Low Staff Morale in the Public Sector: 13% plan to leave jobs ASAP. What can employers do to combat?

One of the questions I’ve been asking recently while out seeing Comms Managers, is whether they are seeing a shift in the market in relation to R and R (reward and recognition). Specifically, I was interested in whether organisations are looking at ways to raise staff morale and improve employee retention.



We’ve all been through a rough year; some worse than others, with 4 day weeks, redundancy and pay freezes. This is bound to have an effect on morale and ultimately will affect both productivity and employee retention.



According to a report released by Gfk NOP, 37% of public sector employees claim morale has fallen since last year, with 13% of respondents planning to leave their current job as soon as possible while a further 11% plan to depart in the next year. Obviously there are going to be less jobs in the public sector moving forward however, I have no doubt that the employing bodies would prefer to have some control over who stays and who goes. The cost of hiring has never been cheap and this coupled with down time while you are trying to replace staff hits the employer doubly hard.



So back to my main question ..... what are employers doing about it? The Comms managers I spoke with week said very little due to budget restrictions but then I still have to question whether this is right. With employers having the ability to claim tax relief of up to £150 per head for employees entertainment, I think now is the time to be thinking about ways to recognise your staff, to say thank you for their commitment, understanding and loyalty and to remind them that although times might be hard, you do appreciate them and want to show them in an appropriate way.



Family fun days, Christmas parties and team building activities are a cost effective and appropriate way to reward your staff, bringing them closer to each other, as well as your organisation. With the average cost of R and R days ranging from £50 - £150 per head and the cost of replacing employees running in the thousands, the pertinent question seems to be, can you afford not to reward and recognise your employees?

Event & Exhibiting Show: Virtual v Live Events

Event & Exhibiting Show: Virtual v Live Events

Arriving at 1.30pm on the Thursday, the show seemed pretty quiet. I was later informed, by a reliable source, that I’d missed the midday rush and that the day had achieved double attendee’s on the previous year. The general feeling from the event organisers was that the show had been a real success and that the brand specific seminar ‘s of the Friday would deliver even higher visitors stats.

I was a little disappointed with the lack of creativity in the way that companies were exhibiting themselves. Being new to the industry, perhaps my glasses are of the rose tinted variety, but I was hoping to see a little more flare.... a bit of pizzazz.

I attended two of The Event Magazine seminars and found the talk on virtual events incredibly interesting and informative but more of that later.

The busiest stand, by far, was The Event Magazine’s. With plenty of seating, a buzzy atmosphere and free flowing ice cold Kronenberg’s, it was the obvious choice and a welcome rest stop at end to the day. I took the opportunity to network and met a number of interesting people and so was glad I pushed my way onto the stand.

So back to the virtual events seminar..... In short, VE’s were being championed as an “add on” as opposed to a replacement of live events, but some thought provoking stats were delivered which have been ringing in my ears ever since [paraphrasing]:-

1) Virtual events have the ability to capture 90% of the 70% of delegates who sign up for but do not attend exhibitions

2) CEO’s will spend up to 2.5 hours in a virtual conference / exhibition

3) Delegates attending a virtual conference will often be less inhibited than in a live environment

4) And most worryingly, HP saw almost three times the return for every pound spent in a virtual environment than a live event

So does this mean the live event is dead? I think not. No matter how “convenient” our lives become, with virtual experiences replacing face-to-face, real, interactions (think facebook for socialising, Tesco online for grocery shopping, twitter for talking), there is still a very basic human need to interact face-to-face. If you’ve worked from home for long periods of time you’ll understand exactly what I mean.

No matter how realistic our virtual worlds become, we need to remember that we utilise technology to enhance our lives, no to take it over.

After all, people buy from people and no matter how many connections we have on linked in, or followers on twitter, the people we are most likely to do business with, and spend time with, are those people we see face-to-face.