With good staff hard to come by in the asbestos industry, there's a flipside when you make a great hire – wondering how to keep them.

Asbestos surveyors say that the biggest risk to their business is losing key staff (23%), followed by a slowdown in jobs (17%). ^[1] So how can you manage the needs of your employees and retain key staff members?

• ‍Build a great company culture; this is the best way to retain staff for a long time
  Does your company have a great culture where people look forward to coming to work? Can staff make mistakes without being bullied or chastised? Nurturing a good company culture means that staff will stay with you for years. And according to a leading recruiter ^[1], its also the best way to attract new staff.
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• Have regular sit-downs to build trust and improve staff retention
  Asbestos recruiter Lucy Wainwright explains that regular one-to-one meetings are vital: "The larger the company, the harder it is to be an ear to every single staff member. Regular sit-downs and following through on promises are important to retaining key staff."
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• ‍Focus on attracting first-class clients, not economy-class ones; staff will find your business a more enjoyable place to work
  Gary McKendrick at Omega Asbestos Consulting says: "There are far too many organisations in a "race to the bottom" with a stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap business model, which only serves to turn everyone into dry, lifeless husks. We make a choice to be more exceptional, look after our people, attract first-class clients, not economy-class ones, and make that four-letter word 'work' as glamorous as possible."‍
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• ‍Accept that you'll have a mix of "lifers", staff who'll stay a few years, and those who'll flee whenever another company flirts with them
  Accept that retaining people will be a constant challenge; your core are your "lifers". Then there'll be those you know will stay maybe 3-5yrs, those no more than 2yrs, and those who'll flee anytime if another company flirts enough and sells them to the dream.
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• ‍Don't drive staff away with unreasonable travel demands or mandatory overtime
  44% of people would change jobs for a better work-life balance ^[1]. Consider your team's working conditions and how this could affect their family time. Are you asking them to travel too much? Do you really need to send them to John o' Groats? And what about overtime? Is it mandatory? Can you make this better for your staff
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• ‍Make your technology easy to use; it'll help you retain staff who struggle with computer literacy
  ‍Sometimes staff leave jobs when the technology is hard to use. New staff or older folk may feel embarrassed when they can't get to grips with the technology. Or maybe they lack computer literacy. How easy is it for a novice to pick up your technology for the first time?

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