Technology and Retention of Good Employees - Research Paper Example

 ABSTRACT Today, technology and human resource are the most important elements in an organization. In this regard, various researchers have studied the impact of technology and employee retention practices in human resource management. Researchers have also tried to determine organizational practices that promote employee retention and reduce turnover. They have also identified various technologies used in HR management. This study is going to determine the impact of technology and employee retention practices in human resource management. This will involve studying employee perceptions and attitudes towards various technologies and employee retention practices adopted by HR department. The number of my research participants is 40 people (20 from each company). I will be dealing with both quantitative and qualitative data hence I will have methods of solving qualitative and quantitative data. The research techniques that I will be using include desk research, interviews, and focus groups to collect data for analysis. I will then analyze the data using thematic content analysis and Nvivo software to manage data. Thematic content analysis means that I will first familiarize myself with the data by listening to the recordings. After listening to them, I will code the interviews by searching for themes with broader meaning. On identifying the themes, I will review them to make sure that they fit with the data. Lastly, I will create a write-up containing a coherent story and quotes from the speakers regarding the themes. After analyzing the results, I will draw conclusions from the data to determine how technology and employee retention practices have affected human resource management. The hypothesis guiding this research is that technology and employee retention practices improve human resource management. Based on the results, I will make the necessary recommendations in support in support or against the hypothesis. CHAPTER 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION It’s important to note that employees are the cornerstone of any successful organization. When a company employs people who share their mission and vision, they have high chances of succeeding. In this regard, practices to retain employees in an organization are very important. To retain good employees, a company formulates strategies that satisfy employee’s needs so that they become loyal to the company. In many cases, companies retain their employees for a given period of time. Within this time, a company utilizes their competencies and skills in a particular department in the company. Retaining competent employees is important to organizations since it gives them a competitive advantage. Good employees are motivated and they promote good relations with co-workers. They create a good working environment and customers leave the business premises happy and satisfied and this increases the productivity of the business. Today, organizations face a daunting task of retaining their best employees due to increased competition of labor in the market. Haider et al., (2015) acknowledges the importance of vetting employees thoroughly so that only skilled and competent employees are hired. However, retaining employees is more important than hiring. Organizations are always looking for talented individuals to come up with innovative ideas to grow their companies. Also, they spend a lot of money training their employees as a form of future investment. Therefore, organizations lose skilled labor and their investment on the individual when he or she is poached by another organization. When an employee stops working for an organization he or she leaves with invaluable information regarding the company. This information includes past history, projects, and clients to competitors. Organizations use various employee retention practices to reduce employee turnover. This study is aimed at determining the impact of these practices on reducing employee turnover. Organizations have a responsibility of ensuring that they create an environment that motivates employees to remain in the organization. Most importantly, organizations should consider the cost associated with employee turnover and the cost of motivating employees. In most cases, the cost of employee turnover is usually higher. It's difficult to evaluate the cost of employee turnover because it is not calculated in monetary terms only (Haider et al., 2015). For instance, if an employee leaves an organization and the workload remains constant, the work allocated to each person will increase and will reduce their motivation. When an employee works for a long time in a particular company, they gain technical skills and knowledge that increases their efficiency in the organization. This translates to good customer service and increased the productivity of the business. Furthermore, the hiring process is expensive since there are many expenses that are incurred. These expenses are normally in the form of advertisements, verification of credentials, interviewing and training of new employees. Employee retention consists of practices that an organization uses to boost their employees so that they remain within the organization for a long time until retirement or after completion of a project. These practices are essential because they enable individuals and organizations to retain their best employees. The human resource department is in charge of the welfare of employees. In this regard, they should ensure that employees remain motivated to work in the organization because they have the power to build or break an organization. Interestingly, people are different and this means that what attracts motivates them is also different. An organization should, therefore, have an assortment of motivational strategies so that every employee has a strategy that motivates them. The decision to remain or quit an organization is influenced by various factors such as mentoring, career and learning opportunities, individual's age, good benefits, networking, family situation, and job title. Human Resource is a critical department in an organization since it supplies it with competent and skilled labor. This department also oversees employee welfare so that they have a good working environment. Advancement in technology has transformed HR management