Retain and Gain

This Playbook identifies 40+ low-cost tips, activities and actions that small business can take right now (some in only 10 minutes a day) to attract, engage and retain staff. Written in an innovative "travel guide" format, author Lisa Taylor, includes special sections on new graduates, the aging workforce and family enterprises, and provides planning templates and links to unique resources. The Playbook, published by the Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counselling (CERIC), also features research, facts and statistics that shed new light on Canada's small business economy and workforce.

For most businesses, upwards of 70% of operating budgets is spent on people. If the relationship you have with your workforce is both your most significant risk and your greatest competitive opportunity, how do you make the most from this investment?

Career management - even for the smallest of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) - offers a strategic lever for stronger company performance. Indeed, career management affects more than just employee satisfaction and loyalty. It drives better customer service, faster identification of ways to improve business operations and increased opportunity for growth - for staff as well as for your business.

If as a small business owner or manager, you worry about any of the following, this Playbook is for you:

• Engaging and retaining employees
• Finding the right talent and recruitment
• Developing new leadership candidates and managers
• Providing career development for employees with limited opportunities for promotion
• Compensating and rewarding employees

The Playbook will show you how to address your most critical employee challenges while still managing cash flow and the workload demands of the business. The Playbook also debunks common misconceptions such as small organizations with flat organizational structures and limited resources can't establish good career practices. You will learn how career management is a high-value, high-return, low-risk business lever that will retain your employees - and grow your business.