Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today / Central Hawke's Bay Mail

Findex: Boost employee retention and culture

CHB Mail
1 Jul, 2024 12:53 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Steve Alexander, Partner, Accounting and Business Advisory, Findex.

Steve Alexander, Partner, Accounting and Business Advisory, Findex.

By Steve Alexander, partner, accounting and business advisory, Findex.

OPINION

How we treat one another in the workplace (or anywhere else for that matter) can have a significant impact on productivity. A workplace where staff feel valued and respected has a much better chance of reaching full potential than one where staff are treated poorly.

In recent research carried out by SEEK (www.seek.co.nz), the main internal factors cited for staff leaving their employment are;

1. Work conditions/the environment – 53%

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

2. Organisational changes/restructure – 39%

3. Management/leadership in the business – 31%

The cost incurred by a business to replace an employee varies depending on industry, role and tenure of the person being replaced. Estimates range from 30% of salary up to 300%. It’s a staggering amount.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Given poor work conditions account for over half of staff exits, businesses should be closely monitoring issues negatively impacting culture and quickly taking remedial action.

Workplace culture is the responsibility of all staff, not just leadership. Staff should be encouraged to feed back to management on their concerns. Management should then be seen to be taking steps to rectify any issues raised.

A really good way to foster a healthy workplace culture is to develop trademark behaviours. These are similar to organisational values. They are the guiding light in how staff interact with one another.

If trademark behaviours are to be adopted by a business, all staff should be involved in their development. It’s important that staff feel the agreed behaviours are theirs… that they own them. Trademark behaviours pushed on to staff will have limited uptake otherwise.

Once developed, trademark behaviours can be viewed as a “contract” within the business. There are many ways to remind staff about them, including tea-room posters, having them read out at team meetings or including them as part of staff development plans. Repeated reminders of their existence will help keep them real, and front of mind.

Once trademark behaviours are in place, it’s important to acknowledge positive examples of them in action, but to also ensure not-so-good examples are addressed. It is up to everyone in the team to play their part.

To some extent, hierarchy takes a back seat. It’s okay for a junior member of the team to pull someone up who is not displaying the right behaviours, regardless of their role. In reality, the junior staff member may not have the courage to do this, so at the very least they should speak to their manager.

Trademark behaviours help facilitate a positive culture. Don’t let work conditions be a reason staff leave your business. Contact your local business advisor at www.findex.co.nz


Save

    Share this article

Latest from Central Hawke's Bay Mail

Hawkes Bay Today

'I like it a lot': Rural family amped for duck hunting season

30 Apr 10:31 PM
Central Hawke's Bay Mail

Hawke’s Bay’s shearers' golden moments at the Golden Shears

03 Mar 01:42 AM
Lifestyle

Spreading joy: Sunflower field offers free blooms and happiness

25 Feb 09:14 PM

It was just a stopover – 18 months later, they call it home

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Central Hawke's Bay Mail

'I like it a lot': Rural family amped for duck hunting season

'I like it a lot': Rural family amped for duck hunting season

30 Apr 10:31 PM

The Slavin family have been counting down the days until the season opens.

Hawke’s Bay’s shearers' golden moments at the Golden Shears

Hawke’s Bay’s shearers' golden moments at the Golden Shears

03 Mar 01:42 AM
Spreading joy: Sunflower field offers free blooms and happiness

Spreading joy: Sunflower field offers free blooms and happiness

25 Feb 09:14 PM
CHB Mail looks back as its last edition goes to print

CHB Mail looks back as its last edition goes to print

17 Dec 02:37 AM
The woman behind NZ’s first PAK’nSAVE
sponsored

The woman behind NZ’s first PAK’nSAVE

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP