As the recession continues to bite, new figures released this month have shown that employers are seeking to retain key skills in their company by redeploying staff elsewhere in their organisation rather than having to resort to redundancy.

The 2009 National Management Salary Survey, published by the Chartered Management Institute and Computer Economics Limited and Remuneration Economics (CELRE), has revealed that redeployment levels have almost doubled in the past year, rising from 3.1% to 5.8%.

By contrast, during the last major recession in 1991, the rate of internal transfers was just 1.3%.

Perhaps surprisingly, many employers appear to be taking a long-term view of the current financial situation and are seeking to retain junior staff, with 4.9% being offered transfers and only 1.3% facing redundancy.

Chief economist at the Chartered Management Institute Lord John Eatwell commented, “It is encouraging to see employers looking for ways to avoid redundancy rather than adding length to the dole queue without a second thought. It shows that business is growing up because today, unlike in 1991, there seems to be more determination to retrain skilled staff.

“Perhaps it is because employers are finally beginning to recognise that retaining competence is a far more cost-effective option than rebuilding a talented team from scratch. However, this is at a cost, and the longer the recession goes on the more likely it is that employers will be forced to lay off staff - creating the possibility of skill shortages in the recovery.”

On a less welcome note, the study also revealed that pay for UK executives has shown the lowest rise for the past five years. Surveying 45,809 individuals from 221 different organisations, the study found that pay has risen by only 4.6% in the last year, down from 6.7% the previous year.

Technorati Tags: Recession, Redeployment, Redundancy