Employ retention techniques and reducing organization turnover

The success of any organisation depend on many factors, one of which is the ability of retention
of key employees in an organisation.

The long term health and success of organisation depends upon the customer satisfaction,
bulding the strong relationship with the customers, increased sales profit and effective
communication; which in turn shows the organisational performances which is dependent on the
employee retention to a great extent.Employee retention can be defined as the ability of an
organisation to encourage the employees to work for a longer period of time in the company. It is
the long term proces in which companies develop their policies which are more likely to keep
their employees motivated and satisfied. Retention has been considered as “an obligation to
continue to do business or exchange with a particular company on an ongoing basis” (Zineldin,
2000)

The detailed description for the concept of retention is “customer liking, identification,
commitment, trust, readiness to recommend, and repurchase intentions, with the first four being
emotional-cognitive retention constructs, and the last two being behavioural intentions” (Stauss
et al., 2001).

Maertz & Campion(1998)[1] stated “relatively less turnover research has focused specifically on
how an employee decides toremain with an organization and what determines this attachment…
retention processes should be studied along with quitting processes”.

Employee retention has become one of the major issue to deal for the work force management as
it has the radical impact on the future of organisation.According to some researches on the
employee retention it has been concluded that those companies are most likely to be successful
which maintain the employee retention policies updated and produce the cooperative and friction
less work environment.

A company spends the considerable amount of time and money on the newbies, trained to give
them the valuable skills but then the question arises why does the employee leave their job?

There are number of different factors which are responsible for such actions.Some of them are
described below.

Potential Reasons for an Employee to Leave a Job

Key employees are important for the organisational success as they have the deeply embedded
knowledge of the working of the organisation.losing such employees give sthe major set back to
the company. Sometimes the reason of quitting the job is unknown to the employee.

Following are some potential reason for an employee to leave:

 Salary

 Lack of challenge or growth

 Lack of reorganisation

 Loss of religion in manager / supervisor for providing opportunity of self growth

 Lack of trust in senior management

 Over all low job satisfaction

Thus effective measures are taken in order to increase the retention rate. But in order to do that
we must know who should be held accountable for staff retention?

The Human Resource Department of any company plays vital role in retaining its employees. As
it is responsible for developing the employee betterment policies so that they should be satisfied
with in an organisation and continue to work for a long time. Thus we can say that it is not only
the retention of employees but also the retention of valued skills. But the HR department alone
can not reduce the turnover; the board of directors and company executives must establish
distinct positive change and form a team whose most important task must be to retain their
valuable employees.

Replacing the employees regularly after some time put the companys reputation at stake. Often
clients do not feel comfortable dealing with such companies who can not hold their employees.
It represent the lack of mismanagement and lack of stability in an organisation. This has the bad
impact as these employees leave the company with bad impression and sentiments which in turn
become a bad influence for new employees. But in addition to it replacement of employees is
considerably expensive process.

Employee turnover denotes the number or percentage of workers who leave an organization and
are replaced by new employees. Knowing the employee turnover rate can be proved helpful to
employers that want to study the cost-to-hire for budget purposes.

The rate of turnover is different for every company. The high turnover rates are normally found
in both pubic as well as private sectors. It also varies as the region changes, normally the lowest
turnover rate is found where unemployment rate is high meaning there are less jobs and more
number of people are willing to do the job. People are most likely to stick wit their jobs and on
the contrary the highest turnover rates are found where the unemployment rate is less and where
to get alternative job is not difficult. [2].

Turnover occurs from vrious different reasons. Sometimes a better new job attracts employees
and people tend to leave their old job . Sometimes employees are also pushed to leave their
current job for a new one because of the workspace environment and constant friction between
their superiors or by domestic circumstances where families adjusted with thheir spouses [3].
Lack of good relationship with the management influences the employees for quitting their
jobs. It is observed that people are less likely to leave their job if they are satisfied with their job
even if they are provided with the job of higher salary [4].

Turnover also serves as organizational effectiveness index . moreover knowledge about the
turnover rate can help the planning, prediction and control of resources [5]. Despite an
enormous literature on turnover in organizations, there is as yet no universally accepted account
or framework for why people choose to leave [6].

Turnover: Causes and Factors

Turnover basically arises due to dissatisfaction from the job place for employee. But being
dissatisfied by a job is not the sole reason why individual leave their company. If the individuals
have good skills and those skills are in demand they are most likely to leave their job because of
better benfits and higher salary and better job growth potential. So it is important to realize the
difference between those employees who leave their jobs due to dissatisfaction and those who
leaves their jobs due to better offers which value their skill set. There are different factors that
contribute to employee turnover.

