Employee Retention
Employee Retention involves taking measures to encourage employees to remain in the organization for the maximum period of time. Corporate is facing a lot of problems in employee retention these days. Hiring knowledgeable people for the job is essential for an employer. But retention is even more important than hiring. There is no dearth of opportunities for a talented person. There are many organizations which are looking for such employees. If a person is not satisfied by the job he’s doing, he may switch over to some other more suitable job. In today’s environment it becomes very important for organizations to retain their employees.
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. Retention involves five major things:
1)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, bonuses, benefits, prerequisites, stock options, bonuses, vacations, etc. While setting up the packages, the following components should be kept in mind:
Salary and monthly wage: It is the biggest component of the compensation package. It is also the most common factor of comparison among employees. It includes
o Basic wage
o House rent allowance
o Dearness allowance
o City compensatory allowance
Salary and wages represent the level of skill and experience an individual has. Time to time increase in the salaries and wages of employees should be done. And this increase should be based on the employee’s performance and his contribution to the organization.
Bonus: Bonuses are usually given to the employees at the end of the year or on a festival.
Economic benefits: It includes paid holidays, leave travel concession, etc.
Long-term incentives: Long term incentives include stock options or stock grants. These incentives help retain employees in the organization's startup stage.
Health insurance: Health insurance is a great benefit to the employees. It saves employees money as well as gives them a peace of mind that they have somebody to take care of them in bad times. It also shows the employee that the organization cares about the employee and its family.
After retirement: It includes payments that an Employee gets after he retires like EPF (Employee Provident Fund) etc.
Miscellaneous compensation: It may include employee assistance programs (like psychological counseling, legal assistance etc), discounts on company products, use of a company cars, etc.
2) GROWTH:
Growth and development are the integral part of every individual’s career. If an employee can not 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: The work profile on which the employee is working should be in sync with his capabilities. The profile should not be too low or too high.
Personal growth and dreams: Employees responsibilities in the organization should help him achieve his personal goals also. Organizations can not keep aside the individual goals of employees and foster organizations goals. Employees’ priority is to work for themselves and later on comes the organization. If he’s not satisfied with his growth, he’ll not be able to contribute in organization growth.
Training and development: Employees should be trained and given chance to improve and enhance their skills. Many employers fear that if the employees are well rained, they’ll leave the organization for better jobs. Organization should not limit the resources on which organization’s success depends. These trainings can be given to improve many skills like:
• Communications skills
• Technical skills
• In-house processes and procedures improvement related skills
• C or customer satisfaction related skills
• Special project related skills
Need for such trainings can be recognized from individual performance reviews, individual meetings, employee satisfaction surveys and by being in constant touch with the employees.
3)ENVIRONMENT:
It is not about managing retention. It is about managing people. 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 the work done.
• Ample opportunities to grow.
• A friendly and cooperative environment
• A feeling that the organization is second home to the employee
Organization environment includes .
• Culture.
• Value.
• Company reputation
• Quality of people in the organization
• Employee development and career growth
• Risk taking
• Leading technologies
• Trust
Types of environment the employee needs in an organization
• Learning environment: It includes continuous learning and improvement of the individual, certifications and provision for higher studies, etc.
• Support environment: Organization can provide support in the form of work-life balance. Work life balance includes:
o Flexible hours
o Telecommuting
o Dependent care
o Alternate work schedules
o Vacations
o Wellness
• Work environment: It includes efficient managers, supportive co-workers, challenging work, involvement in decision-making, clarity of work and responsibilities, and recognition.
Lack or absence of such environment pushes employees to look for new opportunities. The environment should be such that the employee feels connected to the organization in every respect.
4)Relationship:
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. There are times when an employee starts feeling bitterness towards the management or peers. This bitterness could be due to many reasons. This decreases employee’s interest and he becomes de-motivated. It leads to less satisfaction and eventually attrition.
A supportive work culture helps grow employee professionally and boosts employee satisfaction. To enhance good professional relationships at work, the management should keep the following points in mind.
Respect for the individual: Respect for the individual is the must in the organization. \
Relationship with the immediate manager: A manger plays the role of a mentor and a coach. He designs ands plans work for each employee. It is his duty to involve the employee in the processes of the organization. So an organization should hire managers who can make and maintain good relations with their subordinates.
Relationship with colleagues: Promote team work, not only among teams but in different departments as well. This will induce competition as well as improve the relationships among colleagues.
Recruit whole heartedly: An employee should be recruited if there is a proper place and duties for him to perform. Otherwise he’ll feel useless and will be dissatisfied. Employees should know what the organization expects from them and what their expectation from the organization is. Deliver what is promised.
Promote an employee based culture: The employee should know that the organization is there to support him at the time of need. Show them that the organization cares and he’ll show the same for the organization. An employee based culture may include decision making authority, availability of resources, open door policy, etc.
Individual development: Taking proper care of employees includes acknowledgement to the employee’s dreams and personal goals. Create opportunities for their career growth by providing mentorship programs, certifications, educational courses, etc.
Induce loyalty: Organizations should be loyal as well as they should promote loyalty in the employees too. Try to make the current employees stay instead of recruiting new ones.
5)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 is a 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. Management can support employees by providing them recognition and appreciation.
Employers can also provide valuable feedback to employees and make them feel valued to the organization.
The feedback from supervisor helps the employee to feel more responsible, confident and empowered. Top management can also support its employees in their personal crisis by providing personal loans during emergencies, childcare services, employee assistance programs, counseling services, et al.
Employers can also support their employees by creating an environment of trust and inculcating the organizational values into employees. Thus employers can support their employees in a number of ways as follows:
• By providing feedback
• By giving recognition and rewards
• By counseling them
• By providing emotional support
Employee retention would require a lot of efforts, energy, and resources but the results are worth it.
The top organizations are on the top because they value their employees and they know how to keep them glued to the organization. Employees stay and leave organizations for some reasons.
The reason may be personal or professional. These reasons should be understood by the employer and should be taken care of. The organizations are becoming aware of these reasons and adopting many strategies for employee retention.
-supriya