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Silversoft International welcomes Agency industry & Martech expert, René Praestholm as Chief Growth Officer to scale global Agency Solution Offering

Silversoft, a leading international enterprise software firm, is thrilled to announce the appointment of René Praestholm as its new international Chief Growth Officer. In this newly appointed group role, René will lead the Agency Solutions division, driving growth and scale internationally and ensuring that the firm continues to deliver leading innovative solutions to agencies worldwide.

 

René is an accomplished Martech industry leader with decades of experience in the agency space. He was one of the founding members of WorkBook, a leading agency management software platform that went on to successfully scale globally before selling to Deltek in 2017. His extensive expertise and passion for the industry make him the ideal candidate to help take Silversoft’s Agency Solutions offering to the next level.

 

“We are thrilled to welcome René to the team,” said Jacques du Buisson, CEO. “His track record of success and deep contextual knowledge of the agency space make him the perfect fit to help drive growth and deliver the best possible solution suite to our agency clients around the world. We are excited to see what he will achieve in his new role and look forward to working together with René to reimagine our offering to our agency clients, and future prospects looking to partner with our firm.

 

René will be based in Copenhagen and will be driving international growth from London, focusing on three primary pillars: Marketing, Customer Acquisition & Product. His appointment is a significant milestone in Silversoft’s ongoing efforts to expand its reach and provide innovative solutions to service-based firms worldwide.

 

“I am honoured and excited to be joining such an exciting company, on an amazing growth trajectory, and taking the lead in the Agency Solutions division,” said Praestholm. “I believe the company’s unwavering focus on delivering cutting-edge purpose-built solutions to agencies is second to none, and I am eager to help them achieve even greater success. I look forward to working with the talented Silversoft team, both in the growth of the Deltek WorkBook & Magnetic portfolios, but also in ensuring we continue to develop innovate solutions that make a real difference in the agency space.”

 

Silversoft, recently named Deltek’s international partner of the year (ROW) for the sixth consecutive year, continues to deliver leading enterprise software that provides innovative solutions to service-based firms. With a focus on agency solutions, the company helps organizations improve their operational efficiency and increase profitability

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Silversoft Named “Partner of the Year for Rest of World” for the 6th Consecutive Year

Deltek Announces the Winners of Its Global Partner of the Year Awards

Herndon, VA – February 8, 2023 – Deltek, the leading global provider of software and solutions for project-based businesses, today announced the winners of its annual Global Partner of the Year Awards. This year’s awards recognize the significant accomplishments of outstanding companies in the Deltek Partner Network. They represent the best of the vibrant global ecosystem of systems integrators (SIs), value-added resellers (VARs), independent software vendors (ISVs), accounting firms and consulting firms.

Deltek’s partner programs provide flexibility for companies to resell, co-sell, refer, implement and consult – all supported by Deltek’s commitment to make each partnership a success. Partners amplify enterprise software offerings for project-based businesses and expand the Deltek customer base around the world.

This year, newly created award categories were added to recognize partners that are successful in focusing on new industries and new customers – the Net-New Customers Award – as well as those partners that exhibit excellent potential – with the Rising Star Awards. Deltek recognized a total of 11 partners in the following categories:

“Congratulations to all our award-winning partners on a successful year! It is an honor to recognize the outstanding achievements and innovation of these partners,” said Mike Hines, Vice President of the Global Partner Alliance at Deltek. “It’s an exciting time to be part of the Deltek ecosystem – we have a lot in store for partners in 2023, including new programs and new routes to market. Thanks to the Deltek Project Nation community and the ever-growing expansion of our partner community, 2023 promises to be a successful year for all.”

To learn more about Deltek’s global partner ecosystem and the benefits of the program, visit https://www.deltek.com/en/partners.

