Staff Retention: The Real Challenge for MR

Recruitment might be getting tougher, but the real challenge for the research industry is retention, according to Daniel Wain, Group Director of Learning & Development at Research International. In the latest MRWho, Wain shares his vision of an MR industry where companies develop, motivate and best of all retain their staff.

Staff turnover in the MR industry stands at 15 to 16% a year, and losing employees is an expensive business: the cost of replacing one is an estimated 41% of an individual's annual salary. 'People, and their energy, loyalty, creativity and passion, are the key source of sustained competitive advantage' says Wain, who is also Chair of the BMRA's Education Committee.

It's not just the fact that people leave that's a problem, according to Wain. 'Too many people leave at SRE level - just as they're about to create real value for the company.' While this is an issue raised in MRWho before, the focus has usually been on the poor remuneration at this level, whereas Wain believes there's more afoot. 'They leave because of a lack of stimulation and because firms ignore or underuse their intelligence and creativity.'

In his experience, graduates come in to the business full of enthusiasm, and with a clear idea of the bigger picture. 'Two years later, their curiosity has been crushed, and they're disillusioned with the job.'

'Young high-flyers want to make a difference, and we should be leveraging this desire. Instead, researchers get swallowed up, and become obsessed with methodologies and processes.' As a result, not only is the industry leaching staff, but it's losing a certain type of person. According to Wain, 'we're left with those with more stamina than ambition'.

There are also clues in where people go when they leave. In Wain's experience, lots of researchers leave to become teachers - so presumably they aren't chasing a big pay packet. This fits with Wain's view that it's often those members of staff with the softer, people skills who aren't given the chance to develop properly.

The article is based on an interview with DRNO Editor Tessa Russell in November2005 and on Wain's presentation to the BMRA's Research Directions conference in November, entitled 'People Are Our Greatest Blah-Blah-Blah...Once More With Feeling!' It appears in full in the December MRWho.

MRWho is the People and Skills supplement to DRNO, free of charge and emailed as a pdf every month. To subscribe, send your name, job title, company name and the address to which we should send it, to mrwho@mrweb.com. More details are at www.mrweb.com/who..

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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