Improving Employee Retention and Practice of Viewing Services in Organizations - Case Study Example

What could be done to improve employee retention and practice of viewing services in organizations with the use of HR? Table of Contents Introduction1 Objectives 2 Current Situation 2 Method and Analysis 2 Results 3 Discussion 3 Conclusion 4 Recommendations 5 References 5 Introduction There has been an evident shortage of medical staff in health facilities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Medical services delivery has been adversely affected by this shortage. According to Alonazi and Omar (2013), in 2009 alone there was an estimated nurse to citizen ratio of 1:364. The problem of poor medical services is further compounded by high medical staff turnover rate and a growing population. This means that the nurse to citizen ratio is getting higher by the year and the quality of medical services is also deteriorating by the year. In order to control this and improve medical service delivery, there is need to identify the causes of high turnover rate among nurses. Once the causes are determined then they can be used to formulate measures that will improve employee retention in medical facilities. This paper is about measures that will improve employee retention. Research has indicated that job satisfaction is a significant factor that affects the ability to retain employees. There could be other efforts by an organisation to reduce employee turnover rate but if these factors do not work to increase employee satisfaction, then they cannot be as effective. Job satisfaction can be improved by providing training and development opportunities, employee reward scheme and The hospital environment involve high pressure and stress thus adequate employee motivation packages should be included in the people management programmes in hospitals. Nurses are professionals and for most professionals, it is very important to them that they grow in their careers. This is especially so among young professionals who are constantly seeking for relevant experience. Reward schemes and competitive remuneration packages are also other effective tools that can be used to improve employee retention (Buffington et al, 2012). Objectives To determine effectiveness of training and development in reducing turn-over rate To determine the effectiveness of reward schemes to increase nurses retention Current Situation The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is currently going through one of its worst period in its medical services sector. Most nursing expatriates are foreigners who work on two-year renewable contracts. Most of these foreign expatriates are Filipinos and Indians from South Asia. Nurses and expatriates in PMMC are currently working in environments of high pressure and stress. The high nurse to citizen ratio is among one of the factors demotivating in the nurses in Saudi Arabia. The remuneration package that is currently given to nurses in NICU departments is not commensurate with the current workload and the opportunities available to nurses for further training and education advancement are few. Method and Analysis This study made sure that relevant data was collected and used for analysis. It was conducted at the Prince Sultan Military Medical City (PSMMC) which is located in Riyadh city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The medical facility has four main departments and has a bed capacity of one hundred and forty beds. The four main departments are Oncology Unit, General Paediatric Unit, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Paediatric General Intensive Care Unit. Thus, nurses from NICU departments in the medical facility who were leaving their jobs were given questionnaires to fill. These questionnaires were filed mostly by female nurses who left employment over a period of four years, from 2006 to 2010. The questionnaires contained questions asking the nurses their reasons for leaving their current employment. The questionnaire also required the leaving nurses to fill in the time they have worked in the facility, commonly called length of employment. Questionnaires that were partially filled were not considered for analysis. This data was then analysed statistically by establishing relationships between the different factors under consideration (Alonazi & Omar, 2012). Results A total of two hundred and fifty four questionnaires were filled and collected for analysis. One hundred and twenty six nurses who had filled the questionnaire had already left by the closure of data collection and one hundred and twenty eight nurses who had filled the questionnaire were still working in the medical facility. The age of nurses involved in the study ranged between twenty to forty nine years of age. One hundred and eighty four nurse who had participated in the study were Filipinos and sixty five were Indians. Twenty were local Saudis and the rest consisted of other nationalities. Over half of the sample population were married female nurses most had attained university education. The mean age for the sample population was thirty one years of age. Approximately one third of the nurses stayed under employment for less than two years and less than one third were in employment for over ten years. The rest of the nurses had a length of employment period that ranged between five and ten years. This trend was especially observed in the NICU department (Alonazi & Omar, 2012). Discussion According to Sheridan (1992), effective retention of employees involves proper motivation and ensuring job satisfaction. Motivating workers involves using methods that will make employees want to work more and better. Reward schemes are an example of motivational program. Reward schemes can be based on group or individual performance. Group based reward schemes involves