 

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Deltek partner of the year Interview with Silversoft MD – Jacques du Buisson

A Journey To Global Success:
How Silversoft became Deltek’s International Partner of the Year for the 5th year running

 

South Africa has produced some of the world’s brightest and most talented people. Political and sports personalities aside, the likes of Elon Musk, Trevor Noah and Black Coffee currently dominate headlines and are impacting the world in ways they could never have once imagined. 

There’s just something about South Africans and their unique combination of strength of character, ambition, and ability to work hard.

There are several notable software technology successes too. The latest of which is a South African business called Silversoft. 

Siversoft is a reseller, partner and developer of enterprise software solutions for people and project-centric organisations. The company works in close partnership with global project management software leader, Deltek and specialises in helping fast-growing professional services firms, including some of the biggest names in Agency, Engineering, Consulting, Legal and Accounting, to deploy and maximise ROI on Deltek’s range of solutions.

Silversoft is also the first Deltek partner to be recognised as International Partner of the Year for five years in a row – which is a huge achievement!

We met with Silversoft’s Managing Director, Jacques du Buisson, who founded the firm and leads their global charge, to find out how they did it, why it matters, and what they’re doing next.

Q: Tell us about this award and why it’s such a coveted prize

Jacques: Every year Deltek announces its global partner award winners in a range of categories – this year there were nine categories. Of course, the International Partner of the Year is a significant achievement on a global scale, as it means that we are the partner that has performed beyond expectations both in the the markets we serve and in the various products and locations in which we collaborate with Deltek.

Being named international partner of the year confirms the great work our firm has been doing to deliver deep, functional and innovative solutions to our clients, while working hand-in-hand with Deltek to tailor our offering to suit our markets. This kind of recognition confirms that we are doing the right thing.

Q: Why do you think Silversoft won the award this year?

Jacques: I believe that it’s a combination of a few things, the most important being that we have remained completely dedicated to our strategy, especially our commitment to – and investment in – a partnership with Deltek. In the last year this has included a significant focus on international growth.

We work very closely with Deltek. We know their excellent solutions inside-out and, after 15 years, we know exactly how to implement, customise and onboard clients across the professional services market, so that our customers maximise their return on investment as fast as possible.

Silversoft’s deep contextual knowledge, ambition and ability to win new customers, and then to successfully implement and support Deltek solutions is what sets us apart. This drives healthy year-on-year growth in our user base, and has enabled us to scale into the UK and beyond.

Q: What does this recognition mean to you and the team?

Jacques: It’s a great validation of our strategy and hard work. We know that we have a good business model and that our firm has a bright future ahead of it.

Also, we’re passionate about Deltek’s solutions. We believe that they’re best on the market, and we’re proud of our role in building the Deltek Project Nation community.

Five years of consecutive recognition for excellence drives home the fact that we are making the right decisions for our people, clients and partners. It’s a big deal and pushes us to maintain such standards.

Q: What sets Silversoft apart from similar service providers?

Jacques: We have well over a decade of experience in addressing the core challenges of project-centric businesses. We apply this experience throughout our client engagements, helping clients create an environment for their people to thrive, maximising utilisation of their team, improving cash flow, and optimising working capital. 

Service-centric firms need to be flexible and agile in order to survive, and our team works very closely with them to ensure that the technology they use helps to protect their profit margins and creates a platform for best practice and growth. We relentlessly focus on ensuring our best-of-breed technology enhances the entire project lifecycle, while minimising time to value. 

This approach illuminates the pathway for decision making and has been working well so far. We’re particularly excited by the many international opportunities opening up to us as we scale.

Q:  What’s your approach to hiring and keeping the best talent in South Africa, and what does this award mean for your team?

Jacques: Our approach is to hire great people who are also experts from the industries we serve. We want people who have managed traffic in a creative agency, or managed complex projects in an engineering firm, because we know that they truly understand the challenges our clients face. The project industry can be complex and intensive, and the more experience we have inside the markets we serve, the better.