Some of these factors are explained below:

(1)The economy - in exit interviews, one of the most common reasons given for leaving the job
is the availability of higher paying jobs. Some minimum wage workers reported for leaving one
job to another that pays only 50 cents an hour more. Obviously, in a better economy the
availability of alternative jobs plays a role in turnover, but this tends to be overstated in exit
interviews.

(ii) The characteristics of the job - some jobs are intrinsiccally more attractive than others. A
job's attractiveness is affected by many characterristics, including its challenges, perceived
importance, danger..

(iii) Demographics - empirical studies have show that workers are more preferrably work which
most suits their demographic and biological characteristics.

(iv) The person - In addition to the factors listed above, there are also some factors associated to
the individual that can change turnover rates. These include both personal and trait-based factors.
Personal factors can be a desire to learn new skill and shifting of family or an better job offer. In
addition to these personal factors, there are also some personality characteristics that are
associated with turnover.

(v) A bad match between the employee's skills and the job – often due to the lack of
mismangement people are hired which are not best for the job like they lack the skill required for
the job such employees are discouraged and leave the job soon.
(vi) Substandard equipment, tools or facilities − If working environment is not worthy enough to
the satisfactory level of empoyees like proper shelter, clothing, restroom, cafes and the health
safety issues then employees are attracted oward more facilitated job theybwill not be willing to
do the job for the long time.

(vii) Lack of opportunity for advancement or growth – employee should not be misleaded at the
time of hiring he should know compltelly about their job.often employees noticed after being
hired that their job is a dead end and their is no hope for the growth in the company .the job
description must be described precisely.

(viii) Feelings of not being appreciated – Appreciation and praise for the good work has always
benfitted the organisationas the employee became happy and try to do the best work .this way
employees think rthey are being onsidered as the part of their organistaion therefore it should be
told every once in a wihile that he or she is doing good.

(ix) Inadequate procees of supervision and training –employees need updates about their projects
and proper guidance from their seniors lack of proper training can cause workers to fall behind
their true potential and could not perform according to their full abilities.new employees always
need more focused training and gyidance from their seniors..

(x) Unequal wage structures – Lack of proper balance in the wages of the employees often
annoys them most this produces the lack of trust in their management..similarly a new employee
must wonder why a person next tto him is getting a high pay for the same perceived work.

Hence turnover is deeply related with the productivity of an organization. Employee turnover
can drastically effect the overall outcome of an organization and is often a cause of other
difficulties. Productivity is defined as the progress toward the acheivement of targets with the
means of workforce, machineries, authority’s strategies, equipments and assets [7]

Thats why different retention strategies are employed to reduce the turn over rate, therfore these
retentions policies are most important task for the human resources department.

Some of the retention strategies are described below.

Skill Recognition: Skill recognition is always proved to be the best retention strategy in all levels
of working organisation and is applicable to employees of any age.

Learning & Workspace Climate: Since learning and development opportunities seem crucial for
the retention of talented employees (Arnold, 2005; Hytter, 2007; Walker, 2001), a cooperative
learning and working climate should be provided by an organisation. It is the best place for
employees to learn and work. This concept could be explained by referring to: guidance and
appreciation at work; the amount of empowerment; pressure of work and the responsibility that
employees experience; choice in job tasks and development; provision of challenging and
meaningful work.
Job Flexibility: Job flexibility is crucial for retaining employees of any age (Boomer Authority,
2009).Researches shows the importance of employment flexibility such as forming schedules
that better accomodate person”s requirement and their workloads and should accomodate their
workload pressureand family responsibilities. (Cunningham, 2002;Pleffer, 2007). Studies shows
that the flexibilty helps to improve the balance between the work load and family
responsibilities.(Eyster, et al., 2008; Scheef ; Thielfodt, 2004).

Cost Effectiveness: Studies hows that organisations provide flexibility in effective cost are
satisfying the needs of employees, not dependent on age, which allows for accomodation of
expenses related to hiring, work space renovstions, sick time and commuting costs.

Training: Training is a key retention factor for employees of all group of ages. Statistical
analysis supports the fact that training help in bulding the best personal and professional life.
(United States Department of Labor, 2009). Access to all employees to training and
development programs is critical in growth of an organization, specially with the improvement
in technological performance (Boomer Authority, 2009).

Benefits: The corelaton of benefits with retention is another factor for the study of researchers
for making people stay in organisation. Maccoby (1984) identified the job satisfaction of
employees and supervisors of Bell System over a five-year period and concluded that the
employees and supervisors with benifits and incentives are more likely to stay motivated and
dedicated to their work.

