The Impact of Retention Strategies on Employee Motivation - Research Proposal Example

The Impact of Retention Strategies on Employee Motivation: Training, Development, Rewards and Recognition s (Course Title) (Tutor) (Date) Executive Summary When you loose a good employee, this easily de-motivates the other employees. Many firms have resolved to retain their talented staff. This has been attained through: provision of a positive working environment; recognition, reward and reinforcement of the right behavior; involving and engaging the employees in the firm’s operations; training and development thus developing skills and potential; and finally, through continuous evaluation. Most employees are motivated by being provided with better benefits such as being rewarded both financially and non-financially, and receiving good training and development. These retention strategies make them be retained in the firm and perform their jobs at optimum levels. Retention of employees is a complex and a multi-faceted challenge, which can negatively impact on an organization’s profit margins and productivity if it is not addressed effectively. An improved incentive system raises the performance orientation and retention of an employee. Retention is used by many firms so as to reduce the turnover costs. Employee retention is also very crucial since it prevents talented staff from being poached. Therefore, for the long-term success of a company it is a must that the firm develops and retains talented, satisfied and performance-oriented. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 2 Aim of the research 4 Research Hypotheses 4 Literature review 5 Training as a retention strategy on employee motivation 8 Effect of rewards and recognition as a retention strategy on employee motivation 9 Impact of developmental as a retention strategy on employee motivation 10 Research methodology 10 Research approach 10 Data collection 11 Sampling 11 Target Population 11 Data Analysis 12 Conclusion 12 Limitations of the research 13 Ethical considerations 13 Protection from harm 13 Informed consent 13 Right to privacy 14 Research Plan 14 Budget: 15 References 16 Problem Statement Employee retention is very crucial to any organization, and it is very demanding for the employees. In the current world, attracting and retaining young and skilled employees is often difficult but equally important. Many employers are faced with the problem of searching for a younger workforce that has different attitudes concerning work, coupled with an increasing population of older workers who are heading towards retirement. Majority of organizations have resolved to retain their good managers and employees. In that perspective, retention of employees needs to be examined in the most comprehensive manner since it impacts both negatively and positively on the business. That is the research paper will examine the impact of retention strategies on employee motivation. Aim of the research The research is aimed examining the impact of retention strategies; training, development, rewards and recognition on employee motivation. Research Hypotheses H1 There is a relationship between training as a retention strategy and employee motivation. H2 There is a relationship between recognition and rewards as a retention strategy and employee motivation. H3 There is a relationship between development as a retention strategy and employee motivation. Literature review Sandya and Kumar (2011:1778) defined employee retention as a process by which workers are encouraged to stay with their current employers for the maximum possible time. Although it is a difficult job, it is beneficial to both the employer and employee. On the other hand, Sandya and Kumar (2011) added that employee retention is the process by which employee are encouraged to remain with the organization they are working with currently for a long time. Employees are well thought as the human capital in any organizational setting. If this human capital is motivated and satisfied they would be retained and diligently perform their respective duties (Morell, 2011). Therefore, there is always a direct relationship between financial and non financial rewards and employee motivation and satisfaction (Bruce & Pepitone, 1999). Motivation is what makes people have that drive to do something thus the driving force of human behavior. As a result, it initiates, guides and maintain the goal oriented behaviors hence motivation it is what drives one to take the cause of action. The forces work towards motivation can either be social, biological, emotional or cognitive in nature. Several theories have been developed by researchers to try and shed more light on the concept of employee retention and motivation (Laubly, 2005). Motivated people include those who have consciously made a decision to devote considerable effort to achieve something that they greatly value. However, what they actually value will differ greatly from one individual to another (Asghar & Akram, 2012:115). There are a numerous ways of motivating people through financial incentives and nonfinancial incentives which comprise of: self fulfillment, recognition and respect whereby the employee feels appreciated by the management; flexibility in the working hours so that one can attend to favorite wish while at work; a positive and a fun working environment that reflects your skills and personality; good health by having subsidized balanced diets; work-life balance; team building events; career development programs; training both on- and off-the-job ; and finally the belly ruling the mind concept where you are accessed to foods that you are accustomed to (Armstrong, 2012). Employee motivation is a crucial element that employers need to take into consideration if they are to retain staff. Employee motivation also can assist the employer to enhance organizational performance. Numerous psychologists have examined the concept of motivation and formulated several theories. These theories of motivation have assisted employers and managers to motivate the employees. Maslow (1943) came up with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It outlines that the motivation assists a person to satisfy his basic needs. Maslow portrayed needs as a pyramid with five levels. On the other hand, Elton Mayo came to the conclusion that the strongest force of motivation behind the behavior of most employees at the place of work was nurturing and preservation of social relationships with their colleagues. Most people want to feel that they are important and valued, recognitised for the work they do, to be controlled sensibly, and accept any routine tasks (Mayo, 2003). The use of non-financial modes of motivation such training, rewards and recognition and development as retention strategies at the work place thus applies the ideas behind the theories of Maslow, Mayo and Herzberg. Ensuring the satisfaction of the higher needs (Maslow), being aware of the role groups play in the work place (Mayo), and finally having the need for motivation (Herzberg) (Graham & Weiner, 2000). Monetary compensation is not the highest motivator for employee that contrary to the modern belief that money is the greatest motivator. According to Allen and Helms (2010:117), most employees are usually interested in opportunities for learning and development, training, reward and recognition. Organizations ought to have an understanding of why employees joins, stay and leave an organization. This join, stay, leave model is comparative to a three-legged stool, which implies that without data on all three, firms would be not be unsuccessful in implementing proper retention strategies. First, why employees join; employees to join an organization due to the attractiveness of the position. On the contrary, recruiting prospective employee is only half the problem whilst retaining the employees is another. High performing staff will remain the firm if the offered realistic job previews (Shrivastava & Purang, 2009). Second, why employees stay; having an understanding of the reason why workers stay in an organization is just as important as comprehending why employees choose to leave the organization. This is where employee retention falls. Lastly, why employees leave; establishing the reasons behind why employees leave can help an organizations better cater for their existing employees and influence these decisions in the future. The withdrawal process is frequently initiated by low satisfaction and low commitment, which involves thoughts of quitting to look for more attractive alternatives. If administered correctly, exit interviews have been found to offer a significant resource to why most workers decide to leave the organisation. Generally, the workers stock in their responses since they jeopardizing any potential future reference. The common causes for why employees leave their workplaces are better pay, better-work life balance, rewards and recognition, better opportunities, and better hours (Breaugh & Starke, 2000:403-412). By surveying employees, organizations have the capability of gaining insight into the motivation and satisfaction of their employees. It is very crucial for firms to comprehend the employee’s in order to build programs that target any specific issue that may influence the employees’ retention (Sandya & Kumar, 2011) An employee retention program is regarded to be effective since it reduces costs incurred when recruiting and training. In that respect, job satisfaction is a key element of employee retention and the only possible way of retaining the employees is by motivating them to the extent that they feel comfortable both physically and psychologically. In the current market, it is getting more difficult to retain staff because the pool of talent is increasingly being tapped-out. In that respect, a good employer needs to have knowledge of attracting and retaining employees (Shrivastava & Purang, 2009:66-68). Training as a retention strategy on employee motivation Training is one of the main channels of maintaining and improving the intellectual capital, thereby the quality of the training affects the value of the organization. As a result, training affects the retention of an employee who is a valuable commodity (Bouyssou, Dubois and Prade, 2010). The main reason of having training programs in our organizations is that it allows you to relevantly remain in business, leads to employee retention and motivation, and leads to the creation of a pool of readily available and suitable replacements for the personnel who may move up in the organization or leave (Breaugh & Starke, 2000:415). Creative use of non-monetary rewards usually reinforces positive behaviors and, as a result it improves employee retention and performance. In that perspective, providing good training as a retention strategy motivates the employee to be responsive to the definite objectives and goals he/she needs to must achieve (Manzoor, 2011). When employees are trained, it reinforces their sense of value (Asghar & Akram, 2012). Employers can use training to assist employees attain their personal and also make sure that they have a better comprehension of their job requirements (Yazinski, 2009). This makes them to be highly motivated and continue working for the company as long as possible. Effect of rewards and recognition as a retention strategy on employee motivation Although financial benefits and other incentives may attract someone to a job, something else will keep the recruit in the firm. Since individuals have basic requirements in order to feel confident, proud and appreciative of their work, rewards and recognition typically help meet that requirement. It is often beneficial to hiring and retention of employee and can be disastrous to the firm if neglected. Recognition and rewards can be utilized as a retention strategy due to the fact they enhance the morale and productivity of the employee (Shrivastava & Purang, 2009:66-68). Recognition and rewards are provided when a company has needs to motivate employees its employees in attaining a goal or when employees have finished a particular organizational objective (Jimenez, 1999:54). Employee reward program ought to be initiated as a positive recognition for work increases the level of motivation of employees. Recognition can be done through offering awards such as best employee of the month, the most disciplined employee or punctuality award. Project based recognition have also been found have great significance. The award can be in terms of money and gifts (Thompson & Phua, 2012). Performance based bonus can be provided to ensure that performance linked to the bonus whereby a worker has the capability to relate his/her performance with the firm’s profits and hence will get motivated to work hard. This bonus is supposed to be strictly productivity based. Impact of developmental as a retention strategy on employee motivation A career opportunity for most people is just as crucial as the money they make. According to a study carried out by Manzoor in 2011, 40% of the respondents were of the opinion that they would consider leaving their current employer for another job opportunity provided the job offered better career development opportunities and greater challenges (Manzoor, 2011). Career development programs are very helpful when a person is worried about his/her career. This is because an employee is always keen to know his/her career path in the firm. For instance, companies can provide several technical certification courses which will assist the worker to improve his/her knowledge. Through these career development programs as employees’ retention strategy, employees would better understand their career path within an organization and as a result be motivated to remain in the organization to attain their personal career goals (Bruce & Pepitone, 1999). Motivational factors have been found to strengthen the employees’ loyalty and enthusiasm. Therefore, it is crucial for employees to be provided with adequate job challenges which will ensure that they their knowledge in their