Make sure that your employees don’t go for greener pastures

I would suggest that it is vital to retain staff, or you risk poor performance and reputation damage. One of the key differentials in design is purely down to the quality of staff.

Retention of employees is essential, but how can design consultancies balance the demands from clients with their staff’s well-being?

In a turbulent sector where consultancies experience peaks and troughs because of economic cycles, a watchful eye on the bottom line is a must. However, this should not be at the expense of employees.

This is forgotten by many consultancies, and – quite rightly – staff leave for greener pastures.

Employees must be treasured, and the best way to do this is to incentive staff, carefully use outsourcing to fulfil projects, and invest in training and benefits.

We have found that getting new staff is very expensive in terms of the total applied costs of interviews, so every person retained is money as well.

Ian Schofield, Managing director, Watt Design, Bradford BD10 9TQ