Managing Employee Retention and Turnover - Walgon Hotel - Case Study Example

Report on managing Employee retention and turnover Student’s Name: Institutional Affiliation: University: Report on managing Employee retention and turnover Introduction Employee turnover is a very considerable concern for many companies in Australia today. Employee turn over disrupts normal operations of the organization and rises the costs for the organization. Employee retention is an important challenge for many organizations. The study is aimed at studying the employee retention system within the walgon hotel and spa in Sydney Australia. The major factors that influence the desire for employees to leave include job satisfaction, relationship with the employer, job compensation, safety and health, performance appraisal, benefits, promotion opportunity, citizenship of employee, training and development, location and goals of the organization (Cummings & Worley, 2005). These factors have a major effect on the desire of the employees to leave an organization. Turnover is considered a challenge because it interrupts the operations of an organization. Turnover demands for the replacement of the worker who has left. The cost of hiring and training a new employee is catered for by the employer. The organization also suffers a due to loss of customers and suppliers of the organization (Michael et al, 2010). Employee retention is the most important human resource goal. Many organizations face the challenge of retaining employees and avoiding unwanted turnover. Many organizations tend to face employee turnover when it’s too late. Key employee retention is very crucial for the long term success of the company. When companies loss key employees in a department other key staff within the departments also leave. The retention of employees ensures that the customers are satisfied, product sales increase, the follow workers are satisfied, it’s easy to plan succession and easy to train the old and new members of staff. The study focuses on the ways organizations create an environment the employees do not want to leave. These reasons may include recognition programs and the employees feeling valued are some of the factors that make an employee to stay within an organization. The managers of organization are very interested in the satisfaction of employees of the organization this is because this affects the commitment of the person to the organization. Employees own willingness to do more than required, being creative and flexibility also affect job turnover. Walgon hotels and spa retention efforts and managing employee turnover Wolgan valley resort and spa is one of the tourist hotels in Australia. This is one of the tourist destinations within Australia with its own private conservation and a natural reserve. The hotel has a variety of facilities provide some extemporal service to the employees. The hotel employs a very big work force to maintain its services. The hotel also has a high income from the services it offers to the tourists. This is because accommodation is an essential service to the tourism industry and comprises a big part of the consumption. The high staff turnover within the hotel industry is also affecting the hotel. This affects the efficiency of the work, the productivity and increases the total cost of the hotel. The major problem that is affecting the hotel and the industry in general is that it’s not very easy to attract the high quality labour and turnover is high. This represents a high loss for the human resource for the hotel in terms of human capital, cost of training and the quality of the services offered. The labour turnover represents a challenge to the human resource management in term of the strategies to use and the practices. The hotel industry in general is labour intensive but it experiences high labour turn over. The high labour turn over is caused by the low skills required and the low pay for the work. There is also the issue of the working hours, low job satisfaction and lack of career advancement within the hotel. This high turn over is made worse by the reducing labour force in the hotel industry. This high turnover within the industry is caused by the hotels taking it as a norm there should be high turnover and the employees seeing the job as with low career advancement chances. The report highlights the methods that Walgon hotel uses to manage its labour turnover. It identifies the various issues that cause the employees to quit and how the hotel is addressing the issue to retain its employees within the organization. These are the efforts that the hotel is making to ensure that turnover is reduced to minimum within the organization. The first thing to do is to monitor employee turnover within the organization (Greenberg & Baron, 2000). This is done for all key jobs within the organization. This information is very valuable for saving time and money. The turnover estimate for any job is done online using the online turnover calculator. The turnover calculator gives the annualized turn over and the cost of this turn over. Turnover is also reduced by improving the hiring practice. Many studies show that turnover can be reduced by using the right employment process to hire new employees. Poor hiring process contributes to the high employment turn over within the organization. By using the right hiring procedure and learning to take the right decision during hiring employee turnover can be reduced by half within the organization. Providing realistic job preview is also used by the organization to reduce employee turnover. This is done by providing relevant information about the job which attracts the right candidate. This improves the chances of the getting a candidate who will stay for a longer time with the organization. The hiring departments are given instructions not to leave out any aspect of the job description when advertising the job post. Honesty is used as a policy when hiring to reduce future problems with employees. The other way that employee turn over is reduced is by orienting new employees and making sure they get all the needed support. The new employees are introduced to the job in the right way. The company has a good orientation program. The new employees are placed in work groups that have the right altitude. They also receive all support they require from the supervisor within the first three months. The new employees also receive work tips that are helpful to them during their work. The