01-03-2013, 09:56 AM
EMPLOYEE RETENTION
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ABSTRACT
Employee retention is a process in which the employees are encouraged to remain with the organization for the maximum period of time or until the completion of the project. Employee retention is beneficial for the organizations. Employees today are different. They are not the ones who don’t have good opportunities in hand.
As soon as they feel dissatisfied with the current employer or the job, they switch over to the next job. It is there responsibility of the employer to retain their best employees. If they don’t, they would be left with no good employees. A good employer should know how to attract and retain its employees.
Most employees feel that they are worth more than they are actually paid. There is a natural disparity between what people think they should be paid and what organizations spend in compensation. When the difference becomes too great and another opportunity occurs, turnover can result.
Employees comprise the most vital assets of the company. In a work place where employees are not able to use their full potential and not heard and valued, they are likely to leave because of stress and frustration.
Retaining your best staff is essential to your company’s performance.
For managers, nothing feels better than having a productive and happy workforce.
INTRODUCTION
Employee turnover rates have, within the last several years, become a nationwide Epidemic. Employees no longer feel the sense of company loyalty that once existed.
Increasing numbers of corporate mergers and acquisitions have left employees feeling Detached from the companies that they serve and haunted by concerns of overall job Security. As a result, workers are now making strategic career moves to ensure
Employment that meets their need for security.
For managers, nothing feels better than having a strong, successful, happy workforce in place that is mutually focused on the organization’s performance. Hiring top-quality individuals is an important task on its own, but essential to any manager’s ongoing process is a critical retention strategy.. Following a well developed strategy will let you reduce recruitment through retaining your top-performing talent.. Your staff is more than employees. They are valuable individuals with unique competencies and characteristics who require appreciation as much as a paycheck. In fact, people are the single most valuable element within your organization. Each individual who performs a function at your organization – no matter how junior or senior –are the puzzle pieces that fit together to create the larger picture of success. Missing one of those pieces puts a hole in the picture and stops your company being successful. To keep them, your company must develop a retention strategy with clearly defined goals.
PEOPLE ARE VALUABLE
Like an art collector who has spent time and research attaining that Great Master’s work which embodies the talent, skills and training of the artist, getting excellent staff requires the same passion. The collector protects the painting with superior security and environmental methods. In your position as a manager of people you must do whatever you can to keep that priceless individual who works hard for your company and generates strong results.
As an experienced business person, you have undoubtedly used, or are in the process of using effective hiring tools to assemble what you believe to be the best staff, with exceptional skills and who fit well into your company’s unique culture. In a competitive, professional world, top performers are often made a variety of offers before they settle on one career position. But once they are working for you, they need reason and motivation to remain.
The old adage “Look after the small things and the big things look after themselves” can easily apply to your workforce. “Look after your people and the business will look after itself”. It could not be more relevant today as when it was first said.
RECOGNIZING THE PROBLEM
Retention starts at the top. Sourcing, hiring and retaining motivated employees is the responsibility of the company’s governing board and Leadership Team. Getting and keeping good staff demands focused, formal and informal policies and procedures that make retention a prime management outcome.
The HR department alone cannot reduce turnover. For significant, positive change, company leaders must establish distinct retention processes and programs within all levels of an organization. After finding the right people, it is management’s primary role to take responsibility for the success of their employees including leading people towards performance goals and targets.
Even if you don’t have high employee turnover today, your company should look at implementing retention strategies. Employees see retention efforts as more sincere when managers are not being forced to act due to high turnover
When seeking to resolve the problems associated with high turnover, companies must first investigate the underlying causes. They need to have in mind an appropriate level of attrition by setting benchmarks against similar organizations and taking into account the entire cost of turnover to the company. Some issues may be addressed at a local level by placing a greater emphasis on listening and responding to employees concerns and ideas.
Yet, in general, retention difficulties are likely to require a company leader with the ability to engage the employees - using strategies such as job satisfaction surveys - who can also create a broader, long-term plan.
EMPLOYEE RETENTION SOLUTIONS
The high costs of losing talented employees reach far and deep into organizations. These costs include direct costs such as hiring and training replacements, as well as indirect costs such as lost business and productivity. Knowing how to select the right people, and in fact, actually selecting them is essential to successful performance.
Rather, a broad set of carefully planned criteria’s essential when building a strong retention program. The solutions addressed in the following section were recognized and created by industry professionals whose experience proves invaluable to any company, of any size.
They have helped organizations realize their productivity goals through the retention of top performers and the reduction of recruiting. Drake consults companies on the philosophy that giving careful consideration to the retention of top performers reduces the need for recruitment and saves time and money. As a result, they have helped organizations realize their productivity goals through the following topics:
Communication and Employee Engagement
Nurturing staff should be ongoing, a day-to-day activity. Clear and open communication is the best foundation for nurturing staff. Nothing says respect or models empowerment more than managers who actively listen to their employees.
The active listener appreciates the employee’s feelings, input and concerns which can be the most cost-effective way to acknowledge people.
Being heard builds self-esteem and employees with high self-esteem feel trusted and valued and are less likely to feel marginalized.
People work for people, not companies, and people need to communicate effectively to ensure that their voices are being heard and their concerns addressed. More companies are devising communication plans to keep employees apprised of company performance and business objectives. Keeping employees “in the loop” increases their feelings of inclusion and helps them realize their importance to the company and it’s strategies and fosters the open communication environment successful companies have well ingrained within their culture. Technology plays a critical role in communicating corporate messages to the ranks. For instance, through the internet, employees can learn about employment benefits, job openings and the latest product initiatives.
Competitive Compensation
Competitive compensation and benefit packages including salary, bonuses, stock options, and the traditional health insurance and retirement packages are tools that some companies use to help keep employees onboard.
Salary increases should be structured to stay competitive within your market sector, geography and the position.
Employers should distinguish between top and bottom performers by ensuring that that those individuals performing in the top quartile are paid over and above those in the bottom quartile.
Due to the difference in cost of living in various geographic sectors, you will want to understand how to apply salary inflators and deflators in your company to ensure salary equities amongst your employee base. Carefully developed bonus or profit sharing programs provide encouraging, goal-oriented initiatives for employees to aim towards.
CONCLUSION
You’ll have a successful company if you treat your employees well so they want to stay with you. Increasing retention requires careful planning and implementation resulting in a solid program which incorporates many or all of the solutions mentioned in this whitepaper. Incorporating these techniques into your internal company planning does not necessarily require expenditure. In fact, many of the retention strategies mentioned above cost little or no money to implement and require nothing more than carefully planned time dedicated to long term goals. Companies must realize that by keeping their turnover levels low, they are in fact improving their bottom line. The cost of replacing employees is an excessive one which most companies cannot afford. Compared to the cost of retaining existing top performing employees, the cost difference and time constraint is staggering.
It is essential that every recruiter and manager should be concerned with retention from the start of any recruiting program. The process should be conscious of the end goal: to keep the individuals who outperform in your company.