Among U.S. private companies, 59 percent are 'more' or 'significantly more' focused on recruitment and retention of staff than they were 12 months ago.

Globally, 63 percent of private companies are paying more for staffing costs as compared to a year ago. In India, for example, 85 percent of employers report seeing a rise in labor costs. With a number of U.S. manufacturers outsourcing non-core services to international markets including India, the rising international human resources costs may have a direct impact on U.S. companies.

Seventy-seven percent of respondents are working to improve retention by ensuring that all employees understand the company's core values, making this the most common means of engendering employee loyalty. Other retention efforts that companies are focusing on include:

• Developing competitive reward systems and benefit packages (71 percent);
• Training and mentoring top performers for leadership positions (62 percent);
• Monitoring employee perceptions and acting on results (60 percent);
• Providing training and development packages for all employees (54 percent); and
• Having a flexible attitude to various working patterns (e.g. part time, flextime, home working, etc.) (53 percent).

"Private companies often compete with companies, that have big budgets for staffing and more employees overall. As a result, business leaders are increasingly aware of the need to take creative action on recruitment and retention policies in order to maintain or gain a competitive advantage," said Mike Hall, Midwest regional managing partner and partner in charge of Grant Thornton LLP's private company initiative. "Retaining the right employees is important to the long-term success of any business but is particularly critical for private companies. Recruitment is an expensive process and an organization that continuously hires while losing talent internally will not be able to prosper and grow."

Private businesses that don't have solid retention strategies in place suffer the consequences. Forty-two percent of companies report increased workload for remaining staff as the biggest consequence of staff attrition. Other problems resulting from staff retention issues include increased operating costs (37 percent) and a fall in customer service standards (28 percent). At the same time, 22 percent of companies report loss of business orders to competitors as a consequence of poor staff retention, which is comparatively less than the global average of 32 percent.