Employee Retention Mohan. V. T.

Employee Retention

Mohan. V. T.

Lecturer, Hemadri college of 

management.  Tumkur

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 organization as well as for the employee. 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 the 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. Employee retention would require lots of efforts, energy, and resources but the results are worth it.

Retention involves five major things:

            Compensation: Compensation constitutes the largest part of the employee retention process. The employees always have high expectations regarding their compensation packages. Compensation packages vary from industry to industry. So an attractive compensation package plays a critical role in retaining the employees. Compensation includes salary and wages, bonus, benefits, prerequisites, stock options, bonus, vacations, etc.

            A.Growth and Career: Growth and Development are the integral part of every individual’s career. If an employee cannot foresee his path of career development in his current organization, there are chances that he’ll leave the organization as soon as he gets an opportunity. The important factors in employee growth that an employee looks for himself are: Work profile, Personal Growth & Dreams, Training & Development.

           

            B. Support: Lack of support from management can sometimes serve as a reason for employee retention .Supervisor should support his subordinates in a way so that each one of them reaches their success. Management should try to focus on its employees and support them not only in their difficult times at work but also through the times of personal crisis.

            C. Importance of Relationship in Employee Retention Program: Sometimes the relationship with the management and the peers becomes the reason for an employee to leave the organization. The management is sometimes not able to provide an employee a supportive work culture and environment in terms of personal or professional relationships. To enhance good professional relationships at work, the management should keep the following points in mind: Respect for the individual, Relationships with the immediate managers, relationship with colleagues, promotes an employee based culture, individual development, etc.

            D. Organization Environment: If an organization manages people well, employee retention will take care of itself. Organizations should focus on managing the work environment to make better use of the available human assets. People want to work for an organization which provides, appreciation for work done, ample opportunities to grow, A friendly and cooperative environment, etc.

            Types of environment the employee needs in an organization: Learning environment, support environment, work environment.

2. Importance of Employee Retention

            Now a days  so much is being done by organizations to retain its employees, why is retention so important? Is it just to reduce the turnover costs? Well, the answer is a definite. It’s not only the cost incurred by a company that emphasizes the need of retaining employees but also the need to retain talented employees from getting poached.

           

            3. What Makes Employee Leave?

            Employees do not leave an organization without any significant reason. There are certain circumstances that lead  them leaving the organization. The most common reasons can be: Job is not what the employee expected to be, job & person mismatch, no growth opportunities, lack of appreciation, lack of trust & support in co-workers, seniors & management, stress from overwork & work life imbalance, better pay packages offered by other companies, new job offer.

4. Employee Retention Strategies

            The basic practices which should be kept in mind in the employee retention strategies are:

Hire the right people in the first place.

Empower the employees by giving them the authority to get things done.

Make employees realize that they are the most valuable asset of the organization.

Have faith in employees, trust them and respect them.

Provide them information and knowledge.

Keep providing them feedback on their performance.

Recognize and Appreciate their achievements.

Keep their morale high.

Create an environment where the employees want to work and have fun. 

These practices can be categorized in 3 levels:

            Low level: Appreciating and recognizing a well done job, Personalized well done and thank-you cards from supervisors, Congratulations e-cards or cards sent to spouses/families, Voicemails or messages from top management, Periodic days off for good performance, Rewards (gift, certificates, monetary and non monetary rewards), Recognizing professional as well as personal significant events ,etc.

            Medium level: Appreciating and recognizing a well done job, Special bonus for successfully completing firm-sponsored certifications, Benefit programs for family support, Flexible benefits, Dependents care assistance, Medical care reimbursement, Providing training and development and personal growth opportunities, Professional skills development, Individualized career guidance, etc.

            High level: Develop flexible schedules, part time schedules, and extended leaves of absences, develop support services, and understand employee needs, listen to the employee & show interest to their ideas, appreciate new ideas & reward risk taking, show support for individual initiatives, encourage employees creativity, encouraging professional training and development/personal growth opportunities, provide an environment of trust, regular feedbacks on organization’s goals & activities.

5. Retention Myths

            The process of retention is not as easy as it seems. There are so many tactics and strategies used in retention of employees by the organizations. There are many myths related to the employee retention process. These myths exist because the strategies being used are either wrong or are being used from a long time. They are as follows,   Employee leave organization for more pay, incentives can increase productivity, and employee runs away from the responsibilities, taking measures to increase the employees’ satisfaction will be expensive for the organizations.

6. Retention success MANTRAS

I.          Transparent Work Culture

II.        Quality of Work

III.       Supporting Employees

IV.       Feedback

V.        Communication between employee & employer

           

CONCLUSION:

            Finally, No doubt  retention levels are proving to be a serious problem for organizations. Concerted efforts to keep retention on tight leash will definitely help. In this context, attrition management has become the strategic focus and compelling necessity of businesses today. Thus, ignoring the problem of mounting attrition level can have devastating consequences for the business.  Organization can afford to ignore the problem at own peril. n