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Organisations in the UK facing a struggle to retain their top talent

According to new research conducted by professional recruitment consultancy Harvey Nash, organisations in the UK are struggling to hold onto talented employees as overseas job opportunities become very tempting. Official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are due out later this week, looking at the number of emigrants leaving the UK. These figures are expected to be considerably worse than the record 400,000 who left in 2006.

In August of this year, 500 senior level decision makers were surveyed from businesses across the UK. Over a quarter of them (26%) are currently feeling the effects of increased UK skilled emigration, and a third are finding it difficult to recruit skilled UK candidates. Furthermore, two in five (40%) of respondents expressed concern about their ability to retain skilled staff.

Nearly three quarters (72%) of professionals polled blame the current job squeeze on the cost of living for skilled UK talent seeking jobs abroad. Furthermore, 30% believe that greater job satisfaction and improved career prospects are the main reasons skilled staff would want to stay at an organisation. This is followed closely by salary (29%), and work/life balance (25%).

Albert Ellis, Chief Executive Officer at Harvey Nash, comments: “We have a wealth of knowledge, experience and skill in the UK that needs to be nurtured and developed for the future success of the British economy. As the economic climate continues to deteriorate, and redundancies loom large for many in formal employment, employers cannot be complacent about available talent. On the contrary, it’s at times like this when we can ill afford to lose our best people. If we don’t act fast to keep highly skilled talent in the UK labour market by boosting job satisfaction and career opportunities, we run the risk of conceding our competitive edge to other countries.”

www.thegrapevinemagazine.com

22 December 2008