training program for the organization is tailored towards reducing employee turn over. New employees are trained on how to undertake their new assignments. The training is tailored towards making sure the employees meet and surpass expectations of their jobs. The training is tailored towards the development and success of the employee at work place. The research department works together with the training department to ensure that the right programs are used in the training of employees. This ensures that the employees get accelerated learning. The employees are also evaluated consistently and fairly. This is because the employees who feel mistreated in organizations tend to leave the organization. Structured performance management is used to evaluate the employees in all relevant areas in a consistent manner. The organization always keeps in touch with all employees through communication to ensure they are treated fairly and equally. Employees who are treated fairly during the evaluations enjoy their stay at the company. The other employee retention effort used by the hotel and spa is keeping the work expectation constant (Mondy, Noe & Premeaux, 2002). This is because to satisfy employees they have to know their daily work expectation. Changing the work expectation daily keeps the employees uninformed and increases the daily dose of work stress. This makes the employee to feel insecure and unsuccessful with the work. The organization ensures that at least the employees know what is expected of them in a job. Stress created by changing work expectation causes workers to quit and look for stress free jobs. Good supervision is also a key retention effort undertaken by the organization to reduce employee turnover. The employees always receive quality supervision from their managers and super visors. The managers and supervisors make well known their expectations of the employee. The supervisors play an important role in making sure that there is low turn over within the organization. The supervisors are not supposed to do anything that makes the employee fell unvalued by the organization. The supervisors and managers clarify about expectation, earnings, and performance, scheduled meetings and provide the framework for the employee to be successful. This minimizes the number of complaints from the employees. Another way that the organization uses to maintain employee turnover is allowing employees to speak their minds freely within the organization. The organization asks for ideas from the employees about the work environment. The workers are free to provide feedback on what they think. The employees offer ideas to criticize and give feedback to the organization on improving the work conditions. This makes sure that no employee remains silent with his all her problems until he leaves. Talent and skill utilization is allowed at the work place. This is because the employees are motivated to contribute to work areas out side their job description. The organization taps onto the skills and talents of the employees to achieve their different goals within the organization. This gives a new experience to the employees. Any employee who offers to help is given a chance. This is because ignoring the employee may prompt him to leave the organization. The company does not want to avoid taking advantage of the job skills of the given employee. This may make the employee seek another job. The organization also treats the employees equitably to enhance employee retention (Hinkin & Tracey, 2000). The employees at the same level are given the same level of work. The remuneration of the employee is also made equitable for the employees. If more benefits are added to one employee the others are also added. The morale of employees will be affected when they are not treated equally. For example an employee with an MBA and ten years experience earning less than an undergraduate he will feel demoralized and leave the organization to look for a new job. The impact on the employees when they are not treated equally is quite big. The other way to make sure the workers do not look for other jobs is making sure they have the right working tools for the job. When the employees are provided with the right tools to work they will continue working in the company. When the employees do not have the tools to do the job they will go and find an employer who will provide them with the working tools. Tools are necessary for the employees to do their jobs well and easily. Employees value their health and safety and will work in a place where they don’t risk their lives. The other way the company retains employees is by giving those opportunities to learn and grow their career, knowledge and skills (Birdir, 2002). Employees feel stagnated when they are not provided with the opportunities to learn more and develop their skills. The employees value their career growth and seek experience growth opportunities within the organization. Therefore it important for the organization to let them grow in their careers The other way that the company uses to ensure employee retention is by making sure they are recognized by their managers (Cho et al, 2006). The head of department and the divisional head take time to meet the employees. They learn about the employees talents and skills, this is done periodically to ensure they keep in touch. The managers also gain useful information about their clients for the organization. This is a useful tool to encourage acknowledge and make employees loyal. The company also does not threaten the employee’s job or income. This is a best practice to ensure the retention of employees. Even when the organization wants to layoff or the employees do not meet their targets the information is not used against them. This information makes the employees nervous no matter how the information is phrased or explained, even where the manager is very correct the staff members will update their curriculum vitas and apply for new jobs. The manager’s usually deliberate on the information before releasing it to the employees to avoid the workers into rushing to search for new jobs. The other way the organization ensures employee retention is by making the employees feel rewarded, recognized and appreciated (Aksu, 2004). The managers say thank you to the employees quite often for good work done. By giving monetary rewards, bonuses and gifts the employees will feel much appreciated by the reward. This commissions and bonuses raise the motivation of the employees