The idea is that by encouraging people‘s entrepreneurial drive businesses can ensure that such talent remains within their organisation rather than seeing them move on to other companies or to start up alone. The business will also benefit through additional growth, claims research carried out Orange and the Make Your Mark campaign.
The best ways to do this, the survey suggests, are to introduce ideas-at-work schemes or networking opportunities to encourage people across all levels of the business to connect and share ideas.
“With skills shortages a concern in many industries, small businesses in particular appear to be feeling the pressure,” said Martin Lyne, head of small business at Orange Business Services.
“A first step towards addressing the problem is to think creatively about how to find and retain enterprising employees: people distinguished by their initiative and bold ideas.
“Giving them the opportunity to channel their entrepreneurial skills back into the business can increase their loyalty and provide the X-factor to drive growth,” he added.
Over three-quarters of the companies polled said they had difficulty recruiting enterprising people and one in three considers this to be a major problem for the organisation.
The main challenge for small businesses is to stop employees moving to larger organisations, the survey found, with 46% saying that was the most common destination for people leaving the company.
But small businesses do seem to realise that holding on to top staff takes more than just a hefty pay package. Over half (54%) said ’different challenges‘ and the ’nature of the work‘ kept enterprising employees loyal, compared to only 12% who pointed to pay.
The Make Your Mark campaign has released a toolkit for small business owners designed to help them encourage a more ’intrapreneurial‘ culture. The toolkit can be accessed at www.makeyourmark.org.uk/atwork.
