Building a robust rentention strategy - Essay Example

Building a robust retention strategy Building a robust retention strategy Employee retention has and will always be a huge focus for Human Resource managers (Allen, 2006). Once an association has put in time and resources to train a good worker, it is in their best interest to retain that employee (Allen, 2006). The company may want to develop them so that they keep on adding value to the corporation. In their pursuit to improve their businesses, employers must also recognize and tend to their employees interests, if they expect to keep them.

When an organization overlooks the needs of its workers and focuses only on its needs, turnover often occurs. Extreme turnover in a business is often an indicator that something is wrong in the employee environment (Allen, 2006). The essay presents how the Blue Shield builds a robust retention strategy. Blue Shield is a major appliance warranty company in Texas and has about 1800 employees (Blue Shield, 2014). In the last few years, Blue Shield has had employee motivation related problems and, as a result, is facing decreasing sales, reduced employee job satisfaction and an alarming turnover rate.

A study conducted by the Human Resource manager revealed that most employees were dissatisfied with the wage and allowances as well as other areas of the management (Blue Shield, 2014). As a result, Blue Shield has lost a large number of its knowledgeable and competent employees to other companies with the number estimated to increase in the succeeding years. Blue Shield needs to develop the motivation and retention plan that can improve the business and its sales. By implementing changes based on employee performance, rewards, or restructuring the work design, Blue Shield can only hope it has achieved its employees’ needs to be satisfied.

Due to ongoing activities and negligence to address problems in time, Blue Shield is a company now facing employee motivation problems. Employees feel unchallenged by their jobs and the demographic makeup of employees provides unique views relating to motivation, rewards and values (Blue Shield, 2014). The company will continue to face these problems if these issues are not identified and properly addressed. The business concept of internal alignment often has a twofold effect on business objectives; to ensure that employees pay is sufficient to attract and retain them and to manage labor costs so that the company’s cost of equipment and services can remain competitive (Newman 2004 p.18). Employees at Blue Shield make 18% less than their competitors at other appliance warranty companies and may, therefore, view this as not being valued by their employer (Blue Shield, 2014).

As a result, Blue Shield employees may become susceptible to accept outside offers to leave and join competitor companies. In order to reduce this risk, Blue Shield has to re-evaluate its compensation plans so that it is at a competitive level with other appliance warranty companies. Blue Shield can also motivate its employees by bringing fun to the workplace. A fun filled working environment has been positively linked with improved job satisfaction when exciting activities are used to increase worker s’ attitude and efficiency (McKinnies 2008).

Findings recognize different ways to make work enjoyable (Allen, 2006). One that can be used by Blue Shield to motivate its employees is by rewarding them. The reward system in Blue Shield, however, only recognizes position and seniority instead of performance. This leads to employee frustration and increase in turnout because it promotes a work environment where employee performance does not matter. There lacks motivation for hardworking workers to work extra hard as they gather equal benefits with workers who care less.

Adopting a performance based reward system would generate fairness and balance that could reduce frustration among workers and prevent high turnover (Phillips and Connel, 2003). Different cultures, religious background and experiences of its diverse employee population are also causing issues for Blue Shield (Blue Shield, 2014). Their different views on rewards, values and motivation cause a difficult task of finding out what is best for every employee. What may mean one thing to one group may not mean the same or have equal value to another group.

Giving rewards in such an environment or using blanket methods and implementing them across the business may not be an appropriate way to implement strategies (Allen, 2006). Blue Shield management should, therefore, understand the unique needs of its employees and properly motivate the different groups without focusing on one group. The employer’s interests in retention are to improve sales, get more profits and to develop a plan to boost employee morale. They value loyalty, profitability and continuous improvement, therefore, have the power to make the needed adjustments in order to achieve their interests faster and successfully.

The employee’s interests, on the other hand, are that they are provided with a challenging and exciting working environment. They have the power to question the activities interfering with their work or leave altogether. They value loyalty, innovation and job satisfaction (Phillips and Edward, 2008). Blue Shield must develop an environment that is challenging, meets the business pay standards and rewards according to the organization’s based system if it wants to maintain an innovative and united working atmosphere.

In order to motivate its workers, Blue Shield will have to meet the pay rates of its competitor companies, introduce a new payment plan for its workers and develop a better work design. By meeting these needs, Blue Shield will set the base for building trust among its employees and improve their morale. References Allen, D.G. (2006). Do organizational socialization tactics influence newcomer Embeddedness and turnover? Journal of Management, 32(2):237-256. Blue Shield (2014). All Publications.

Retrieved from: http://blueshieldcafoundation.org/publications/all/ Philips, J. and Connell A.O. (2003). Managing Employee Retention- A Strategic Accountability Approach.  Burlington, MA: Elsevier Butterworth Hethemann Publications. Phillips, J. and Edward, L. (2008). Managing Talent Retention. New York: John Willey & Sons Publications.