Human
resource management has a direct personal impact on us as employees in
shaping the nature of our work, our pay and our career prospects
(Huczynski and Buchanan, 2007).One of the major problems encountered in
today’s business world is dealing with high employee attrition.
Attrition is the reduction in the number of employees through
retirement, resignation or death.This article addresses the issue of
high employee attrition taking place in an organization. Sometimes it’s
impossible to ensure the retention of a particular group of employees;
in those cases, companies can learn to adopt (Cappelli, 2001).
Impact of Attrition:
Staff
turnover creates costs, but these are difficult to measure. When
employees leave, output is lost. Costs are then incurred in advertising
and interviewing, then training the new recruits. Turnover is often a
symptom of low morale, which can reduce corporate profitability by
depressing staff performance .For example- William Mercer was able to
demonstrate to Quest Diagnostics that if staff turnover were reduced by
just 5 percentage points, this would make an annual profit contribution
of US$31 million. Faced with this evidence, managers who had been
complacent about the company’s staff turnover were shocked into
action.(based on Cathy Copper, ‘In for the count’, People Management,
vol. 6, no.20, 12 October 2000a, pp, 28-34). Also Robinson and Rousseau
(1994) found that 55 per cent of their management sample said their
psychological contract had been broken by their employer. The
consequences are damaging for both the individuals and the organization,
and include low job satisfaction, poor performance, high staff
turnover, feelings of anger and betrayal and the erosion of trust.
Measures to control Attrition:
Employees
are investments if effectively managed and developed, provide long-term
awards for organization hence policies, programs, and practices must be
created that satisfy both the economic and emotional needs of
employees. A working environment must be created in which employees are
encouraged to develop and utilize their skills to the maximum extent
(Carrell and Elbert, 2000).
‘Profit
through people’ can be produced through people management policies such
as reducing status differentials and sharing information across the
organization (Based on Jeffrey Pfeffer, The Human Equation, Harvard
Business School Press, Boston, MA, 1998).Guest (1989) identified that
there must be senior management support for the success of HRM.
‘Like
it or not, it’s the younger generation that will have to mentor us
rather than the other way around’ (Coutu , 2001).Supervisors can
provide guidance to their subordinates by assisting and guiding them,
by making them available to answer questions otherwise letting
subordinates work things out by themselves (Hackman and Suttle, 1997).
The employer should practise Soft HRM which is people-oriented, rooted
in human relations thinking, emphasizing motivation, communication and
leadership (Huczynski and Buchanan, 2007). By treating employees well,
organizations profits can rise. A central ethics committee should be set
up to reinforce the values of respect, honesty, efficiency, care and
trust (based on Georgina Fuller,’ Come the revolution’, People
Management, vol. 11, no.17, 1 September 2005, pp.38-40).
Two main factors in Huselid’s list of 13 high performance practises:
- Skills
developments: the acquisition and development of employee skills,
through selection, induction, training and the use of performance
appraisal systems
- Job design: the designs of jobs, including skill flexibility, job responsibility, variety and the use of teams
Conclusion:
According
to Narayan Murthy (CEO Infosys), ‘Our assets walk out of the door each
evening, we have to make sure that they come back the next morning’,
employer should treat their employees as customers, by understanding
their needs which drives employer satisfaction. Making adjustments is as
important as achieving results (Phillips and Connell, 2003), hence by
applying bath’s model, managers should provide adequate support and
motivation for their team. There should be good communications in every
strategical business unit, emphasis on team work and rewards on
organizational performance should be proposed. The basic purpose of
these strategies is to boost employee morale and hence achieve
retention.
From
the above study I want to conclude that employees are the capital of an
organization. So in order to retain employees, organization has to
satisfy their employees. By doing the same, Organization can retain
their best employees, who would in turn add to the growth and success of
the organization.From Neil Conway. ‘Promises, promises’. People
Management, vol 10, no. 23, 25 November 2004, pp.42-3.Therefore an
organization can promise:
- Pay commensurate with performance
- Opportunity for training and development
- Opportunities for promotion
- Recognition for innovation or new ideas
- An attractive benefits package
- Respectful treatment
- Reasonable job security
- A pleasant and a safe working environment