Our team lives our values and we consistently punch above our weight, always looking to employ hard-working, ambitious people that reflect our culture and values.  So we know that winning this award from a global leader like Deltek is a reflection of the talent of our people. They have an excellent standard of service delivery and now they’re seen as the benchmark in the industry. 

Not only can they rest assured that Silversoft is a safe and stable employer, but also that their future careers will be bolstered by the fact that they have worked at one of the top international firms in this industry.

Q: How do you find space to innovate and add value when Silversoft is a reseller? 

Jacques: Innovation is one of Silversoft’s core values, but you’re right, it’s very difficult to innovate when you’re not in control of product development. Deltek have really proven their leadership in the project space and we partner closely with them to deliver on that.

That being said, we consistently strive to think creatively and find new ways to add further value for our clients. For us it’s all about improving the project lifecycle and reducing the time to value. Project-centric firms need the tools to deliver amazing services. That’s what they rely on us for, and that’s what we’re very good at.

We are also always looking at how to improve and speed up the way we implement and support Deltek products for our customers. In a demanding industry, time to value is key in all we deliver.

This is where we apply our creativity and development capability. More recently we used our experience in the industry to develop a product that fulfills a very specific requirement in our market, that will soon be available on the Deltek Marketplace. The product is called ‘Boost’ and it’s a great little plug-in that completely removes the effort of completing traditional timesheets. We know that incomplete and inaccurate timesheets cause a lot of pain for our clients, and we’re thrilled that we have found a way to automate this tedious and often contentious task. Imagine if you could just focus on your work, while the software learns how to track your time automatically!

To find out more about how silversoft can assit your professional services firm, visit our site www.silversoft.co.za for more information

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Silversoft wins Deltek International Partner of the Year for the 5th year running.

Deltek Announces Its Global Partner Award Winners for 2021

Deltek recognizes innovation and achievements of partners, including Baker Tilly, CrunchTech, ConstructConnect, Infotek Consulting, insightsoftware, Full Sail Partners, Silversoft, Smartsoftware and Stambaugh Ness

Herndon, VA – April 12, 2022 – Deltek, the leading global provider of software and solutions for project-based businesses, announced the winners of its annual Global Partner Awards during its virtual Partner Kickoff event held earlier today. This year, nine partners were recognized for their outstanding accomplishments in 2021.

The Deltek Partner Network amplifies enterprise software offerings for project-based businesses and expands the Deltek customer base around the world. Through Deltek partners, more companies can experience better project intelligence enabling them to make better decisions about their business and manage their unique projects in a collaborative and end-to-end platform.

This year, Deltek recognized the significant accomplishments of nine partners which represent the program’s systems integrators, value-added resellers, independent software vendors, accounting firms, and consulting firms:

 

“Deltek is proud to collaborate with our partner network, which enables thousands of customers to continue to strengthen their businesses,” said Natasha Engan, Senior Vice President, Deltek Global Sales. “It is an honor to recognize the outstanding achievements and innovation of these partners. We look forward to a fantastic year ahead with the Deltek Project Nation community as we continue to expand our program globally.”

To learn more about Deltek’s global partner ecosystem and the benefits of the program, visit https://www.deltek.com/en/partners.

 

About Deltek
Better software means better projects. Deltek is the leading global provider of enterprise software and information solutions for project-based businesses. More than 30,000 organizations and millions of users in over 80 countries around the world rely on Deltek for superior levels of project intelligence, management, and collaboration. Our industry-focused expertise powers project success by helping firms achieve performance that maximizes productivity and revenue. www.deltek.com

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How to Motivate Your Team to Produce Good Work, Even During a Global Pandemic

How to motivate your team to produce good work, even during a global pandemic

We all know what it’s like to dig deep on a Monday morning, trying to find the smallest bit of motivation to get out of bed and dress for work. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, it sort of threw the world into a permanent “Monday morning” situation. Along with the increased levels of stress and anxiety it brought to agencies and businesses all over the globe, came an adjustment to remote working and a struggle amongst employees to find motivation to be innovative and creative. 

