How to retain senior employees – based on real data

Employee retention is an expensive problem to have. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, hospitality, hotels and events have the highest job mobility rates of any sectors in the country. But the cost to hire new senior professionals can run into the thousands – tens of thousands at the executive level.

While higher job mobility might be common in these sectors, especially for frontline staff, it’s too expensive to lose senior employees as well.

So, it makes good business sense to do what you can to retain your best employees. People, especially leaders, stay in their role when it’s the best deal for them, even if another job might offer more money or perks. Retaining them, then, will be a process of determining what those factors are – and providing them. 

Start by addressing what your people want

You can’t give your people what they want if you don’t know what that is. Fortunately, we’ve got insights on what Australians want.

As a part of our 2024 Workforce Sentiment & Salary Survey, we asked nearly 600 senior Australian hospitality, hotels and events respondents what motivates them to stay with their current employer. Salary and earnings potential topped the charts, but money isn’t everything. Culture and work-life balance weren’t far behind.

The full top six included:

1. Salary and earnings potential (19%)
2. Company culture (14%)
3. Work-life balance (14%)
4. Job security (10%)
5. Workplace flexibility (10%)
6. Career advancement (10%)

And what sat at the bottom of the list?

The factors which mattered the least to our survey respondents were:

1. New challenges (7%)
2. Work location (6%)
3. Staying with an employer to avoid the stress of searching for a new one (3%)
4. Training and development opportunities (2%)
5. Positive corporate social responsibility (1%)
6. Ownership/part-ownership of the business (<1%)
7. Travel options (<1%)
8. Stability (<1%)

Putting it together

If you’re looking to motivate your senior team members and increase retention, focus on improving company culture and see what flexibility you can offer (more on these below). 

People are telling us they want to feel happy at work, and to have their work in balance with their lives. Challenges, training opportunities and an optimal work location just aren’t enough – after all, these things are available at many of your competitors too.

Of course, money beats all for a lot of people. Where you’re able to improve salaries or offer greater benefits, you may see an uptick in employee retention.

Build a winning company culture

People are willing to stick with a job – even a stressful one, or one without the same perks as another business – if they love the people and culture. It might seem intangible, but people can feel the ‘vibe’ of a place, and that vibe is increasingly under the microscope.

What makes up the culture of a venue or business?

Company culture is made up of the way people interact with one another, and the example set by leadership. It is your values and traditions, and how people talk about their job when they leave the building.

So how do we improve it?

Improving company culture almost always comes down to:

1. Communicating better
2. Leading by example
3. Rewarding positive behaviours

In the hospitality, hotels and events sectors, that might look like a few different things:

• Pulling the whole team together for a regular meeting (i.e. monthly) where you can update them on how the business is doing, shout out big wins and set objectives for the next month.
• Fostering a culture of open communication, ensuring people feel like they can speak up, admit mistakes, offer praise and so on. You’ll need to lead this one from the front.
• Standing behind your frontline staff. Try to support people in front of guests or customers, or at least don’t diminish them publicly. This has a knock-on effect – people will hear that you stand with your people, improving their positive feelings about the job even if they themselves aren’t on the front line.
• Actively fighting toxicity. The attitude of “that’s what I had to go through, so it’s what they have to go through” has to go. Define how you expect people to behave and treat one another, then lead by example. Call out negative behaviour and offer praise for positive behaviour.

None of these steps involve big expenses or huge change projects – you could expect to see positive results fairly quickly.

Learn more: How Great Onboarding Boosts Productivity & Retention in Events

Offer more work-life balance, where possible

These sectors don’t always lend themselves well to the type of work-from-home flexibility other workers expect, and that’s OK. But you can still see where you’re able to be more flexible, to accommodate better work-life balance among your people. Remember, flexibility takes up two out of the top six slots in our survey data.

Chances are there are already some quick work-life balance wins opportunities sitting on your roster, for example:

• Ensure people are using their paid and sick leave.
• Ask people what they would like from new flexible work policies – it means something different for everyone.
• Check that you’re not setting unrealistic timeframes. Sometimes deadlines are tight and that’s just how it is, but there may be situations where they don’t have to be tight – allowing people to relax a bit.
• Investigate remote working possibilities for everyone who doesn’t need to be on-site all of the time (such as back office or support teams).
• Try to offer more flexible hours where possible. For example, someone might work extra one day then come in late the next. If the outcome is the same (i.e. tasks which need done get done), it shouldn’t impact your business.
• Communicate these policies. Make sure people at all levels know you’re trying to better accommodate their lives, and encourage them to communicate back. That will help them plan their lives, and for you to plan your schedules around them.

Learn more: 5 Key Considerations for Hiring & Retaining Staff

Hire good people

The last aspect of retaining your best people is finding better people in the first instance. Good people do good work, and when you put them in a company culture that respects their time and skills, they’re more likely to stick around.

If you need support finding great hospitality, hotels and events talent, get in touch with our team today. Our 100% exclusive service helps us to ensure we find the best candidates on the market, filling your roles with right-fit, culturally appropriate and highly skilled people.