respective field. Most employees are more likely to be motivated and stay engaged in their jobs and, as a result increasing the firms performance. Research methodology Research approach Leedy and Ormrod (2010: 34) argue that the choice of methodologies that are to be employed in a study need to be guided by the questions and topics going to be discussed. The researcher will garner the opinions of participants as part of the design. In this research, the participants will be asked open ended questions and fill questionnaires which will allow them to give explanations for their responses. Therefore, the researcher decided that qualitative research approach will be best suited for this research project. Data collection Qualitative collection methods will be based on random sampling and structured data collection instruments, since they produce results that are easy to process, summarize and generalize (Cresswel, 2009). Therefore, the data collected will specifically focus on the documents that focus on those factors that influence retention strategies on employee motivation which comprise of training, development, rewards and recognition. This secondary data will be collected from official statistics, psychological and social journals, reference books, technical reports, scholarly journals, and literature review articles. Sampling Bayat and Fox (2007: 54) identify sampling as the process by which elements are drawn from the population. The research will use random sampling which is a probability sampling. The researcher will select a sample of 15 respondents drawn from different departments in an organization. Target Population Dornyei (2007: 96) states that target population is the population to whom the survey findings are to be applied or generalized. According to Babbie (2013: 115), population is a group of people whom the researcher wants to draw conclusions. In this research the target population will be employees and their managers. Data Analysis According to Bayat and Fox (2007: 104), data analysis is to make sense of what has been collected so that you can gain information that will lead to the knowledge of the data that has been collected. Since the research will be handling low volume of interviews which are planned to be mostly qualitative, a low volume of statistical analysis is required. Statistical analysis will be performed on he collected data. Spearman correlations will be calculated. The simple correlation coefficient will be utilized to test the significance and estimate the strength of the bivariate relationship between employee retention strategies and training, development, rewards and recognition. The final picture will be a synthesis of the research results with the reviewed literature. Conclusion Summarily, contrary to the modern belief that monetary benefits are the core motivators of employees, most employees have reported that they are motivated more by non-financial benefits such as recognition and rewards, training, development, and opportunities for learning. Whether on-job or out side the job, effective ongoing training and development ensures employees’ success. Additionally, effective employee training and development opportunities also ensure that the employees are ready for their next promotion or lateral move. In that respect, succession planning for each position usually relies on training and development of the employees. As a consequence, the employees are retained in the business. Most firms prefer retention is used by many firms so as to reduce the costs of hiring and recruiting. . The current labor market is exceptionally competitive and organizations regardless of size, technological advancement, and market share are experiencing problems with employee retention. In order to overcome this challenge, they should create a positive relationship between the workforce and the organization. Limitations of the research Since data will be collected from secondary sources, there is limited literature on the topic impact of retention strategies on employee motivation, with most researches providing information on the effect of motivation on employee retention. Another limitation of the research study is that it is usually hard to acquire information from key personalities, particularly those at the management level. Ethical considerations Henning (2004: 74) mention that the interview plan has been finalised when the process of ethical clarification can begin. The researcher will focus on the following ethical categories issued illustrated by Leedy and Ormrod (2010: 101-104). Protection from harm The researcher will ensure that none of the participants will be exposed to undue physical or psychological harm. Participants will not be exposed to undue stress, embarrassment or loss of self-esteem. This will be achieved because questions asked will be related to their normal day-to-day functions. Names of participants will not be mentioned in the research report. Each participant in the sample will be referred to by a number, 1-15, Informed consent Participants will be informed in a letter of the nature and the reason for the study. The letter will also inform, that participation is voluntary, and they have the right to withdraw from the study at any time. Before the interviews start, participants will be informed that they are not compelled to take part in the research and might terminate their participation at any time during the interview. Right to privacy The researcher will inform participants that their responses to questions are strictly private and confidential and would not be strictly discussed with anyone else. The researcher will also inform the participants that their anonymity is guaranteed, by referring to them to as number and not indicate their names. Web based instruments for data collection provides for ethical considerations of the research participants. However, the overarching ethical challenge that faces networked researchers is privacy and anonymity concerns of the participants. As a result privacy concerns, could substantially and negatively manipulate response rates to the online research. Therefore, most of the online data collections instruments need to utilize passwords and concealment of IP addresses to offer privacy and anonymity of the respondents. Research Plan Time plan of activities Budget: Purchasing various literature for the dissertation – Estimated at around 250 USD Travel expenses for the interviews – will be made during corporate sponsored events, therefore a dedicated budget is not needed. Online survey tool – about 70 USD. References Allen, R. & Helms, M., (Fall 2010). Employee perceptions of relationships between strategy rewards and organizational performance. Journal of Business Strategies, 19 (2). 115-139. Armstrong, M. (2012). Handbook of Reward Management Practice: Improving Performance. Daryaganj, New Delhi: Kogan Page Publishers. Asghar, A., & Akram, M. N. (2012). Impact of Financial Rewards on Employee Motivation and Satisfaction. 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