Competitive salary and benefits are the essential factors to retain management level, but not the unique factor, a survey by a leading HR service provider has found.

According to Talentnet Corporation's survey on retention factors, which questioned 400 people at the management level, career development, compensation and organisation – related values, such as company vision, mission, direction, working environment, are the three factors influencing long-term employment.

Managers seek a clear career development road map as an objective for their ambition.

In addition, a good working environment with transparent communications where they can be involved in business strategy and direction is also important.

And last but not least, for managers, remuneration can be seen as a measurement for their achievement recognition.

Oganisations should consider all of these factors, including tangible and intangible elements, when employing managers.

For companies in hi-tech industry, for instance, training and development and flexible working hours are benefits highly valued by senior management.

Companies in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods industry consider opportunities to work in overseas offices, sponsorship for studying advancement, and recognition the most important.

According to the Mercer and Talentnet Remuneration Survey last year, compensation and benefit schemes for management are distinguished from other levels to create motivation and inspire managers to contribute to the business.

However, these practices differ in Vietnamese and foreign companies.

While there is a big remuneration gap between senior management and staff level at foreign companies, the gap is narrower in Vietnamese companies.

This shows that multinationals focus on motivating the management level, while Vietnamese companies need more time to do so.

According to the HR service provider, talent attraction, particularly senior management, is a challenging process for both foreign and Vietnamese companies, especially in such a limited talent pool.

Most companies have to nurture talent in-house or have internal promotions for key positions.

There is no standard model for businesses in attracting and retaining management level as it relies a lot on business status and the working model and operation of each company.

For instance, for long-term demand, some foreign companies have management trainee program to attract talented graduates. They provide them training as well as opportunities to work overseas to prepare them for future positions.

Challenging projects are also created to allow staff to act as project leaders so they can widen their knowledge, gain more experience, and upgrade both hard and soft skills.

Some companies create their own employer branding program to provide scholarships for the best students even when they are still in university.

If companies need to fill positions quickly, they work with consulting companies and freelancers who have specific knowledge.

Talentnet said that companies, however, should first understand their businesses clearly, reposition themselves to create specific requirements for such positions.

Many Vietnamese companies instead offer attractive remuneration schemes for top senior management but do not pay attention to their internal structure and policies.

As a result, if senior managers quit, other staff cannot adapt and there are losses in time, finance, trust and reputation.

The best way to attract and retain talent is to understand and clarify your company's business objectives and expectations, and then define the people strategy to satisfy those objectives. This will result in proper talent attraction and retention policies.-VNA