and the staff working in the department can now handle extra responsibilities. HR managers can now perform operations that were designated to other departments such as maintenance, procurement. They can now take more challenging tasks in an organization which relieves other department form their workload. Advancements in technology have increased the efficiency activities and processes in HR management. There is now an efficient communication framework and this has reduced the time taken to carry out activities in the department. Further, advancement in technology has led to employee development, employee engagement, performance management, and talent management. The traditional human resource management (HRM|) focused on supportive employee activities such as monitoring employee performance, implementing organizational policies and collecting and storing employees’ personal information (Stone et al., 2015). Today, HR managers assess an organization’s strategies and formulate HR management strategies in line with them to improve service delivery. In this light, HR professionals should adopt technologies that promote organizational change. The technology should also create a good climate that supports knowledge-based organization and innovation. Technology has a big impact on society today. It affects almost every aspect of our life. Technology has changed tremendously in the past decade. Information technology has particularly seen many changes. For instance, people used to communicate through telegrams but they now use smartphones which support even video calls. Technology has transformed many aspects of our lives such as how we receive medical care, how we manage our finances and how we communicate with others. A survey carried out by Jain (2014) showed that the two drivers of success in an organization are talent management and technology. Technology is still advancing and innovations are projected to transform HR management in the future. 1.2 BACKGROUND INFORMATION Human Resource technology is referred to as technology that is used to maintain, retain, attract, optimize HRM and support HR administration. The technology is used in different management processed and is accessed in Different ways. Indeed, technology has made the process of gathering, collating and communicating with employees easier due to better information systems. Technology also reduces the administration of human resource department for instance by providing managers with the expertise they need to make good decisions. Many scholars have agreed that when used effectively, technology provides companies with a competitive advantage over companies that do not have the technology. It is important to note that not all companies require sophisticated technologies. However, any company has HR needs that require the use of technology. In this light, an organization should only adopt a technology that matches their needs. Evolution of HR technology Stage: Paper Based systems Initially, human resource management was done using "paper-based" systems system. These systems worked independently and they did no integrate other business functions. Also, additional features were added to the system when required. Data was stored in mainframe computers. Management of this data was very rudimentary and HR was the sole custodian of this data. Managers during this period used to send employees to HR to get answers regarding their job description. Stage 2: The age of Personal Computers In this stage information from paper-based infrastructure was transferred to Local Area Network (LAN) and personal computers. This system was better than the rudimentary paper-based system since it was possible to produce reports with basic information on employees. Technological advancements in this stage included payroll and basic employee tracking. Data from human resource department was stored in client servers. This is a network where computers connected in the network are either servers for clients. Servers are powerful computers which manage network traffic, printers and disk drives. Clients, on the other hand, are workstations where users run various applications. Clients obtain resources such as printers, devices, files and even some of their processing power from servers. Stage 3: Database Technology This stage began after the invention of relational database technology. Relational database refers to data that can be stored in more than one file and each file contains different data. The different files can be linked so that information form the different files is used simultaneously. A relational database allows storage of information in different locations and linking it so that it is possible to access information stored in different databases simultaneously. Though this technology, organizations could develop complex reports that integrated various information. This technology allowed HR systems to be integrated with other systems within an organization. HR department, therefore, stopped being an isolated department and became a cross-functional entity. Today, many companies have embraced HR technology. Technology enables automation and HR departments are now enlightened on the benefits of automation. The sole focus of businesses today is to automate their processes since they are free from errors making them efficient and effective. Some of the HR technologies used by businesses today include interactive voice response systems (IVR) and Call Centers. IVR is a telephone technology used to interact with a database by entering or retrieving data from it. These technologies are expected to improve in future so that they are more efficient and effective. According to Mehta, Kurbetti, and Dhankhar (2014), human resource refers to human skills, education, and talent. Human resource is important in the modern even with automation of many processes. An organization can only utilize its capital effectively by formulating strategies to identify, recruit and channel competent people into their workforce. These processes are important since they determine organizational productivity and net profit realized. The world is now a global village and organizations can easily penetrate global markets. In this regard, a business ought to have motivated, experienced and qualified employees to survive the tough competition. Human resource is one the most invaluable resource