and helps in the retention of the employees. The annual raises in salary are also very important to the employees in making them happy with the job and retaining them on the job. The other method to retain employees is to make wage rates to be the same with those that are being offered by the other firms in the industry. This makes the company equally competitive with other companies in the industry. This is the best way that companies can attract and retain employees. The wage rates should be the same as those offered by other companies within the industry. The workforce performance is optimized for the employees by creating process of getting the work done, providing good working conditions, making employees accountable and hiring the best employees who will be easy to retain employees (Carbery et al, 2003). The management is pressured to attract and hire the best employees. The employee’s job ego is very important as it indicates how well they connect with psychologically with the job. The managers make the employees internalize the values about the job. This makes the workers not to quit their jobs where they are involved in the characteristics of the job. The characteristic of a job are also an important factor that affects turnover. These are the five core job characteristics identified by Hackman and Oldham (1975). The first is skill variety which determines how the employee can use a range of skills and talents to do the job. The second is the tasks that have to be completed for an identifiable piece of work from the beginning to the end. The third characteristic is visible results. These are also important for the employee as they seek to see the importance of the job to the people. The forth characteristic is autonomy or independence of the job. It is also importance because of the procedure and scheduling the work. The job feedback is the last characteristic. It is also important for providing information on the effectiveness of a person’s performance. All these factors influence the job satisfaction of the employee. The employees who understand these factors are more committed to the organization. Workers who do not achieve one of the above characteristic will quit The employees are more committed if the job is enriched and they are empowered and compensated properly. The empowerment of employees ensures that they are retained in the organization. The empowered employee is where the managers supervise more employees and delegate some of the decision making to the employees. By the superiors delegating more responsibilities to the subordinates they feel empowered to perform their duties (Barron et al, 2007). The employees become more satisfied with their managers and perform according to the manager’s expectations. This makes sure that the chances of the employee quitting are minimized. Conclusion Employee turnover of beyond 20 percent per year has a significant adverse effect on the operations of the organization. The optimal turnover level should be between eight and 16 per cent per Unum. It’s very important for the company to have specific targets for employee turnover. The company should consider the various factors and develop a target for their turnover levels. The company is pursuing very important aspects of the organization to retain its employees within the organization. These aspects of employee retention are usually overlooked by many organizations in their efforts of trying to retain employees within the organization. By the company taking a step to implement all these measure of employee retention, the employees will be more satisfied to work within the organization. The company will therefore be able to retain some of its most useful employees within the organization Recommendations Based on the important factors that affect employee turnover the following are the recommendations the company should undertake to reduce turnover: The first recommendation s for the company to setup the required employee turnover levels this makes sure that the organization is able to monitor the turnover levels within the organization. The organization is able to evade the adverse effect associated with high turnover levels. The second recommendation is to investigate the causes of the turnover rising sharply. This will help address the hidden causes of employee turnover. Appropriate and timely action will be taken after investigating the causes of the turnover. The company should also understand and know the requirements of its employees to keep them happy. This will help retain the workers within the organization. The company should rank the important factors to help the management manage the work force. The human resource personnel should calculate the costs associated with the raising turnover levels. This helps the company to gauge the impact using the costs to the organization. Lack of actual turnover costs makes the management unaware of the need to prevent or reduce turnover. The costs evaluated for the firm makes the management to take a quick action. The company should collect, analyze and report on the turnover within the organization. Reporting helps the management to know what’s happening within the organization. The human resource can be able to know what’s happening in different areas of the organization. The company will be able to monitor and retain its best employees. Another recommendation to improve the procedure for the exit interview to make sure that the data is used to improve the organization. There is also need to undertake a survey within the organization to ensure that the workers are satisfied and for monitoring purposes. References Aksu, A. A. (2004). Turnover costs: research among five-star hotels in the city of Antalya, Turkey. Journal on Tourism Analysis, 9 (3), 207-217. Barron, P., Maxwell, G., Broadbridge, A. & Ogden, S. (2007). Careers in hospitality management: Generation Y's experiences and perceptions. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 14 (2), 119-128. Birdir, K. (2002). General manager turnover and root causes. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 14 (1), 43-47 Carbery, R., Garavan, T. N., O'Brien, F., & McDonnell, J. (2003). Predicting hotel managers' turnover cognitions. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 18(7), 649-679. Cho, S., Woods, R. H., Jang, S. & Erdem, M. (2006). Measuring the impact of human resource management practices on hospitality firms' performances. 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