Research conducted in partnership with Microsoft and the Boston Consulting Group, involving 9,000 managers and employees from firms across 15 European countries, revealed that, “It’s a challenge to feel connected, confident and communicate effectively with the team, and we know from a lot of research that creativity and innovation largely happen through collaboration.” A healthy team culture is achieved when employees feel motivated to be creative and productive. 

But, how do you implement this type of work environment when employees are unable to get together in the office for a good, old-fashioned creative brainstorming session?

Fortunately there are a number of effective strategies you can implement within your teams now to ensure you can harness that collaborative mentality, and motivate your team to produce creative work, at a distance. 

Ensure an effective briefing process

According to Denise Blasevick, CEO of The S3 Agency, providing a clear creative brief, a day or two before an online brainstorming sessions, is key because it “allows people to digest the information, do research, and come armed with questions along with any potential thought starters that can start the brainstorm out with a burst of energy.”

Download a helpful Creative Brief Checklist

Use virtual whiteboards for collaboration

Traditional brainstorming whiteboards are found to actually limit creativity because often one individual is responsible for recording all thoughts, whereas virtual whiteboards allow everyone to contribute, show and record their ideas. Visual collaboration in a virtual space also means you can loop in other team members who may work in different country offices. You could even use this process to encourage healthy competition, circling the “winning ideas” on the virtual whiteboard and challenging your team to suggest better ideas.

Here are a few virtual whiteboards we recommend checking out: 

Source: https://www.innovationtraining.org/what-is-mural-and-how-to-use-mural-for-design-thinking/

Encourage individual work 

Grace Judson, a leadership consultant, advises that you provide your team with limited solo brainstorming time, using a ripple effect: The first team member starts and is given 5 minutes to write out their ideas. Once they are done, the second team member goes, either coming up with new ideas, or using the ideas of the previous team member as inspiration, still on the 5-minute clock. This continues until all team members have contributed and then the results are up for discussion. 

Equip your team with a helpful brainstorming activity sheet

For many, the best way to tackle those Monday morning blues is to grab hold of a big cup of coffee. And for us, giving our team tools to help get their creative juices flowing while working from home, is the equivalent to a shot of espresso. 

Which is why we’ve developed a free, downloadable, Idea Generation Workbook that you can share with your team today – either for them to complete alone or for you to work through it with them. 

This sheet offers a few out-of-the-box ideas for brainstorming effectively, as well as formal processes they can follow to keep them focused and motivated. Before long, your team will be producing such good work, and solving every problem thrown at them, you will have forgotten remote working was ever a struggle in the first place. 

Ready to see your team’s innovative thinking thrive? Get your free Idea Generation Workbook by completing the below form.

 

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Reduce your Recruitment Spend with Deltek

Why spend most of your budget on recruitment systems and processes when you can get an effective and streamline recruitment system to do the work for you for only R65k per year*

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Request info below

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Now is the Time to Back Talent

Recruiting and retaining talented staff is key to business success, but can be seen as a short-term distraction rather than long-term necessity.

The oil industry knows better than most the importance of operational efficiency as it struggles to manage the impact of a ten-year low in crude oil prices. It is a sector with executive boards that know the importance of investing in new blood to help grow the talent pools required to plug skills gaps being created by increasing numbers of employees approaching retirement. But not all sectors face such desperate measures.

In fact, the drive for operational efficiency, or future survival as in the case of many oil companies, need not be at the price of talent. However, many executive directors fail to engage in the talent management debate, let alone agree with this conjecture. Christopher Johnson, European and Pacific region business leader for talent at Mercer, believes that part of the cause of many executive directors’ disengagement in the talent debate is because of a failure by their management to explain the skills required to help grow the business.