in an organization and HRM has a responsibility of ensuring that a company maintains its best employees. Deery and Jago (2015) defined human resource management as the strategic and comprehensive management section of a business that creates policies and administrative structures aimed at creating a favorable environment for employees to work in. HRM is also in charge of establishing practices that boost teamwork and flexibility. Employees should feel valued in an organization and this is the duty of HRM. Talented employees are the backbone of any organization because they are valuable and appreciating assets. This means that the more they stay in an organization, they more productive they become; they learn the culture, teamwork, and products of the organization. According to Terera and Ngirande (2014), an inverses relationship exists between employee turnover and rate of retention. This means that if employee turnover is high, the rate of turnover will be low. High employee turnover leads to great losses for a company. An organization incurs these losses in form of training costs, work disruptions and recruitment costs (Terera & Ngirande, 2014). Deery and Jargo (2015) point out not all employee turnovers is bad since bad employees can leave a company creating room for new employees with fresh ideas. Due to direct and indirect costs incurred by a business due to employee turnover, there should be strategies to protect good employees from poaching by rival companies. When making strategies to reduce turnover, employees from various departments in an organization should be selected to give their input on the matter. This would reduce cases of people from some departments being considered and others being left out. 1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT The technology is used with different HR information systems and various stakeholders within an organization such as employees, managers, and human resource professionals. Currently, technology has made the gathering, delivery of information and communication with employees easier. However, HR technology has the potential to continue reducing the administrative burden on the human resource department. Though this is the case many companies especially in developing counties are yet to reap the benefits of HR technology. After being hired, an employee is required to fill forms containing personal details and contacts. These files can either be stored digitally or in an analog manner. According to Bulmash (2008), the human resource department is usually the custodian of employee data. It's important to note that nature and the means through which these data are stored has changed with time. Also, human resource technology is gaining popularity in both small and large businesses in an effort to meet the needs of every employer. Retaining experienced and most efficient employees has become a daunting task for organizations. Almost every organization in the world is struggling to maintain a professional and innovative workforce capable of coming up with cutting-edge technologies and ideas. The situation is worse in developing countries since innovative employees are poached by big corporations capable of giving them better pay. In this regard, the research will explore different human resource technologies being utilized by corporations in the world today. Further, the research will explore different employee retention practices being used by various organizations in the world. 1.4 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Technology and retention of good employees is the backbone of every organization. Through technology, HR departments can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their process. HR can also diversify and participate in other activities regarding the day to day running of an organization. As employees work for a long time in an organization, they become familiar with processes and products made by the organization. Losing such employees to rival companies results in big losses for the company. The aim of this research is to Determine the technologies used in human resource management Determine the impact of using this technology in an organization Identify factors that promote employee retention Evaluate the impact of this practices on employee turnover. The rationale behind this research is because despite technology and employees being the backbone of many companies, there isn’t a lot of literature that examines them both. Since this research will be combining them, it will be easy to understand their relevance in an organization without conducting research from other sources. 1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS The research hypothesis for this research will be Technology H1: The use of technology improves the efficiency and effectiveness of HRM H2: The use of technology does improve the efficiency and effectiveness of HRM. Employee retention practices H1: Employee retention practices reduce turnover H2: Employee retention practices have no significant impact on turnover CHAPTER 2 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION This section will examine the literature on technology and employee retention practices. This will include an analysis of factors that contribute to employee retention and how employees react to them. Technologies used in human resource management will also be determined and their impact on an organization. Journals, books and academic articles will be analyzed in order to critique the major points presented. Reviewing this literature is essential because it will create the guideline of the approach to be used in this research. 2.2 TECHNOLOGIES USED IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT The principal goal of HRM is to motivate, select and retain good employees in an organization. Today, technology is very important since it is has a huge impact on the success of a business. Through technology, organizations have transformed the way they manage human resources. In this regard, it I important to understand some of the technologies being used by organizations to manage their human resources. 2.2.1 E-recruiting systems The first step in getting a moti References Haider, M., Rasli, A., Akhtar, C.S., Yusoff, R.B.M., Malik, O.M., Aamir, A., Arif, A., Naveed, S. and Tariq, F., 2015. 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