Employee Retention as a challenging task for various organizations - Dissertation Example

? page: Employee Retention Number Year of Executive Summary Employee retention has become a challenging task forvarious organizations. Organizations always prefer to retain the highly potential employees as they consider them to be an asset. The successful retention polices are always attached with the talent management approaches envisioned and designed to increase workplace productivity. Retaining and utilizing talent can be used to increase the workplace productivity. For this purpose, learning environment can be ensured by establishing the approaches such as gap and appreciative approach. The purpose of both approaches is to assess the current performance and potential of the employees. The organization faces issues such as job content and prospects. The majority of left employee believed that they it would be of no use to expect career growth and increase in pay and benefits. And others believed that it would be useless to continue providing services as their current employment job content did not meet with their experience, qualification and expertise. Others were of the view that the management did not pay much and there would be lesser chances of growth in benefits. The management must take into account such causes. Importantly, the human resource personnel must develop job content appropriately resembling with the experience, qualification and expertise. The potential employees must be provided a job content copy and their approval must be sought. The management must provide a workplace environment in which the employees should remain optimistic about their career growth and development. They must consider themselves to be a part of the organization. For this, management must ensure appropriate remuneration, learning and development opportunities. Table of Content Content Page Number Project aim and objectives 1 Project plan and approaches 2 Literature review Introduction 4 Definition of Retention 4 Retention Factors for Employees 4 Learning and work Environment 6 Skill recognition 6 High Potential Employees 7 Training and Development 8 Talent 8 Summary 9 Critical Evaluation and Analysis of the Data 11 Discussion 17 Conclusion and Recommendations 19 References 22 Project aim and objectives Comprehending the major organizational and personal factors contributing towards employee retention Highlighting the significant factors that directly or indirectly enhance the labour turnover rate Assessing workable strategies capable enough to diminish labour turnover rate Research Questions What factors contribute to employee retention? What are the major causes increasing labour turnover rate? What are the remedies to handle that labour turnover rate? How to ensure durable employee retention? Project plan and approach The primary approach method has been used to collect data for the paper. The primary research method is a research method used to collect firsthand information in order to entertain research aims and objectives along with research questions. Before going to embark upon the paper, the project aim and objectives were selected. The development of the project aim and objectives necessitated to begin the next step. In the next step, data was collected from the company. The primary data consists of employees left the organization along with their reasons mentioned in that sheet. For any project, the primary data is fundamentally important as it is evaluated subsequently in the light of the project aim and objectives. However, before going to begin evaluating that data, the portion of literature review was completed. The literature review provided the fundamental factors necessary for employee retention. The authentic and reliable sources were employed to acquire information for the literature review. The literature review was completed with a critical approach. After completing the literature review, the critical evaluation and analysis of the primary data was carried out. While critically analysing the primary data, multiple perspective approach was used. The multiple perspective approach enabled the assessor to take into account the viewpoint of every possible angle. Subsequent to that, the discussion segment began and was completed. In the discussion part, the primary data was evaluated in the light of the academic literature to some extent and the major segment was completed through incorporating the multiple views derived during this entire process of learning and completing the task. While concluding, the entire project was summarized along with the major highlights. The major highlights obtained from the literature review part, from the critical evaluation and analysis part and from the discussion part and some recommendations have also been provided. Literature Review Introduction Retention has become a substantially significant factor for a long term organizational success. It has been defined as the implementation of integrated strategies designed to enhance workplace productivity by providing improved processes for attracting, developing, retaining and utilizing people for current and future business needs. And factors such as skill recognition, learning and work environment, training and developing, high potential employees and most importantly talent have become key factors influencing on employee retention strategies. These factors could result in both directions. In the subsequent parts of this chapter, first definition of employee retention is provided. Subsequent to that, the above mentioned factors have been evaluated. Definition of Retention Lockwood (2006) defines retention is a critical element of an organization’s more general approach to talent management and retention is the implementation of integrated systems or strategies developed and designed to increase workplace productivity by catering improved processes for attracting, developing, retaining and utilizing people with the required level of skills and aptitude to fulfil current and future business needs. Retention Factors for Employees There are various factors that ensure employee retention. They motivate employees to continue providing their services. They are not absolute but are relevant. This means they depend upon the nature and type of organization and vary organization to organization. The leading retention factors include learning and development, skill recognition, high potential employees, training and development and the most important talent. Learning and work Environment In the literature, more focus is directed toward the learning and work environment (Bouwmans 2006). Organizations normally adopt two strategies such as ‘gap’ and an ‘appreciative’ approach