Partner Article

Lost employees cost SMEs £28,436

Attracting – and keeping – talented people to drive your business forward involves considerable commitment and investment.

Indeed, research we at AXA PPP healthcare recently commissioned* into SME priorities and prospects for 2017 highlights that it costs nearly £30,000, on average, to replace an employee in terms of recruitment costs, training time and lost productivity.

It is perhaps not surprising therefore that, to help lessen the likelihood of having to recruit new people to replace employees who’ve left, employee wellbeing looks set to be high on the agenda for many small to medium businesses in the coming year.

Indeed, when asked to predict the biggest areas of focus for them in 2017, employees’ work/life balance (35 per cent), offering more flexible working practices (21 per cent) and better procurement practices to ensure cost savings (19 per cent) rated highest among UK SME bosses.

2017 also looks like being a busy recruitment year for SMEs, with 24 per cent of those we surveyed saying that they’re looking to hire between 3-5 people and a further 18 per cent looking to hire more than six people. Seventeen per cent expected to add one or two people to their team.

So it’s good news that many SMEs are feeling positive about expanding their workforce in 2017 and it’s equally encouraging that they acknowledge the importance of employee work/life balance. After all, creating a positive, supportive environment where workers can flourish is key to building and maintaining a high-performance workforce and, at the same time, safeguarding your business from the costly risk of losing valuable people.

*Online survey of 507 SME senior decision makers (CEs, MDs, senior managers) in September 2016 by market research agency Atomik

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Chris Horlick, Distribution Director for AXA PPP healthcare .