This is how you can use marketing to retain talent in Singapore

Building employee loyalty and retaining talent is a key challenge for companies in Singapore.

According to a recent global workforce study conducted by a leading HR consulting company, fielded across a range of industries in 29 markets across the world including Singapore, employees in Singapore are more likely to leave their current employers within the next two years compared to their global counterparts – 34% of employees said they are likely to leave compared to 28% globally.

The demographic groups with an even lower intent to stay are young employees (less than 30 years old), middle managers and even high potential employees. The study also shows that the focus is very much still on monetary rewards and employees may not be clear on the value of the “total rewards” that they are receiving.

Also, anecdotally in Singapore, the problem of talent retention seems to be more acute in the service industries like F&B and retail.

To address this pressing issue, organizations should move away from the perception that rewards are only what are printed on the pay slips and other government mandated incentives. They can do a better job of communicating that learning and career advancement opportunities, flexible work schedules, leave entitlements, and other perks are also a part of the employment deal.

In short, an employer needs to strongly market the total value of their promise of what the employee can expect from them and an explanation of what the employer expects in return. The next element of marketing is about an employer brand.

Communicating one employer brand means having all employees understand the corporate mission and values and, more important, how they personally are connected to them. This should be supplemented by creating Clarity and Community among employees.

Clarity is about conveying to the employees the direction of the business along with ways they can contribute to the enterprise.

Community is about building a shared experience, a sense that employees and leaders are in it together-sharing both the challenges and rewards of working.

Also, it’s important to provide recognition to employees who have demonstrated continued customer focus, since loyalty of these employees would result in loyalty of customers. High potential candidates need to be identified early-marketers call this segmentation and special ‘fast track’ programs crafted and branded for them.

In this regard, a leading Singapore based franchise operator of 7-Eleven is known to start a new store as soon as they feel that an existing high potential staff member is ready to be a store manager. This provides a career path to the employee within the group and contributes to their retention.

At the same time, new stores fuel the franchisee’s growth across the island. These are challenging times for employers particularly with the government’s cap on foreign workers. Organisations have long been successfully marketing to their customers.

It’s time now for companies to use the principles of marketing in relation to their employees as well. By doing the above, they are strongly positioned in engaging their workforce and cultivating employee loyalty. This will help them in deriving competitive advantage in a crowded and dynamic marketplace.