By JESUS LLANTO

abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak

Human resources and recruitment specialists on Thursday said Philippine companies should adopt a "non-traditional" approach to keeping skilled and talented employees to minimize the high turnovers that have been experienced lately in at least seven industries.

In a forum on talent acquisition and development organized by JobsDB.com in Makati City, the speakers acknowledged that more and more companies are losing their workers due to more financially-rewarding opportunities in rival companies, in other industries, or abroad. It's possible, they said, to convince workers to stay without always offering a heftier pay.

Cesar Baltazar, president of career training and consulting company iCareer Academy, said that most companies here still use the traditional approach in talent retention, where the emphasis is on preventing workers from leaving. Most of the time, this involves only offers of higher pay.

Companies, he said, should try another approach--giving workers reasons to stay with the company. These may include providing them incentives, professional development opportunities, and good working environment.

Baltazar said that while migration has brought “glowing opportunities” to Filipinos and has kept the Philippine economy afloat through remittances, it has left local companies scrambling for top talents in order to stay productive and competitive.

“We can hold our heads up high and say that with continuing migration, the Filipino fuels the world’s progress, [but] we face the grim reality that the Philippines is losing its competitive edge—its people,” Baltazar said.

Quoting statistics from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), he said that, since 2000, the country has been deploying an average of 79,000 professional and technical workers, 70,000 factory workers, 300 information technology professionals, and 400 clerks every year.

“Five hundred managers or 300 IT professionals may be relatively small, but if they constitute the best and the brightest in the fields, then the industry is in trouble,” Baltazar said.

A survey by the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP) showed that talent migration has resulted in high turnover rates in pharmaceuticals, banking, consumer goods, hotels and restaurants, electronics and semi-conductors, telecommunications, and computers. Of these workers leaving their jobs in this industry, 33 to 59 percent have gone abroad.

Baltazar said companies can learn from the non-traditional approach to talent retention of two companies: Texas Instruments Philippines and the International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI).

Texas Instruments, he said, has recruited 3,000 workers easily because it provides its workers and even its potential employees extensive training programs. It provides six-month on-the-job training program to students from 26 partner universities and six-month apprenticeship to new graduates.

ICTSI, a global ports management company with at least 30 employees being targets of poaching by other companies each year, has trained their employees on multiple skills. It also offers performance and productivity incentives, medical coverage, and guaranteed bonuses to its workers.

Another speaker said that even small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can compete with multinational companies and foreign companies in attracting workers if they can give a lot of rewards to their workers.

Maria Carolina Dominguez, president and CEO of John Clements Consultants Inc., said that an SME’s succession plan and organization’s culture can make them “as attractive as the big companies.”

Dominguez said SMEs can provide more training to its workers because it only has few employees. “In a large company, you are constantly competing.”

Jamea Garcia, executive director for talent development of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines, said small companies can attract those workers who want to acquire more skills.

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Some workers say they do not want to be one of the many people in a big company and are willing to assume more roles in a small companies,” Garcia said.