Small and medium sized-enterprises (SMEs) in the UK are struggling to hold onto their staff, according to recent research.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's (CIPD's) annual Recruitment, Retention and Turnover Survey revealed that almost eight in ten firms struggled to retain staff last year – compared to nearly seven in ten the previous year.

In helping firms to overcome recruitment difficulties, 74 per cent suggested flexible working had a positive impact, though only 30 per cent actually put it into practice.

Nicola Monson, author of the report, said: "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."

Ms Monson suggested that not enough firms are planning for the future skills requirement of their organisation and needed to take a "proactive approach to talent management" and tap into the skills of the people wanting to progress.

"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 highlighted the key reasons for recruitment problems as lack of necessary specialist skills (65 per cent), higher pay expectations (46 per cent) and insufficient experience (37 per cent).