Employees Retention Project - Assignment Example

Employees Retention Project Employees Retention Project Zajkowska argue that employees are part of the foundation that firmly and rigidly holds organizations or institutions. Their retention is not only vital in ensuring that organizations achieve their goals and objectives according to their strategies but also to ensure continuity in performance and productivity. The competitive nature of the business climate today compel organizations to device avenues of retaining their employees especially the skilled and talented. Organizations find employee retention not a walk in the park besides keeping their turnover ratio as below the target and norm of the industry. Dundon, et al (2004) assert that employees leaving organization(s) can be very detrimental since the firm loses investment in training as well as the experience of the employees who has left. Moreover, losing an employee is a loss in terms of productivity and cost injected in training, facilitating the employee, and his or her replacement. Firms are therefore obliged to be vigilant on the potential factors that are likely to lead to employees quitting their institutions. According to Sarah (2009), the retention of employees is even more difficult in the nonprofit based organizations. They need to attract as well as retain these talents and skills since without these they are unable to achieve their mission and ultimately vision. Nonprofit organizations are perceived to lack the retention strategy of the staff. The retention process is a continuous process. Firms should emphasis on retaining their staff from the onset in that the retention strategy begins from when the employees are on board; during the recruitment process; and throughout the cycle of the employment. However, Zajkowska (2012) explain that employees leave firms for several reasons and this requires employers to pay close attention to the employees need and device appropriate and effectively retentions mechanisms. Some of the perceived reasons for this problem are: the employees viewing their jobs as not to their perceived expectation; lack of coaching or feedback of their performance; lack of prospects for growth and opportunities for advancement; the feeling of their input to the organization being undervalued and not appreciated; the need to balance life and work due to stress that emanate from daily work experience; remuneration of their services; and lack of trust in the individual in the position of leadership or management of the organization. Potential solutions to the employee retention problem Ruth (2010) elaborates that organizations are in the dilemma on whether to inject more time and finance in fine tuning the strategies incorporated in the recruitment process or give more attention to the retention of the talented workforce that they already posses. The recruitment process is not only costly but also time consuming as well as stressful. They should be conscious to the glaring fact that what attracts individuals towards a firm more often than not differ from what keeps that individual to the organization. On the other hand, Bauer (2010) elaborates that one of the potential solutions to this menace is effective and efficient training of the employees. Training sessions should be utilized to instill and reinforce the values of the business or firm besides promoting the sense of value for these employees. This helps in inculcating employees’ commitment to the institution by trying to align and marry the likely goals and objectives of the workers with those of the institution. Moreover, it provides the workers with the necessary requirements to achieve objectives as well as comprehending what is required of them. The second possible solution is initiation of mentoring programs that incorporate feedback. Sarah (2009) states that mentorship programs provide platforms that can be used to promote a good relationship in the firm. It can provide the root that firmly holds the retention program since in most cases it encompasses pairing an experienced individual with less experienced one in the same discipline. The objective of this program is to develop some particular competences to the workers, enhance feedback on performance, devise career development plan for the individual in the firm. The third potential remedy is inculcating positive culture such as honest, integrity, teamwork, and attitude among many others. Trevor, Gerhart, & Boudreau (1997) extrapolate that firms which instill the above-mentioned have higher probability of attracting and keeping their employees. The forth solution is establishing a well structured communication channel which allows employees to and the employer to communicate mutually. This motivates workers since the employer will tend to listen and address their plights. The fifth way of enhance the issue in discussion is appreciation through mechanisms such as recognitions, compensation, and benefits. It enables the company to convey information to the employees that they are important at the company. However, these compensation or benefits should be meaningful and have the potential of creating the perception of the company as well as impact on the retention mechanisms. Ruth (2010) illuminate that the employees also should be provided with tasks that have the potential of providing avenues and channels for growth opportunities. It is prudent that while providing these challenges, they should be devoid of creating stress and work imbalance since individuals tend to appreciate and embrace systems that bring out the best in them and also help in the holistic development of their persons. Sarah (2009) points out that the last strategy that can be employed is inculcating and fostering confidence and trust in the individuals in the leadership positions in the organization. This is achieved by building a strong foundation in the relationship with the workers by instilling trust. The employees must view the management to be competent and believe that the management is likely to lead the organization into success. Disadvantages of the solutions to employee retention problem highlighted above Macey & Schneider (2008) extrapolate that the main limitations of these techniques is that it does not provide an avenue that can be employed to weed out the employees who are inherently incompetent or those who the organization have found difficult to inculcate competence in them. On the other hand Ruth (2010) illustrate that the second limitation is that they are likely to create situation where older employees group in a manner that causes insecurity to the environment especially to the newly recruited persons. In addition, when workers are not properly mixed, it may affect the productivity of the company and the individual performances. The strategies also tend to give too much freedom and liberty to worker which may in turn lead to drop in both the quality and quantity of their performance. In scenarios where the employee(s) has the deep inherent need to complaining then keeping them is likely to be more costly than letting them go. Recommendation to the HR on employee retention problem The following recommendations can be embedded in the HR policies to help mitigate the employee retention problem. They are: Conducting exit interviews to the employees leaving the organization either voluntarily or involuntarily The exit interview questions should be geared towards trying to identify the root cause of the employees wanting to quit Examination of the reasons for the employees quitting and filtering these reasons on the screen of truth and reality. Attention should on those who quit voluntarily. Communication with the supervisor on the problem and conducting training to them Structure the employee retention structure that resonates with the goals of the organization as well as those of the employees to enhance employee commitment and human resource relation. Conclusion It is vividly visible that organizations need to adopt employee retention strategy in order to cope with the rapid changing dynamics in the competitive climate of business arena. Mangers have an obligation of building motivation practices into their culture. The HR department of any firm or company plays a crucial role in rolling out these plans and strategies. In addition, the leadership is companies are vital in providing direction and orientation of the anticipated success. References: Dundon, et al., 2004. The meanings and purpose of employee voice. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 15, 6, 1149–1170. Macey, W & Schneider, B., 2008. The Meaning of Employee Engagement. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1, 3–30. Zajkowska, M., 2012. Employee Engagement: how to improve it through internal communication. Human Resources Management & Ergonomics, 6, 104-117. Zikmund, W. G. 2003. Business Research Methods, 7th edn. Thompson, London. Sarah, K. Y., (2009). Strategies for Retaining Employees and Minimizing Turnover. Retrieved on 29th March from: http://hr.blr.com/whitepapers/Staffing-Training/Employee-Turnover/Strategies-for-Retaining-Employees-and-Minimizing- Ruth, M., (2010). How to Solve Employee Turnover Rate. Retrieved on 29th March 2015 from: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/solve-employee-turnover-rate-11152.html Bauer, J. (2010). Nurse practitioners as an underutilized resource for health reform: Evidence based demonstrations of cost-effectiveness. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 22 (4), 228–231. Trevor, C.O., Gerhart, B., & Boudreau, J.W., (1997). Voluntary turnover and job performance: Curvilinearity and the moderating influences of salary growth and promotions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 44-61. Read More