This, he suggests, is due to the difficulty involved in presenting a clear story about the underlying employee issues at play around, for example, career development, gender and age diversity, and succession planning. “Where boards are failing is in recognising in the broader workforce those huge talent issues they should be facing up to,” he says. “For example, the ageing workforce is a big issue, and some organisations aren’t thinking beyond this to the fact that they’re getting a more complex workforce with a broader age range and employees staying on in work.” But how does management present to a board member a simple dashboard of data?

Human resource functions can prove instrumental in engaging executive board members in the talent management debate, persuading them of the importance of prioritising talent and, crucially, helping them to view it as a long-term investment rather than a short-term cost.

But this requires good-quality analysis of workforce demographics by human resource staff equipped with the appropriate analytical skill sets. “It’s about them providing good-quality and clean data, presented quickly in a way that allows boards to have confidence that things in the business are fine or to recognise that things need to change,” says Mr Johnson.

‘The credibility of the human resource function is the first major barrier businesses must overcome to enable talent management to become a future boardroom agenda item of importance.’

Uninterested and unengaged executives can equate to uninterested and unengaged employees. Employers may suffer employee presenteeism, whereby staff attend work but are unproductive while there. Worse still, errors may be made, which could result in dissatisfied customers and even workplace accidents, with unfortunate injuries to employees, creating unnecessary costs for employers through lost business, sickness absence, medical bills and, potentially, litigation. Peter Reilly, principal associate at the Institute for Employment Studies, says: “Errors will vary from industry to industry, but truly disengaged and disaffected staff can do enormous damage to organisations.”

This is particularly the case when talented employees leave their organisation to join a competitor. Professor Maury Peiperl, director of Cranfield School of Management, believes the latter could prove a key catalyst for change in executives’ interest and engagement in the talent management debate. “The biggest catalyst for change would be organisations’ competition coming from small startups, from outside their usual frame of competitors, and executives starting to recognise there is no permanence in size,” he says. But Professor Peiperl also acknowledges the challenges present for executive boards across all industry sectors. “We’re increasingly looking at a workforce where people expect to be paid attention, rewarded and developed or they just aren’t interested,” he says. “At the same time, organisations have to stay in business and spend what little money they have staying afloat, so there’s a perennial tug of war between short-term and longterm issues.

This is why many human resource teams face an uphill battle in getting talent management on to their board agenda, particularly when it appears they deem the issue more important than most. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s latest HR Outlook Report, which polls organisations about their current and future business priorities, reveals that human resource staff are more concerned with talent management than non-human resource leaders, who are more preoccupied with increasing customer focus. The report also reveals that 76 per cent of human resource leaders agree that their current people strategy will help their organisation achieve its future priorities, compared with just 26 per cent of other business leaders.

So, perhaps the credibility of the human resource function is the first major barrier businesses must overcome to enable talent management to become a future boardroom agenda item of importance. This is likely to happen with the ever-changing nature of the human resource function, which is slowly evolving to become more commercial and strategic in its outlook. But executives also need to wake up to the fact that growth in market share will remain out of reach as long as they fail to implement and invest in a robust talent management programme, which engages and develops staff, enabling them to move the organisation forward.

Download below the Deltek Human Resources Clarity Report to know more

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Develop Talent to Score Business Goals

When you hear the words “people are our greatest assets” it’s because nowadays they really are. Thankfully, in today’s competitive landscape, business leaders increasingly understand that organisational success has less to do with the things they make and much more to do with the people they have, and the strength of the relationships they are able to develop with clients. In no industry is this more pronounced than professional services where people and expertise are the values on offer.

But talent management – the process for making sure these well meant words are actually day-today reality – is so much more than simply recruiting the right people, retaining them, and giving them the skills and experience to succeed. These elements are critical, but we believe it’s how this is ingrained within all corners of the business that really matters.

