Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Despite the current global crisis, employee recruitment and retention in the Middle East will continue to pose challenges for both public and private organisations, says a management expert.
Regional companies are losing significant revenue opportunities because the majority of departing professionals own unique expertise and knowledge and they are being head-hunted by direct competitors to their incumbent companies.
"Employee turnover has always been one of the invisible enemies of business in any growing economy - it is invisible because most costs associated with staff turnover cannot be directly itemised in the profit and loss statement or reported at the end of the fiscal year," said Zed Ayesh, managing director of Flagship Consultancy.
"Mobility of skilled professionals remains a challenge to businesses. This is costing businesses a substantial deal of wasted resources and weakening their competitive positions against those which have a stable workforce with lesser turnover rates."
Turnover has both monetary and non-monetary consequences and costs.
The process can involve a severance package and end-of-service benefits, loss of productivity and the lost knowledge and training of the former employee.
Costs also include the recruitment process involving fees of agencies or advertising, screening and interviewing candidates.
"Training is also a big issue in recruiting replacements for departing employees. Costs include loss of revenue, slow customer service, less production, inability to take on more business, inability to deliver projects on time, dealing with penalties, lost business relationships and contacts.
"Costs of turnover can easily surpass 150 per cent of the employee compensation figure and would be much higher for managers and highly-paid executives.
"An organisation with a high staff turnover can also be perceived as weak or not a good employer and often results in current staff feeling under-appreciated," said Mr Ayesh.
