Recruiting and retaining employees is really a formidable task of any human resource manager. The process of ensuring one’s retention starts from the moment a new hire joins for the job. This mainly consists of initial orientation, defining one’s functional space, rewards and incentives, evaluation and promotion, career training programmes etc. Being the HR head in a human resource training centre, retention of my strong trainers from the lookout of my competitors who are evolving newer techniques and systems is causing a big pressure on the budget. The ideal period to address such issues is the initial time when one tries to settle down with the system by balancing one’s position, associating with colleagues and general company policies. From the earlier reports, it is understood that the majority of feedback received from various employees have opinioned that orientation programs are effective in retaining and motivating personal.
But it has been my experience with the other institutions that, though the employees recognize the necessity of orientation majority of the companies provide only very limited information on the company’s policies and procedures. I personally feel that it would be worthwhile to explore continual training sessions rather than short packages units. Expecting a long term association with the company with very brief or truncated programmes would certainly be overambitious.
Orientation Programme:
The general structure of any orientation programme must have several important components. The important ones are: Clearly stating the responsibilities with the hires – employee’s education of organizational mission and business practices – exposing the new recruits the prevailing culture in the organization – creating a sense of confidence on the potential avenues available for their career growth – and generating a sense of oneness among all members. Also, the confidentiality of certain processes, if any, and the general ethics to be followed shall be communicated to give a sense of openness in the activities undertaken. Extending additional facilities to the employees like computers, fax machines, copiers, voice mails etc. and providing an employee handbook giving all the necessary information shall also be included.
In an effort to formulate an ideal employee retention mechanism, I had tried to gather considerable information from another similar set of operators. At least 70 per cent of the human resources managers had expressed this as their primary issue of management. 30 per cent of them indicated that turnover rate is a seasonal phenomenon which has high and peak periods and hence need not be too much worried over it. When asked about the organizational priorities on various issues to be tackled, 55 per cent remarked that workforce retention should be the highest challenge for the HR heads. Most of the employee survey reports in the organizations are conducted on an ad-hoc basis, and only a meagre 30 per cent of such initiatives could trigger any influence like major personal and workplace change. Thus a cursory assessment clearly shows that much need to be done by human resource managers to make every employee satisfied with the work involved and hence to create an attitude for a long-standing employee-employer relationship.
I would rather propose a multi-phased orientation process in small segments and present it to the employees as and when they get more adjusted to the newer tasks. The primary presentation would focus on how one would fit into the larger view of the organizational system and hence must be able to reinforce a basic overview. Appropriate care is also given to ensure that individual attention is made available on the first day of appearance. The later part of the same day shall be earmarked for having close association with their immediate supervisor. This is the time where I expect the supervisors to give the required exposure to the working styles, methods and expectations. A proper job description with a few well framed set tasks could be assigned to the new hire initially. Also, putting up a mentor for each employee would certainly assist them in reducing the learning curve.
The design of proper compensation is the next on the agenda in my mission towards creating better retention of my people. A total reward strategy would be able to help me to improve employee commitment and also in reinforcing organization values and culture.
Thus this strategy would be capable of achieving improved delivery of my service to the customers and, finally, the better overall performance of the organization. These facts would also be communicated to them during the initial days after hiring. The total reward would broadly consist of intrinsic and extrinsic components. Elements like the quality of work, work-life balance, growth opportunity, inspiration or values, enabling environment which contributes to the internal value or motivation is normally called as intrinsic factor. At the same time, all the components that can have a clear monetary component like vehicle allowance, retirement benefits, health and welfare, holidays, annual incentive, bonus/split awards, performance shares, discounts, base salary are grouped as extrinsic components. This broad package of total rewards would certainly help to get a competitive edge over my competitor’s practices and result in better retention.
In order to bring the above-mentioned suggestions into practice, a proper performance appraisal of the employees are very necessary. This would be an ideal technique to assess one’s accomplishment and hence to provide feedback to them for further improvement. I would be more careful in adopting this technique as it must not create any signs of negative influence on employees once they are identified as not very high performers. The objective of such schemes would be to act as catalysts to bring out corrective mechanisms towards the mission of a quality workforce. The broad purposes aimed in this are evaluation process to help the employees know where stand followed by development that assists in evolving in a well-tailored training programme and for long term gains for both the employee and the organization. Graphic rating scales would be used for this purpose by designing checklists of important parameters related to better performance in a given job. It is also very quick and could be easily used for obtaining the necessary information for analyzing employee performance.
Another major technique that would be proposed is to motivate immediate supervisors and senior managers to retain their subordinates by announcing compensation related to overall turnover figures. Another significant move would be to implement policies for special welfare schemes that particularly ensures a satisfactory personal life. Further, clear articulation of their importance in the long term growth plan of the organization and offering learning and development programmes to groom them into future managers shall also be given priority. Also, the HR systems would pay more attention to ensure this so that top level hiring can be minimized and hence could make promotions mostly from within. This could give a positive signal to my employees as they can aspire to a progressive career rather than a bottled-up situation. Thus all these efforts would be directed towards the creation of an “employee brand”, which would help not only to retain but also attract new talents looking for a sustainable career.
The words of Jesse Harriott, VP of research at Monstar, the leading global job consultancy agency, is very relevant. According to Jesse, their study has revealed that both recruiters and hiring managers are not only cognizant of the retention issue but also concerned about its current and future impact on organizational growth. “Businesses of all sizes and across all industries must develop – and implement – creative programs and strategies to attract and hire top candidates while retaining and motivating current employees. As the talent pool shrinks, it is imperative that immediate action is taken to ensure businesses are properly prepared and staffed for the future. In anticipation of a worker shortage, it is critical for HR managers to find, attract and hire today’s top talent,” said Jesse Harriott.
In order to identify the right candidate to fill the vacant positions, the series of steps like extensive pre-screening and applicant assessment, as well as consistent onboarding interviews, must help significantly.