Mature age workers may have different priorities than they did ten years ago, and many may no longer want to climb the career ladder. Instead they may be looking for a role with less stress, new challenges or greater flexibility for work/life balance.
Redeployment is an effective way to retain committed staff and maintain 'corporate knowledge' gained from time within the business. Redeployment provides opportunities to use workers' skills and expertise in different ways, and this may help you explore new business opportunities.
Some training may be required for staff to perform new roles, but by redeploying employees that are already familiar with your business priorities and processes, you can reduce the time taken for them to be fully effective in a new position. Redeployment is less expensive and more productive that hiring a new employee.
Benefits to employers
- Better retention and re-use of corporate knowledge.
- Reduction in staff turnover, which reduces recruitment and training costs.
- Opportunities to explore alternative business processes and opportunities.
- Extra appeal as an 'employer of choice'.
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Benefits to employees
- Managing careers more effectively by using knowledge and expertise but reducing stress and postponing retirement.
- Potential to vary work hours (and earnings) to explore other commitments.
- Increased productivity and job satisfaction resulting from greater flexibility.
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Tips for implementing redeployment
Employers may be able to retain a worker's valuable ‘corporate knowledge’ by offering alternatives to their current role. Generally, redeployment describes the process of moving a worker to fill an alternative role within the same business, and can take many forms, such as:
- repositioning staff that know your business as specialists to develop new clients, products/services, or processes;
- adjusting work roles or tasks to allow 'experts' to concentrate on their expertise;
- using an experienced employee on project work, business improvement, quality assurance or mentoring;
- reducing responsibilities or work hours (with a commensurate reduction in pay) to allow a worker more opportunity to pursue other interests or to meet caring responsibilities;
- moving an employee sideways to another position that allows them to explore different skills or attributes from their current functions; and
- outplacing experienced staff members with interested stakeholders.
Redeployment should be considered as a key retention strategy for valued employees nearing retirement. Being able to use their skills and knowledge in a different role, gives experienced employees a reason to continue working longer than they may have otherwise done.
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Read more: Training and development