How to attract & retain the top talent to maximise ROI for SMEs
If you’re a small-to-medium sized business, how can you compete with big business for top talent?
Why should you care about top talent:
In an article published by McKinsey & Company, the article noted that top talent is 400% more productive than average employees.
“One person in the top 1 percent is worth 12 in the bottom 1 percent.” - McKinsey & Company
What is your Employee Value Proposition?
In the same way your products or services at your business have a Unique Value Proposition (UVP), to recruit the top talent, your company should have a clear Employee Value Proposition (EVP).
Related to your EVP is probably your employee benefits package.
What is enticing for many job seekers is not only a competitive salary, but also the formal benefits that the entire employee package comprises. These benefits can include a pension and retirement fund as well as medical aid and GAP cover. However, these benefits are not always possible for SMEs.
What can SMEs do to remain competitive to attract the top talent?
The short answer is: help employees solve a problem they are actively struggling with.
A look at financially stressed employees in the workplace
In a study conducted by Floatpay, 74% of the respondents indicated that they experienced medium-high financial stress levels.
The top 5 causes of financial stress were:
- 58% for transport/ fuel
- 54% for household expenses
- 47% for food
- 46% for rent
- 35% for black tax
What is evident is that, driving this financial stress, is primarily a need to finance necessities. This is a powerful indicator that an individual may be over-indebted, or at least, very close to the line.
In South Africa, over 8 million credit-active consumers are over-indebted. According to FNB, an average middle-income consumer (R180 000 – R500 000 per annum) spends up to 80% of their salary in only 5 days.
Read: How do you know if you’re over-indebted?
This idea is supported by the Financial Outlook Study 2022 which reported that:
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43% of credit active consumers in South Africa used credit to buy groceries
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11% to buy clothing and pay bills (debt).
Woolworths financial services (credit card and store card offering), saw the biggest turnover growth, with a year-on-year increase of 17.2% in December 2022.
All of this indicates that increasingly, consumers are turning to credit to buy essentials.
A financially stressed employee affects you (an employer) in 3 ways
1. Retention
Employees who find themselves in a financially stressed position are twice as likely to go searching for a new job.
In a survey conducted by PwC, 65% of the people looking for a new job cited money as their main reason.
2. Productivity
76% of financially stressed employees indicated that money-stress had a negative impact on their productivity levels.
25% have said that it has a major negative impact on their productivity levels at work.
55% of financially stressed individuals spent an average of 3 hours a week distracted at work dealing with their finances.
3. Absenteeism
49% of employees indicated that their financial stress had a negative impact on their mental health.
35% of these employees indicated that this financial stress negatively affected their attendance at work.
Meerkat can help you help your employees with:
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An emergency savings fund that ties in seamlessly with your payroll. More savings means less reason to rely on debt and continue a vicious debt cycle.
Did you know: 64% of people earning less than R6k have less than one month in emergency funds.
- Financial wellness workshops on-site.
- On-site debt consultants provided at your request to assist those employees that are considered over-indebted.
- For those in need of debt counselling, we will negotiate with their creditors on their behalf and can reduce your employee’s debt by up to 50%.
Read: A young family went from over-indebted to debt-free thanks to Meerkat
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We’ll deal with all the credit providers so your employees are no longer hassled daily by companies wanting their money. The result? Increased productivity.
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We will check if your staff are over-insured and if so, rearrange their insurance policies to ensure they are paying as little as possible for the most coverage possible.
Interested in hearing more? Drop us a mail at info@meerkat.co.za.