Reading through a recent survey by the recruitment giant Reed, six in ten Londoners are looking for a new challenge. And, if your most valuable asset leaves, it’s not going to be easy to replace them. A key member of staff left us a few years ago. By the time the new recruit started, there was a time lag of six months. Factor in induction, familiarisation and doing things in the MCP way then a year had gone by. What is the price tag on the loss of an employee?

If there are skills shortages and your employees have valuable skills then you are going to have to work hard to keep them. Nearly every engineering manager we speak to is struggling to recruit maintenance technicians. ‘The skills shortage is exacerbated by the impending retirement of an aging workforce. 19.5% of engineers currently working in the UK are due to retire by 2026….’ according to Jonathan Lee’s Jason Cole.

So, what can you do to keep people? It’s not all down to remuneration. As we emerge from Covid-19 studies on staff retention agree that employees want:

Opportunities for promotion
Flexible hours
More perks and benefits
More annual leave
Meaningful, challenging work
A chance to grow and learn; training and development
Recognition and respect
A good work environment

Most of the last four points are under the control of the manager. And if there is a great employee-manager relationship then people are more likely to stay. It’s not all down to money. How much is a good employee-manager relationship worth? What makes a great manager-employee relationship work?

Leading by example
Living the company values
Fostering trust
Treating people as they would like to be treated themselves
Have a bit of fun
Rewarding good performance
Celebrating success
Praising often
Upwards and downwards mentoring….have you seen it from my position?

Managing by accident

Too often the person with the best technical skills gets promoted to be the new supervisor or manager. Those practical skills which served the artisan well are now redundant and supervisory skills need to be nurtured.

If the management skills of the new supervisor or manager are not developed, what is going to happen to the employee-manager relationship and staff turnover?

So how can we address the skills shortage?

We can assess management skills. Some of our customers have concerns about the performance of their managers and first-line managers. We have developed management development centres to see how they perform. Incumbent managers, team leaders and aspiring technicians have gone through the process. The development tools are always tailored. Common themes include:

Prioritisation exercise
Group exercise on a recurring problem
Return-to-work interview
Presentation on continuous improvement activity
Personality questionnaire

Outputs from the development centre include individual feedback, group feedback, development plans and recommendations as to whom should fulfill the position(s).

Following group exercises, interpretation of the same conversation by staff from HR, production and engineering is very insightful.

We have also developed the New Engineering Manager/Supervisor workshop. This course was conceived by a technician who went on the journey to become an engineering manager. This is the course he wishes he had attended 30 years ago.

From the Technical Training angle, we have the Mechanical to Electrical conversion programme, which allows single skilled mechanical technicians to upskill.