KEEPING your talented staff happy is key to surviving the economic downturn, claims a leading HR expert.

Stephen Seymour, consultancy manager at The Urquhart Partnership, believes talent management could be the saving grace for failing businesses during a turbulent 2009.

Speaking at a pro.manchester breakfast seminar yesterday, he said: “You need to keep your focus on your most valuable employees as these are the people who will ensure you have business success in the future.

“Ensuring you keep your most talented staff happy will not only lead to increased morale and job satisfaction but will also help increase productivity and profits.

“In the long-term, it is worth remembering talent attracts talent so your people are your greatest asset for winning the best candidates to drive your business forward.”

Seymour said employee development, reward and recognition, succession planning and communication are the key principles businesses should address to ensure vital talent is not lost.

His top tips for retaining talent are:

• Define what talent means for your organisation. This is a vital starting point so you can identify who your talent is
• Develop a strategy. Talent management should be about the long term sustainability of your organisation
• Communication. Being open and honest with your employees will win their trust and loyalty, while ensuring they feel valued
• Develop a reward strategy for retaining talent. This gives employees clear goals to work towards.
• Ensure the focus on talent does not alienate the engine room. Talent might drive your business forward but other team members are necessary for the day-to-day running
• Ensure you have value for money on reward spend

The pro-manchester breakfast session was held in conjunction with The Urquhart Partnership and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Visit www.upwebsite.com and www.pro-manchester.co.uk for further details.

Notes to editors
pro.manchester is a corporate membership organisation representing those employed in the financial and professional service community in and around Greater Manchester.

The Urquhart Partnership is an independently owned consultancy business, with offices in Aberdeen and Manchester. Established in 1995, it has grown year on year and is now one of the leading organisations in its field.It specialises in assisting employers to source, manage and develop staff by providing: consultancy support with human resources, training or recruitment; development and delivery of training workshops and programmes; staff and interim recruitment; design and delivery of assessment centres; psychometric testing and assessment and outplacement and redundancy support.

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