to assess current employee related situations. In a company adopting a ‘gap’ approach in terms of organizational development (i.e., a gap between the skills needed and skills available in the workplace), change and development take place because a problem or issue need to be resolved. The major function of gap approach is to highlight what is wrong or what does not work on the assumption that organization is framing a deficit model. The ‘appreciative’ approach is based on the notion that the basis for the desired future is already available within the company (Cooperider et al. 2007). This approach is a person-specific approach and it assumes that the weak or less functional aspects must be taken into account and they must be converted into strong points (Kyndt et al. 2009). Providing learning and work environment is not an inexpensive option for the organizations. In order to provide learning opportunities to employees, the organizations need heavy sum of capital to obtain the required level. Currently, cost of doing business is constantly rising due to the various uncontrollable factors. And the rising cost of doing business discourages organizations to incur more cost rather than they prefer to minimise cost of doing business. Skill Recognition Providing skill recognition for personal job accomplishments is the most effective employee retention strategy. A recent research highlights that an increased number of job applicants seeking out organizations encouraging growth, education, input, teamwork and beyond the traditional compensation or benefits offered by organizations (Sinha and Sinha 2012). Till this point of time, there is no uniform standard or mechanism to determine skill recognition. This measure is only subjectively assessed and carried out. It is possible that a potential employee may be superficially showing the expected skills in order to convince appointing authorities and they may not disagree with the actual existence of showed skills. High Potential Employees Some organizations have developed strategic policies to respond to the upcoming global competition for the most skilled employees including looking into the future as well (Kyndt et al. 2009). Therefore, such organizations not only focus on high achievers at the present time, but also on those having potential to provide high performance in the future. The high potential employees are those who are recognised by the senior management as persons equipped with the potential to meet an executive function within the company (Cope 1998; Dries and Pepermans 2008; Pepermans et al. 2003). Moreover, a dearth of literature pertaining to high potential employees highlights that these employees have multiple features: team spirit, social and personal skills, intelligence and negotiation skills (Snipes 2005). As a result, these features can be seen as possible core characteristics of high potential employees. Maintaining high potential employees cannot be an inexpensive choice. Numerous studies highlight that as soon as an employee realises his or her importance for organization, he or she begins to demand more benefits, packages and incentives as well. This means they are not easy to retain. Training and Development Training and development have become essential factors for today’s aggressive organizations. Training has been defined as the planned intervention designed to enhance the determinants of individual job performance. The previous research highlights that the learning and development of employees is a significant retention-supporting strategy (Abrams et al. 2008; Van Hamme 2009). In which, organizations develop such training and development policies that appropriately channelize the employee skills, talent, qualifications and expertise in the required direction. The organizations highlight such areas in which employee’s performance is up to the desired mark and also point out their weaknesses as well. It is the area of weakness in which organization focus and try to fill out the gap necessary to obtain the expected outcomes form the employees. Again, the cost factor has put numerous organizations in a state of dilemma. If they do not incur cost, they find it hard to meet the long term corporate objectives, and if they incur cost on training and development, they face the issue of rising cost of doing business and decrease in their revenue. In addition to that, since learning and development opportunities become essential for the retention of talented employees (Arnold 2005; Echols 2007; Herman 2005; Hiltrop 1999; Hytter 2007; Michaels et al. 2001; Rodriguez 2008; Walker 2001), an organization must implement a supportive work and learning environment. Talent Talent leads to exceptional performance. Talent is perceived as something rare, valuable and hard to imitate (Kyndt et al. 2011a). They also contend that there is no single definition of talent. However, some characteristics have been highlighted to ascertain the features accompanying with the term ‘talent.’ Talent is identified as a powerful and innate component (Echols 2007). On the other hand, it is also believed that factors from the environment, such as education and training enable talent to emerge (Barab and Plucker 2002). The second characteristic is the dependence of talent on the context (Kyndt et al. 2011a). The context can be understood as both economic and social environment along with the organizational and specific needs. Considerably, this context dependence by responding to the context within which organization operates influences talent and its features; and as a result it secures the future of the organization (Glen 2007; Thorne and Pellant 2007). The third component of talent is the potential for it being a strategic tool. Ingham (2006) opines that most business leaders comprehend that the use of talented employees to maximise business opportunities has received the most significance ensuring ongoing organizational success. This organizational objective is normally determined to serve the long term business objectives. For that purpose, a particular mechanism is developed in which current and future talented employees are given a central importance according to existing and potential skills and expertise. Some authors suggest that talent is not an easily available commodity rather is a scarce resource, such as capital, which can flow freely, expecting its best utilization along with greatest rewards. Summary Employee retention has obtained a central importance for organizations. Factors such as learning and work environment, skill recognition, training and development and talent are those which can be put into practice in order to ensure the attainment of the objectives of employee retention