Career Development: The objective of career planning as part of an employee development

program isn't only to show them how much company is investing on them but to shape their
proffessional life and to introduce them the concept that there is not a clear promotion track
without hardwork and dedication. Job security now a times is no longer promised by the
company; however it helps the employee to keep updated their skills and be valuable to the job
markets(Moses, 1999).

Superior-Subordinate Relationship: Employee development programs cannot become successful

if there is no proper guidance and constant supervision from the superiors. Leaders must
assemble their team and inform their teams about the latest projecta and they must be easily
available to help the sub-ordinates.

Compensation: A thrilling challenge for the human resources department is to develop such a
compnsation program to empower the career development. Often the raise is given on the basis
of the performances but that is not only the case when raise is provided. Now a days many
companies give raise to team environment and also reward people for individual achievement
(Feldman, 2000).

Organizational Commitment: Studies have shown that committed employees’ stays with the
organization
For relatively longer periods of time than those which are less dedicated toward their job. Steers
(1977) suggest that the more committed an employee is, the less of a desire to leave the
organization. These “highly committed” helps in creating the best working climate and they
serve as the role model for the employees who wants to leave the company. Steers (1977) stated
that “commitment was significantly and inversely related to employee turnover.”

Communication: Different studies have shoen that effective communication helps in creating a
trustful environment in an organisation. Progressively more, organizations provide information
on mission, values, competitive performance, strategies, and changes that may concern
employees enthuse (Gopinath and Becker 2000; Levine 1995). Many companies are now
devising the new ways to effectively communicate in the organisation and keep their employee
updated about the latest projects.

Employee Motivation: Now a days the motivational issues are more complex as the many
people have enjoyed the wealth and oppurtunities that motivation alne is not enough but the
rewards should be given to the workers to keep them stay in a company.

But some severe steps are also required by the company for its betterment, such steps are
explained below.

Hire the right people:

One of the most common mistake done by the recruitment section of human resources
department is that they do not hire the right people for the job.to hire the best people for your job
your job description must be clear to both parties that is he or she has a complete understanding
of the job. And there should be a system that performs a complte background check of the
employee,it is always best to be sure about the employees.Moreover your employee not only
possess the skills but also be suitable for your company’s culture.
Fire people who don’t fit:
As the old saying goes, “a stitch in time, saves nine.” The same goes for cutting employees loose
when necessary. Sometimes even when you follow all the rules and the do the whole career
development program there are some employees whose does not fit the office environment. It
does not matter how effective or productively they work they will always be the bad fit.y You
can do nothing about it a bad fit is a bad fit.they will produce a cultural debt in your company.
They will more harm than good by destroying the culture of company. Cut them loose.

EMPLOYEE LOYALTY

Generating Employee Loyalty

It is well known fact that employee’s job performance is directly related to his level of
commitment to the company. This usually moves down into lower levels of employee turnover
and produce higher levels of productivity. It’s therefore in the best interest of both company and
employee to search how to improve employee loyalty. To encourage loyalty employers should
support the needs of workers . In a recent study it is concluded that many employers and
employees failed to resolve important issues like the care and concern for employees " and
employees beleive at the equality at work, these are some important factors of generating loyalty
among employees. Some important findings from the researches are shown below.

To some extent more than half of the employees found themselves personally attached to their
organizations.

To some extent more than half of employees said they were taken good care by the company.

Fifty percent trust their organisation in developing ans shaping their professional life.

One-third of worldwide employees found their organisation unethical.

Only seven in 10 consider their superiors have high personal integrity.

Remember that employee’s loyalty or lack of loyalty to you is dependent on your attitude and
behaviour towards them. Those employers who are more concerned about the needs of their
workers and shows concerns towards their needs, study shows that thoseworkers are more likely
to be dedicated toward their work.

Dealing with Low Morale

There are always employs who show the bad attitude toward the work it could produce the bad
climate for working. The malcontent should be removed otherwise it could foster with in a team
and ca cause drastic impact on the productivity.

Some indicators of low morale are given below :

Absenteeism, high employee turnover, and so on.

An absence of humour:You must try to create a friendly atmosphere among your colleagues.
There is no need to be serious all the time?

Frequent complaints: If there are regular complains of the employees, it is a sign of a potential
problem.

Stop the negative rumours in your company and if there is morale problem imeddiately take
action to improve it.

Conclusion

In this phase of era where competition is fierce it viable to keep the best talented people in your
organisation and in order to do that different retention strategies must be employed. There are
different techniques which are useful in developing such policies. Such variables include
development, recognition/reward for good performance, training and a competitive salary
package and job security. Nonetheless, the importance of other variables should not be under-
estimated when formulating a retention policy. It is the best solution to formulate the best
retention policy and to keep key employees with in the organisation.