Organisations are finding it even more difficult to retain staff now than they did 12 months ago, according to research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

The annual Recruitment, Retention and Turnover Survey found that almost eight out of 10 companies struggled to hold to their staff in 2006 compared to seven out of 10 in 2005.

The research also suggested companies struggle to replace staff, with the main reasons given being a lack of necessary specialist skills (65%), followed by higher pay expectations (46%) and insufficient experience (37%).

Only the public sector has seen a drop in recruitment difficulties, which is more of a reflection on the growing pressure in this area to make efficiency savings – 80% of public sector organisations say they experienced recruitment difficulties, compared to 89% in the 2006 survey – than an increase in the quality of personnel available

The research also revealed the most common approaches to getting round the problem of a lack of available candidates, with 31% using the employer brand as a means of attracting staff, 30% offering flexible working, 29% providing additional training to internal staff and 14% targeting migrant workers from EU countries and recruiting staff abroad.

“Employers will continue to struggle to find suitable candidates and keep staff turnover under control if their approach to recruitment and retention fails to take account of both business and employee needs,” said Nicola Monson, author of the report.

“Only half of employers currently have a formal resourcing strategy, which suggests many are not planning for the future skills requirements of their organisation. This is particularly worrying given that specialist skills and required experience is still in such short supply.

“Actively developing employees should not only increase the internal talent pool, in turn reducing their reliance on external candidates, but also see problems retaining staff ease due to new career opportunities,” she added.

The study also suggested that 73% of companies use recruitment agencies but nearly six in 10 of these (59%) fail to evaluate their effectiveness.