policy. Nowadays, organizations adopt two strategies such as gap and appreciative approach. In the former approach, the analysis process highlights a gap between available and needed skills. The latter approach is based on the notion that the basis for the desired future is already available within the organization. Critical Evaluation and Analysis of the Data Obtaining first hand information or data from primary source represents primary data or information. In comparison with the secondary data, which exists already, the primary data is very costly and time consuming as well. Through different ways such as observation, questionnaire, field study and contact methods, the primary data can be obtained. In this study, the primary data have been obtained and used to comprehend the different aspects of employee retention and the factors negatively influencing employee retention. The company has provided the primary data comprising of four headings i.e. year employee started, year employee left, job title and reason for employee leaving. The major findings have been collected here in the box below and they have been interpreted and analysed subsequently. Reason for leaving Times/Frequency Prospects 13 Job content 11 Prospects and job content 8 Pay and benefits 6 Relocation 4 Changes in domestic circumstances 4 Description for reason for leaving and frequency Before going to interpret and analyse the above mentioned findings, it is highly important to describe some of the contents. This will be helpful in appropriately interpreting and analysing the data. There are two headings: reason for leaving and times/frequency. And, both headings separately represent non-numerical and numerical values. The column with reason for leaving represents those factors that have been identified as the major reasons for employees leaving and the second column with times/frequency denotes number of times or frequency. The prospects receive the highest frequency and the changes in domestic circumstances remain with the lowest frequency. Prospects represent chances for future growth in one’s career. It represents optimism or pessimism nurtured by an employee. This could be in the shape of getting a higher position or rank in an organization or getting more attractive remunerative packages and benefits as well. In addition to that, this also represents job security whether the employee would be given a permanent employee status within the organization or the employee would be relieved in near future. Putting this aspect into a context, prospects remain to be the most major factor in the employee’s career growth and development. Job content represents duties and responsibilities of an employee. Job content is based on a number of factors. First, employee’s main qualification and subsequently its specialization are considered. Afterwards, employee’s previous achievements, performance and ranks and previously served positions with responsibilities are taken into account before going to hire an employee; and subsequently it is incorporated into its job description. The prospects receive the highest frequency in the findings. The major cause for employee leaving is prospects representing frequency of 13, the highest one in the entire set of findings. It represents that the majority of the left employees were dissatisfied with their job prospects in the organization. This highlights that the employees were not optimistic about their career growth in the organization. They were not expecting that they should continue providing their services to the organization for the longer period of time. They were sensing that they might not be able to receive promotion to the next level of rank. They might have thought that the organization was not providing them the opportunities such as training and development. In which, different seminars, workshops and special courses, highly essential for motivating and encouraging employees, are provided to the long term employees. Subsequently, the provision of such courses motivates employees and they remain optimistic about the career growth in the organization. Moreover, some of the left employees might have thought that they did not see their job security along with a long term relationship with the organization. They might have thought that instead of facing circumstances pertaining to constructive dismissal, it would be better to leave the organization. The second highest reason for leaving is provided by the job content. This could be contributed by two factors either by the employees or the management. First, the employees might have not been happy with the provided job content. They might have expected something different or more than the one provided to them. Second, some of the employees may have not been performing well and they were constantly receiving negative performance appraisal from their immediate boss and others. Their insufficient operational performance may have caused by their insufficient skills and qualifications. Subsequent to that, the management might have demanded or expected more than their capacity level. In addition to that, the chances of office politics and empire building may have influenced some of them and they were unable to continue providing their services to the organization. The office politics has become a part of today’s numerous small, medium and large organizations. Employees having similar vested interests try to develop a group protecting the interests of the group members instead of serving the objectives of the department or the organization. Within this context, they try to hide the operational mistakes and shortcomings of the group members and even they prefer to protect them in case of organizational investigation or probe. Moreover, they highlight and target the non-group employees and try to create constructive dismissal situations in order to preserve and protect the group interests at the cost of the organizational objectives. The chances of such circumstances and issues cannot be ruled out in this case well. The third highest reason is collectively contributed by both prospects and job content. This finding highlights that the employees were not satisfied with their prospects and job content as well. They were considering that they had lesser chances for pursing a successful career with the organization and they would not be able to satisfy the expectations of the organizations. Subsequent to that, they might have thought that their role in the organization did not agree with their current level of skills, qualifications, experience, and expertise as well. They might have considered that they would not be able to perform well and continue under such circumstances and it would be difficult for them