Talent management can’t just live as a concept within the human resources department; it needs to be fully aligned to the operations and day-to-day service delivery in order for a firm and its people to prosper. For talent to truly feel engaged and listened to, there needs to be two-way conversations about what they want, where they’re deployed and how they can go to the next level. Not only must these conversations happen, they must be founded on data and so ingrained into a company’s culture it should no longer be something only HR does. So why doesn’t this always happen?

Talent management programmes can sometimes be knee-jerk. Programmes can be introduced because firms identify, say, a retention problem and think that a talent initiative will remedy it without fully appreciating how to unite it within their culture and operations. But a notional idea that talent must be the focus is only half the answer. Think about this: has the business really looked at why staff might be leaving? Maybe they’re simply not recruiting the right people. Maybe line managers are not diverting the right people into the right roles.

Maybe there are too few or too many badly timed conversations about upcoming opportunities within the project pipeline. Maybe highly skilled people are being assigned to low skilled projects. Maybe people don’t know where and what they will be working on one day to the next. It’s only when all parts of the organisation start asking these sorts of questions that silo mentalities are finally broken down. The antidote to this is talent management that takes the holistic view; talent management that is data-led and where the activities of people can be linked so they are bound up with the operational strategy of the business.

To apply a sporting analogy, think of this approach of using data to align operational and people goals as applying Opta Stats to your firm. But it is not about the metres run, number of assists or goals scored; it’s about projects completed, margins achieved, utilisation and client retention rates. Think
about what this intelligence can mean to the individual, team and organisation in terms of performance and development.

‘Talent management can’t just live as a concept within the human resources department; it needs to be fully aligned to the operations and day-today service delivery in order for a firm and its people to prosper’.

With margins under pressure, clients demanding more and competitors ready to pounce, the professional services industry needs to stay at the forefront of this transformation. Research from IDC shows that firms without a human capital management or talent programme see a dramatic decline in staff utilisation, project winrates and revenues. This reinforces that operational goals can’t be achieved without investment in your people and their development. To achieve this, talent needs to be championed right from the very top.

Evidence shows most employees want a say in how they can satisfy themselves as individuals, as well as the needs of the organisation. It’s
often assumed talent is peripatetic, always ready to up sticks and leave,
but actually employees mainly want to feel engaged. Staff today expect more dialogue about how their careers are going; they need to be given this reassurance. The once-a-year appraisal will soon be a thing of the past and already firms like Deloitte, and indeed Deltek, are dropping it in favour of more regular feedback discussions.

There’s no reason staff have to leave if organisations can align the wants and needs of both staff and the business. Employees and line managers simply need to be open with each other. When they are, we find both parties tend to
feel part of, and take ownership of, their own trajectories.

So what are the remaining barriers? It’s often said the way businesses have to organise themselves means true collaboration is difficult. But we disagree. Business structure is not a constraint in itself. Managers simply need to be able to uncover the right insights. When stakeholders receive the insight they need, they can act and make critical decisions.

‘Talent management is much less about organisational complexity, and much more about measuring key performance indicators, and then putting these into the context of your recruitment, retention and career development strategies’.

It’s clear talent is very much the issue of our time. While finding talent may not be any more important than it ever was, what is different is there is a shortage of good talent. What firms need to realise is that this good talent is often already within their ranks; it just needs to be developed to align to the future of the business and client needs.

People want purpose from their work; they want to know that what they are doing is adding value to their organisation. And they also want to know that in
doing so they are meeting their own personal needs for advancement and skills development. When organisations have strong alignment between their talent plans and their business operations, then they really do have the foundation to be best in class. A recent IDC survey found hiring and retaining talent was firms’ second-biggest priority at the moment. Yet, at the same time, IDC also found 60 per cent of organisations didn’t yet have a talent management system.

Organisations cannot have a coherent talent strategy without the systems and culture to facilitate it. And remember, systems aren’t just about IT. They help bring fact to the sometimes awkward conversations that managers need to have about talent. When people are mentally on board, you’ll soon see they’re physically on board too.

