helping them get their credentials recognized, so they can work in their professions. He also mentioned the idea of tax policies designed to encourage long-term settlement. "Do you give them a bonus tax break if they remain in that region for longer? "Now, if you put them in low-skilled jobs, there's no advantages to tax breaks. If you create the conditions that somebody can work as a physician, and they start earning a high income, you may give them an advantage to staying if you give them some kind of credit if they remain in the region for five, six, seven years," Emery said. The Atlantic provinces should also focus on keeping international students in the region after they graduate, he said. Interprovincial trade barriers As Canada explores ways to strengthen its economy in the face of U.S. tariff threats, there's been growing discussion around removing interprovincial trade barriers. But Emery cautioned that when it comes to immigration and economic growth, eliminating these barriers could be "a dangerous gamble for a small region." He said the barriers exist in part to give smaller provinces like those in Atlantic Canada an incentive for businesses to locate there, countering the "economic gravity" that naturally pulls enterprise toward larger provinces. As we start to drop those trade barriers, there's two ways this can go. One is we're really competitive, and we get more jobs and more GDP. The other is, it hollows us out, and we wind up with a health-care system and an education system and not much else. "When you have thicker labour markets, like in Ontario, it's much easier for an employer that's manufacturing to set up there than in our region, where it may be a tough thing to bring in more labour to fill those jobs that are hard to do," he said. "So as we start to drop those trade barriers, there's two ways this can go. One is we're really competitive, and we get more jobs and more GDP. The other is, it hollows us out, and we wind up with a health-care system and an education system and not much else."
CBC
16-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Leaked Canadian military report shows many new recruits are quickly leaving
Social Sharing The Canadian military insists it's getting a handle on its recruiting crisis, but a new leaked internal report obtained by CBC News suggests many of those who come through the door quickly leave in frustration over the inability to get trained and into the job they want. In addition, the effort to retain experienced soldiers, sailors and aircrew was dealt an important blow recently when a Department of National Defence office — set up to find ways to keep people — was defunded. The struggle to recruit new members to both the regular and the reserve force has been a major preoccupation as the Forces face a shortage of up to 14,000 qualified personnel. But the flip side of the equation — that has gotten less attention — is the effort to hold on to people, especially in critical technical trades. According to the evaluation obtained by CBC News, the military's biggest retention problem appears to be among those who've just joined. Trouble adjusting and getting trained "The highest attrition rates within the [Canadian Armed Forces] CAF are observed among its lowest ranks and newest members," said the report, which pointed to the 2023-24 fiscal year where 9.4 per cent of newly enrolled members quit, as opposed to 4.3 per cent average across all of the Forces. The reason new members are quitting: Training delays and difficulty adjusting to military life. In some cases, recruits are waiting over 206 days for training — notably in specialized trades. "There are insufficient trainers, equipment, training facilities and other supports to meet training targets effectively," said the report, written in April 2025. "This leads to delays which significantly frustrate [new] members, who often face months of underemployment." Defence researcher Charlotte Duval-Lantoine said the Defence Department seems to be approaching the crisis in a linear, one-step-at-a-time fashion — fix recruiting, then fix the training system. "When you're sitting like a lame duck, waiting for your training, your morale can wane very quickly," said Duval-Lantoine, vice-president at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. "We really need to change the way that we talk about the current state of personnel. We cannot talk just in pure numbers. We really need to talk about it in terms of how many people are actively doing their job today." During a media availability last winter to trumpet the military's plan to boost recruiting, the country's top military commander, Gen. Jeanie Carignan, acknowledged training was an issue. She said efforts were being made to improve basic training, the step ahead of trades training, which is at the heart of the retention issue. "There's no point in recruiting if you're not retaining people," Carignan said. Similarly, the commander of military personnel, Lt.-Gen. Lise Bourgon, said they're trying to get around the training bottleneck with outside partnerships. "There's a great partnership being done with community college and other academic institutions in Canada so that we can use the civilian capacity," Bourgon said, noting that some pre-qualification can be done in the civilian system. WATCH | Amid recruitment and retention pains, Forces plan expansion: Canada plans Arctic military expansion as part of sovereignty push 1 day ago Duration 2:02 Three years ago, the military took a stab at addressing the issue of keeping people in uniform with a 90-page strategy document. As part of that plan, the chief of the defence staff, now-retired general Wayne Eryre, set up a program office to collect data and analysis and provide guidance for senior leaders on how best to keep members from leaving. The evaluation report, obtained by CBC News, said retention efforts of the military's top commanders had made little progress, partly because of the "limited awareness" of the strategy introduced by Eyre and former defence minister Anita Anand. "This issue was exacerbated by the defunding of the Retention Program Office, which was responsible for managing the [senior leaders'] tasks outlined in the strategy," said the evaluation. The Defence Department was asked why the office, which was also tasked to conduct research on the reasons members choose to quit, was defunded and whether it related to the Liberal government's internal budget reallocation exercise. The department said it was unable to answer questions from CBC News by deadline. Follow-through questioned Last year, the government of former prime minister Justin Trudeau ordered National Defence to find $810 million in savings — money that could be pumped back into equipment purchases. Federal estimates said the DND was then expected to find $851 million in savings in the 2025-26 budget year and $907 million thereafter. Duval-Lantoine said that follows a typical pattern. The Defence Department comes up with all of these plans and either never follows through, or doesn't support them. "It's appalling to see personnel [policy] pieces being defended in what the military called the reconstitution era," said Duval-Lantoine. "Since 2022, we've been hearing that personnel issues are a priority for the Canadian Armed Forces. But then when we look down the line, the military is not putting its money where its mouth is." In exit interviews, the departing members talk about the "challenges related to high operational tempo, lack of equipment, training and leadership direction." One of the biggest complaints of new members who are leaving is that they believe senior commanders have the wrong priorities. "Interview evidence shows that there is a perception leadership is prioritizing culture change over critical operational needs like ammunition and equipment," said the evaluation. Similarly, the report found that little effort is made to hold on to highly experienced members who are close to retirement, but might be enticed to stay. "Many have had multiple geographic postings, and feel 'tired and broken,'" the evaluation said. "It was noted that pension-eligible members have done their part to serve the country and therefore there are no strong attempts made to retain them." One bright spot, according to evaluation, is the Naval Experience Program (NEP), which allows recruits to join for a year on a trial basis. It has, according to the report, reduced initial dissatisfaction. "Early data shows that this initiative has had positive effects, allowing some recruits to transfer to another element after initially joining the Royal Canadian Navy."
CTV News
12-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Northeastern Ontario survey tackles workforce challenges
A new northeastern Ontario survey by four workforce planning boards aims to tackle broad labour market challenges like recruitment and retention, with employers reporting applicant ghosting and skill shortages, before closing at the end of May and publishing findings in the fall.
