Employee Retention

Employee Retention Management and Measures
There are a number of different means by which contemporary companies and their human resource departments can retain the talent they are able to attract to their organizations. Some of these are based on providing palpable employee value. Of equal importance is the ability to create salient brands which can increase employee attention rates, in addition to performance management tactics. All of these approaches should coalesce to form an environment in which employees favor remaining with an organization, rather than leaving it.
Branding positively affects employee retention in a number of critical ways. Firstly, it is a key point of differentiation between an organization and its competitors’, since it involves some of the core values and attributes of an organization. Organizations tend to become known—both to the general public as well as to those operating within their industries—according to their brands. This notion is readily supported by the reality that brands represent both the distinctiveness and the quality of a particular company (Cascio, 2014, p. 122). When employees are associated with a brand that is viewed as propitious or even dominant within their industry, such a perception can contribute to their wanting to prolong their relationship with that brand. For instance, industry stalwarts such as Sony, Coca Cola, or even Google are known for dominating their industries because of their market shares and respective branding. This industry wide reputation stemming from the branding of these companies is a compelling factor in getting employees to remain with these companies—simply because it is attractive to remain with premier organizations (Cascio, 2014, p. 122).
Also, there are certain elements of performance management which can assist with keeping employees competent and productive enough to stay with an organization. Oftentimes, managing employee performance annually with yearly evaluations of their aptitude for working at the company is insufficient (Cascio, 2014, p. 123). It is much more beneficial to make this cycle substantially shorter and to use it as a feedback mechanism for both parties—the employer and the employee. Performance evaluations grant employers the opportunities to gauge their employees’ strengths, weakness, and the aspects of their jobs they need assistance in so they can ideally perform better. Simultaneously, however, such evaluations provide chances for employees to engage with their employers and discuss any pertinent issues or facets of the job that are contributing to their overall performance and welfare at work. Regular, interactive performance management presents opportunities for each of these parties to articulate their expectations of each other (Cascio, 2014, p. 123), which can lead to greater fulfillment for both partisans higher employee retention rates.
Human resource departments play a pivotal role in influencing employee retention rates. They are instrumental in the dissemination of the sort of company values that can result in an alignment of those of the employees. Organizations certainly should not underestimate this latter dimension in terms of its effect of retaining employees. Presbitero et al (2016) determined that when there is a conflict in the values between employees and the organizations they work for, employee retention is exacerbated (p. 635). These findings help to demonstrate the nature of the relationship between organizational values and employee values in terms of employee retention. When there is a marked degree of similitude between each of these sources of values, employees demonstrate the proclivity to remain with an organization (Presbitero et al, 2016, p. 635). However, when there is a dearth of such similarities in the values espoused by each of these groups, or worse yet, when they come into conflict with one another, it becomes increasingly difficult to retain employees.
Again, it is indispensable to understand the role of human resources in the correlation between employee/employer values and employee retention. This department has the means of disseminating the company’s values to its employees, which is perhaps the first step towards aligning those values. Human Resources should be tasked with conveying an organization’s values to employees so there is clarity about them and the expectations for employees working in any such particular organization. Furthermore, Human Resources also has the capacity to proactively ensure the accord of values between its parent organization and those of its employees by simply seeking and hiring individuals who share those values. This approach is perhaps even more effective than simply informing employees of an organization’s values. By ensuring at the very talent attraction and interviewing process that employees are fully aware of an organization’s values, as well as asking them questions to see if those employees’ values acquiesce with those of the company, human resources can improve the fit between those values and positively effect employee retention (Presbitero et al, 2016, p. 636). The specific research supporting this approach of ensuring an accord of values between employees and employers propitiously affects employee retention is structural equational modeling conducted on laborers in business process outsourcing in the Philippines (Presbitero et al, 2015, p. 636).
The employee equity model is an alternative perspective for facilitating employee retention. This particular model is based on considering employees as customers, and treating them in a similar fashion as the latter in order to foment long term relationships with them (Cardy & Lengnick-Hall, 2011, p. 213). This model is named for the concept that whatever resources employers put into their employees, they will eventually be able to reap—similar to the way that payment of a mortgage creates equity in a certain piece of property. The chief forms of equity that human resource departments are responsible for implementing according to this model include both socialization mechanisms for employees as well as training (Cardy & Lengnick-Hall, 2011, p. 214). Additionally, that equity is readily stratified into three categories, the most important of which is likely value equity. This form of equity is based on the notion that the labor employees put into a particular occupation will be reciprocated in terms of the value gleaned from benefits furnished by the organization (Cardy & Lengnick-Hall, 2011, p. 214). What’s notable about this fact is it indicates the worth of conventional benefits packages supplied by human resource departments in employee retention. Those benefits include factors such as healthcare, vacation time, retirement packages, and competitive compensation packages in terms of salary. The tenet of social exchange theory is a well researched foundation for the merit of value equity in retaining employees (Shore et al, 2004, p. 292); employees tend to desire to prolong relationships with organizations which are providing these tangible benefits commensurate to the efforts the employees are making on a daily basis.
In addition to brand equity, which was alluded to earlier in this research paper, the other two forms of equity also include retention equity. This form of equity is perhaps even more direct than value equity, although value equity is implicit in its functionality. Demonstrations of this type of equity involve factors such as promotions, career advancements, career latitude (including perks such as working from home or traveling to desirable locations to perform work) (Cardy & Lengnick-Hall, 2011, p. 215) and other means of acceding to the desires of employees. There is a direct correlation between the ability of organizations—as largely actuated throughout their human resource departments—to meet the desires of employees and the prolongation of that employee within that organization’s service.
Overall, these different techniques for managing and measuring employee retention are based on empirical research proving their efficacy in improving employee retention. By utilizing them, companies can retain their talent and ideally attract more talent. These measures are based on employee equity, branding, and value alignment between organizations and their laborers
References
Cardy, R.L., Lengnick-Hall, M.L. (2011). Will they stay or will they go? Exploring a customer-oriented approach to employee retention. Journal of Business Psychology. 26, 213-17.
Cascio, W.F. (2014). Leveraging employer branding, performance management, and human resource development to enhance employee retention. Human Resource Development International. 17(2), 121-128.
Presbitero, A. Roxas, B., Chadee, D. (2016). Looking beyond HRM practices in enhancing employee retention in BPOs: focus on employee-organisation value fit. The International Journal of Human Resource Management. 27(6), 635-652.
Shore, L., Tetrick, L., Taylor, S., Coyle-Shapiro, J., Liden, R., McLean Parks, J., et al. (2004). The employee-organization relationship: A timely concept in a period of transition. Research in Personnel and Human Resource Management, 23, 291–370.