To know more, download the HR Clarity Report

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Will Reducing Working Hours Increase Productivity?

During the last year, Swedish companies have been introducing the six hour working day and one company in the UK has decided to take the same approach – spurred on by a challenge from BBC’s The One Show.

The six hour working day concept is designed to increase productivity and give employees a better work life balance. There has been a lot of noise around how this will work (if indeed it will!) which has had many in the UK questioning whether the country will follow in Sweden’s footsteps and if in fact, it is possible to get more done in a shorter period of time.

Read the whole article here

To Download the Retaining your Top Talent Ebook, complete the form below

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Talent management best practices

by Kyle Ridley

PSMJ Resources Inc. held its annual architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) summit last week in San Francisco, Calif., where AEC professionals gathered to learn about best practices, industry trends, and how to thrive in an increasingly competitive market. More than 30 learning sessions were offered during the jam-packed event, with many presentations focused on effective leadership, innovation, and company growth.

Deltek was in full attendance at the summit as representatives took part in workshops and manned an exhibit featuring our widespread solutions. Senior Director of Product Marketing Brian LaMee led a presentation titled “Talent Management Best Practices,” in which he offered attendees a slew of tips on how to hire people faster and keep employees longer. The session resonated with much of the crowd feeling the pressures of high turnover, bottlenecked training schedules, and ongoing employee development.

The AEC industry is booming, but with that comes the need for dedicated, qualified talent. As noted in the PSMJ Summit’s keynote address by Director David Burstein, “AEC firms should move away from winning the war for clients and focus on winning the war for talent.”

LaMee launched his talent management presentation with the eye-opening statistic that 51 percent of workers in the U.S. are either actively seeking or are open to a new job – meaning 71 percent of all workers are on the market. This competitive atmosphere often gives job candidates the upper hand as they interview potential employers instead of the other way around. LaMee stressed that companies should “fight for talent and fight to keep talent,” starting with the hiring process.

It takes approximately 60-90 days to fill a job opening, not including onboarding or training. This is largely due to manual and inefficient hiring practices such as retaining candidate resumes in emails and repetitive application forms. LaMee noted that, too often, companies start the hiring process from scratch upon a job opening rather than returning to past potential candidates.

To improve these processes, LaMee urged attendees to establish a sortable database of candidates to easily maintain and review potential hires/resumes over time, as well as eliminating requirements to fill out information in an online application that is included in resumes. Many candidates will simply exit a job posting upon being required to manually enter these repetitive fields.

Once a hire is made, proper training is essential to keeping them on board. LaMee pointed out that 40 percent of workers who receive poor training leave within a year, and companies must stop having an “I learned on the job, they can, too,” mentality. For trainings deemed repetitive or cumbersome, LaMee suggested creating recordings to reuse with each hire rather than one-off individual sessions.

LaMee also highlighted the significance of continued training and development in employee retention. Many firms assume it’s all about the money, but only 12 percent of employees actual earn more money at their next job, while 30 percent of millennials leave for a better opportunity. Continued learning and recognition from management rank high on employee satisfaction; therefore, companies should invest in development programs and establish year-round rewards and recognition programs for employee accomplishments.

Career development outside of management is also crucial to employee retention, and employers with a management-only path risk losing key staff. Management is not meant for everyone, but that doesn’t negate employee talent nor should it limit their climb up the corporate ladder. Firms should create career tracks to advance employees outside of the management trajectory and ensure all employees are aware and have access to these documented options. Transparency is vital and will result in more employee engagement and stability.

Lastly, LaMee stressed the importance of succession planning and suggested firms use the 9-box method to identify top employees and what needs to be done to keep them on your team.

Fortunately, Deltek’s cloud-based Talent Management Suite can assist with establishing many of these best practices, from finding and landing talent, performance management, employee development, to compensation planning.

Please click here to learn more about this Deltek solution.

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