to justify with the job content. The frequency of third reason is 8 followed by prospects and job content. This authenticates that the left employees were showing their reservations over the way the job content was managed and its subsequent application whilst carrying out the process of selection and recruitment. The selection and recruitment mechanism may have been filled up with problems in appropriately entertaining the objectives of the organization. The underperformance of the selection and recruitment mechanism may have been caused by the numerous factors such as hiring semi-qualified and less-experienced employees in order to save cost; the hiring authority may not have been allowed to hire expensive labour, which remains considerably well-qualified and experienced as well. The fourth highest reason is contributed by the pay and benefits. The frequency of this factor is 6 after the prospects and job content. This highlights that the employees were not satisfied with the pay and benefits given to them. The closer analysis highlights that the higher ranking officials left the employment including Finance Administrator, International Director, Senior Coaching Coordinator, Performance Partnerships Manager, and International Relations Officer Equality Policy Officer. This highlights that the management of the company has not entertained the concerns of the above mentioned officials of the organization. The management of the company has only followed its selected and preferred policy at the cost of its higher ranking staff members. Under such circumstances, the employees encounter two choices: Either they have to continue employment with the current level of benefits or they can choose to switch over. However, it is interesting that the pay and benefits have not appeared at the topic of the table mentioned above. Instead, other factors, such as prospects and job content, have more significance than the current level of pay and benefits. From this angle, it looks that the management of the company is not providing less competitive salaries and benefits to its employees but it is the issue of job content and employment prospects that do not look promising. This signifies that the employees do not consider pay and benefits as the major issue but the management is unable to construct a relevant job description resembling with qualification, experience and expertise of the employees. The absence of relevant job description and job content does not encourage employees to continue providing their services to the company. The fifth highest reason is provided by relocation. This reason has appeared 4 times in the list. The main cause of relocation might be that the employees were not satisfied with their current location that might be caused by the long distance between office and home. The management might not be giving them travel allowance and they might have been unable to bear that level of travel expenditure. The sixth reason is provided by the changes in domestic circumstances of the employees. The frequency of this reason is 4 analogous to relocation. This reason is beyond the control of the management of the company and the management does not share any influence on such circumstances. There could be many reasons causing the presence of this reason. The possibilities of misunderstanding between family members, medical issues, and unfavourable level of understanding between the family members can be held responsible for such causes. Due to inappropriate family circumstances, the employees were unable to maintain the required level of mental capacity necessary to perform employment-related duties and responsibilities. They find it hard to continue providing their employment services to the organization and they consider it better to discontinue their employment. However, certain possibilities cannot be ruled out. For example, they might be unable to mention pay and benefits as the major reason and were convinced that even if they mention this cause, they would not receive anything. As a result, they might have considered it appropriate to use this reason and apply for employment to other places. There are various examples authenticating that the employees have been using this method to change their employer. Discussion The biggest reason for labour turnover has been the prospects. This means that a considerable number of employees were not seeing their future growth in the organization; they were feeling that if they continue providing their employment services, they would not receive the required level of promotions, salary increment and other fringe benefits. In other words, they were considering that the senior management of the company is not competent to deliver their expected outcomes. However, it is interesting to investigate the reasons behind such mindset. For example, the employees with this mindset cannot be 100 percent true and their understanding may be insufficient to judge the reality and human resource policy of the organization. Most of the employees try to develop their own beliefs without taking into account solid evidence backing their beliefs. With the passage of time, such beliefs become stronger. The effects of such beliefs convince them that it is futile to expect merit based decisions from the senior management. As a result, they do not foresee their future and future growth in the organization. The second highest reason is nurtured by the job content. They had a belief that the job content was insufficient and was not matching with their qualification, experience and expertise. They might have believed that the management was not assigning them duties and responsibilities in accordance with their experience, qualification and expertise. They found no other reason but to leave their employment and signed a resignation letter. Although the possibility of such circumstances cannot be ruled out and there are certain similar incidents, yet it does not justify withdrawing from employment. Under such circumstances, a conventional wisdom suggests that they should have talked to management about this issue along with practical examples authenticating truth in their view point. They could have met with the senior human resource management personnel for this problem. In addition to that, a closer analysis suggests that employment commences when an employee fully and carefully reads and comprehends job description, responsibilities and duties as well. After obtaining full comprehension, the employees signs employment contract. If they had read the employment contract with job content and job description at the time of employment commencement, it would not make sense that they leave on the basis of different job content. Keeping