employees getting some benefits or rewards for achieving set targets as a group or department. Individual reward scheme involves rewards for individual achievements. In the medical services sector, reward schemes can be based on the number of patients attended to by medical staff. Reward schemes have successfully changed organizational behaviours so that they are success oriented. Basically, reward schemes are used as motivation towards achieving set goals. According to the data analysis carried out, a large percentage of nurses left employment after 2 years of working. This percentage stood at 75% and a larger portion of this percentage consisted of nurses from foreign countries who had come to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as expatriates (Alonazi & Omar 2013). Foreigners were leaving majorly because of poor remuneration. Remuneration package is a major consideration by most employees and a significant number of expatriates admitted that they were leaving because of poor pay. According to the principles of people management, supportive management is a critical aspect in ensuring personal development. The hospital management can consider implementing organizational policies in an encouraging way so as to create an organizational culture that favour good employee relations. Filipinos worked for a shorter time than Indians. The contributing factor could be that expatriates work on two-year contracts thus most leave at the end of their contracts. Such employees usually encounter difficulties that make them not renew their contracts. The analysis also indicated that lack of training and development opportunities for nurses was a factor for turnover. Most nurses who were in the highly productive stages of their careers valued opportunities that would advance their careers and gain more experience. In their responses, most nurses indicated that they preferred working environments that present new challenges that make them increase their knowledge. The study also indicated the older nurse stayed in their jobs than their younger counterparts. This is because the younger generation of nurses seek more knowledge and experience unlike their older counterparts who find it easy to solve complex solution because they have enough experience. Younger nurses were also observed to have high turnover than older ones. This is because older nurses tend to acquire job satisfaction faster than their younger counterparts. Training and development assist in building employee confidence by improving their performance at work. According to motivation theory, employees need to feel that their efforts are appreciated and they will keep working diligently. This is where employee retention comes in. The employees also cited poor remuneration compared to the workload they handle on a daily basis. Most expatriates agreed that their countries of origin paid better and provided more work incentives. The older local nurses appeared to be more satisfied with their jobs as they were in their home country and had already settled in most aspects of their lives thus did not consider salary increment as a priority. However, this group suggested that there be more work incentives especially ones that would allow them to send more time with their families (Alonazi & Omar, 2012). Conclusion In conclusion, there is urgent need for steps that will curb the high employee turnover rate in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The causes that have been established in this study appear to be much more centred on employee welfare. Training and development opportunities for nurse can effectively increase employee retention as it would add to job satisfaction levels among nursing professionals such as expatriates. Proper reward schemes would also boost employee morale as well as improve job satisfaction levels. Motivated employees work very effectively even amidst unfavourable working conditions. Human resource personnel should put in more efforts that will ensure employee welfare and job satisfaction are achieved. This can be done in the day to day running of the human resource departments or during the recruitment process. Recommendations According to the already established causes of employee turnover, there are some measures that can be put in place to ensure employee retention. Reward schemes can be introduced by hospital management to nurse so as to boost their morale and increase their productivity. In circumstances where recruitment of more staff to handle the huge work load is considered as a long term measure, the management can introduce a patient-pegged scheme. An example would be to introduce a package where the nurses are compensated according to the number of patients they attend to. The government can also consider introducing a program aimed at training nurses to improve their competency. This can be inform of scholarships and partnerships with learning institutions. This would cater for the younger nurses who view training and career development as an important aspect of their careers (Wilson Wong, 2009). References Omar, N. A. &., 2013. Factors affecting the retention of nurse: A surviva Analysis, s.l.: Saudi Med. Wilson Wong, A. A. M. H. a. J. S., 2009. Quality People Management for Quality Outcomes: The Future of HR review of evidence on people management, London: The Work Foundation. Sheridan, J. E. (1992). Organizational culture and employee retention. Academy of management Journal, 35(5), 1036-1056. Rainlall, S. (2004). A review of employee motivation theories and their implications for employee retention within organizations. The journal of American academy of business, 9, 21-26. Buffington, A., Zwink, J., Fink, R., DeVine, D., & Sanders, C. (2012). Factors affecting nurse retention at an academic Magnet® hospital. Journal of Nursing Administration, 42(5), 273-281. Read More