EMPLOYEE RETENTION,

ENGAGEMENT, & CAREERS

MANAGING EMPLOYEE
TURNOVER &
RETENTION

✤ Turnover, which is the rate at

which employees leave the firm-
varies markedly among
industries.

✤ The costs to employers of

turnover are high.

✤ Reducing turnover requires

identifying and managing the
reasons for both voluntary and
involuntary turnover.
MANAGING
VOLUNTARY
TURNOVER

✤ Pay

✤ Promotional opportunities

✤ Work-life balance

✤ Career development

✤ Relationship with supervisors

✤ Health care benefits

✤ Unfairness

✤ Lack of recognition
ATTRITION VS TURNOVER
ATTRITION

✤ Attrition is the normal life cycle of employment.

✤ Employees who move, retire, pass away or leave the company to

raise a family or attend school represent the usual ebb and flow
of staffers through a business.

✤ In other words, when it comes to attrition, employees are leaving

not because they have a problem with your company or their jobs
– it’s a matter of life unfolding.

✤ Attrition tends to be higher in companies located in transient cities

and in organizations that hire older employees as a matter of
practice.
TURNOVER
✤ Employee turnover is a term that applies to employees who leave the
company due to termination, taking a better job, or because they felt
there was no room for growth, or worse, that they were dealing with a
hostile or discriminatory work environment.

✤ A turnover rate says more about a company than it does an

employee.

✤ A high turnover rate typically means working conditions are not

optimal, pay is below market average, or staffers are not well trained.

✤ Concurrently, a low turnover rate is indicative of a work environment

where staffers feel appreciated, work as a team, have room to move
up the corporate ladder, and are satisfied with their jobs.
STRATEGIES FOR
RETAINING
EMPLOYEES

✤ Selection

✤ Professional growth

✤ Provide career direction

✤ Meaningful work and ownership of goals

✤ Recognition and rewards

✤ Culture and environment

✤ Promote work-life balance

✤ Acknowledge achievements
EMPLOYEE
ENGAGEMENT

Engagement refers to being

psychologically involved in,
connected to, and committed to
getting one’s jobs done.

Why engagement is important?

✤Reduce employee turnover

Career Management and
Employee Commitment
✤ The “New Psychological Contract”
✤ Old contract: “Do your best and be loyal to
us, and we’ll take care of your career.”
✤ New contract: “Do your best for us and be
loyal to us for as long as you’re here, and we’ll
provide you with the developmental
opportunities you’ll need to move on and have
a successful career.”
CAREER PLANNING,
DEVELOPMENT & MANAGEMENT

✤ Career Planning- The deliberate process through which someone

becomes aware of personal skills, interests, knowledge, motivation and
other characteristics and establishes action plans to attain specific goals.

✤ Career Management- process for enabling employees to better

understand and develop their career skills and interests, and to use
these skills and interests more effectively.

✤ Career Development- is the lifelong series of activities that contribute to

a person’s career exploration, establishment, success, and fulfillment.
 Traditional Versus Career Development Focus

Source: Adapted from Fred L. Otte and Peggy G. Hutcheson, Helping Employees
Manage Careers (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), p. 10.
Table 10–1
GENDER ISSUES IN
CAREER
DEVELOPMENT

✤ Women and men face different challenges

as they advance through their careers.

✤ Women are held to stricter standards for

promotion.

✤ Women get less developmental

assignments and geographic mobility
opportunities.

✤ Women have to be more proactive than

men to progress in their careers.

✤ Glass ceiling- barriers to women’s

progress in the workplace.
IMPROVING
COACHING SKILLS

✤ Coaching means educating,

instructing, and training
subordinates.

✤ Teaching short-term job related

skills

✤ Analytical skills- it’s futile to teach

or advise someone if you don’t
know what the problem is.

✤ Interpersonal skills- it’s futile to

know the problem if you can’t get
the person to listen or change.
COACHING: 4
STEP PROCESS

1. Preparation

2. Planning

3. Active coaching

4. Follow-up
Career Management and Employee Commitment

 Commitment-oriented career development efforts

– Career development programs
• Career workshops that use vocational guidance tools
(including a computerized skills assessment program
and other career gap analysis tools) to help employees
identify career-related skills and the development needs
they possess.
– Career-oriented appraisals
• Provide the ideal occasion to link the employee’s
performance, career interests, and developmental
needs into a coherent career plan.
BUILDING YOUR
MENTORING SKILLS

✤ Experienced senior people

advising, counseling and guiding
employees’ long-term career
development.

✤ May be formal or informal.

✤ Focus is on hard-to-reverse, longer-

term issues.

✤ Effective mentoring requires trust,

professional competence,
consistency, and ability to
communicate.
THE PROTEGE’S
RESPONSIBILITIES

✤ Choose an appropriate potential

mentor.

✤ Don’t be surprised if you’re

turned down.

✤ Make it easier for a potential

mentor to agree to your
request.

✤ Respect the mentor’s time.

MAKING PROMOTION DECISIONS

✤ Decision 1: Is seniority or competence the rule?

✤ Decision 2: How should we measure competence?

✤ Decision 3: Is the process formal or informal?

✤ Decision 4: Vertical, Horizontal, or other?

PRACTICAL
CONSIDERATIONS

✤ Sources of bias in promotion

decisions.

✤ Promotions and the law

✤ Managing transfers

✤ Managing retirements