this view in mind, this viewpoint contends that the employees were already decided to leave employment and they used the excuse of job content for that purpose. The third reason is collectively contributed by both job content and prospects. This indicates that the employees were increasingly facing the job content and prospects issues. They considered them to be the main reasons discouraging the employees to continue providing their employment services to the organization. However, they cannot be valid to that extent. For example, the prospects have become ambiguous in across various organizations. In these days, the global uncertain financial situations, the recent global financial crises, the rising level of unemployment, rising cost of doing business, are those causes that have substantially influenced the organizations and their human resource policies as well. The organizations are increasingly facing such issues. They find it hard to permanently incorporate and implement certain policies and procedures and sometimes they may be required to assign extra or different job responsibilities that do not meet with the expertise, experience and qualifications of the employees. However, they expect that the newly assigned responsibilities will be appropriately served by the employees. There are various organizations who do not want that to implement and put extra pressure on the employees. But sometimes they do not have any other choice. Under such circumstances, the employees should consider both macro and micro environment. They should take into account a rationale behind such policies and procedures. They should meet with the senior management personnel and share with them their concerns and try to find out a middle workable way. The fifth highest reason is contributed by pay and benefits. There is no doubt that the employees leave when they do not receive their expected level of pay and benefits and they find it reasonable to discontinue providing their employment services. Under the current economic situation in which inflation is rampant, such expectations are legitimate. However, the rising cost of living has not only affected to the employees, the organizations are also facing the issues such as rising cost of doing business and decreasing level of revenues. In these days, organizations do not enjoy the budgeted revenues and they find it very challenging to meet their strategic targets pertaining to revenues, gross profit and net profit. Furthermore, numerous recent examples indicate that various organizations could not face higher cost of doing business and they subsequently collapsed. Under such circumstances, the organizations feel it hard to increase pay and benefits as expected by the employees. The issue of relocation is less convincing. In certain cases, employees may have travel issues and they find it difficult to ensure timely arrival. Under such circumstances, the appropriate way is contact with the senior management and put forward the entire case. The objective must not be that compensation is going to be sought under any condition but a strategy should be pursued that must not put some extra pressure on the organization. Conclusion and Recommendations Retention has become a critical factor for organizational growth and success. And the successful retention policies always attach themselves with talent management approaches designed to increase workplace productivity. The purpose of enhanced workplace productivity is achieved by attracting, developing, retaining and utilizing talent appropriately. The usefulness of learning environment cannot be undermined as gap and appreciative approach is adopted to assess the current performance of the employee. And at the same time, providing skill recognition for personal job accomplishment has become the most effective employee retention strategy. The job applicants prefer to apply to those organizations supporting education, teamwork, input, growth and beyond the traditional compensation. In order to remain competitive and face competition, some organizations focus on high achievers and on those having potential to provide high performance. And higher potential employees are those having capabilities to meet executive function within the organization. There is no way to disregard the significance of training and development for retaining employees. Various organizations develop and incorporate various training and development sessions based on the employee’s requirements. Also, talent brings exceptional performance and is being perceived as something rare and valuable. The organization (put name) faces various challenges revealed and authenticated by the primary research. The left employees highlighted that the management is not appropriately assigning job content to the current and possibly to the potential employees. In addition to that, they highlighted that the organization has failed to ensure promising prospects for the current and future employees. Moreover, the primary research highlighted that the employees do not receive pay and benefits as per their expectations and subsequently they intend to resign instead of continuing providing their services. Recommendations The management of the company must take into account the following recommendations. First, the absence of alignment between the job content and qualification, experience and expertise of the employees must be minimized but preferably be eliminated. The elimination can be carried out by assigning job description and job responsibilities as per experience, expertise and qualifications of the potential employees. Before going to hire new employees, they should be given an opportunity to develop a consensus on the job content with the potential employee’s credentials. This will substantially reduce the current gap between the employees’ perception and the management’s perception. Subsequently, this will reduce the frequency of employees leaving based on the issue of job content. Second, the management must ensure that the employees develop constructive and promising prospects. They should believe that their future is and will be secure as per their expectations or with a minimum gap between their expectation and the management expectation. For this, the management should ensure the promotions and the requisite other human resource functions on the merit basis. This will encourage employees to remain optimistic about their future in the organization. Moreover, the management should take into account the issue of insufficient pay and benefit. The pay and benefits must increase so that the impacts of inflation must not increase the gap between cash inflows and outflows. 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