Human Resources for Today

Attracting and Retaining Employees
Wonder: Pose a question that you would like to explore about the theme or topic. 
The wonder process of this assignment is predicated on the following question. As an Atlantic based broker engaged in national expansion and significant internal changes, this company is struggling with employee retention and attracting new employees. Thus, the premier question is how exactly is the organization expected to keep the team motivated, reduce the mass exodus including the loss of eight employees in the last six months, and find good people to join the organization? The most important aspect of this question is that there are a number of facets in it that are implicit to providing a succinct answer comprehensive enough to positively affect this organization. Specifically, attracting new employees calls for different measures needed than those for retaining employees, although there is a fair amount of correlation between these two areas. The issue of motivation is central (and implicit) to both of these areas because motivated employees will both want to join as well as remain at an organization which is treating them advantageously.
It is important to realize that the domain of human resources largely exists to answer these questions and to facilitate what are actually needs which are important to the long term propagation of every organization. There are specific human resource strategies which can help to provide stability (1) in these three areas. The material reviewed in this course helps to elucidate which aspects of those strategies might be most relevant as they apply to the organization in question. For instance, compensation packages can play a fundamental role in maintaining motivation, attracting new employees, and keeping them there. However, there are also diverse other facets of human nature which can play a role in positively impacting the three areas of improvement which this particular insurance brokerage firm seeks. One of the factors which can correlate to maintaining employees is policy for continuity when employees leave. Organizations need an orderly means of dividing up the responsibilities and job functions among the remaining employees, until there is a suitable replacement. Similar concerns exist for technological applications and their utility for underpinning organizational processes. There are concerns for implementing legacy technologies with newer ones, or for simply integrating new technologies into the organizations. Also, key elements related to attracting and retaining employees relate to training mechanisms and suitably preparing employees for the challenges they face. Additionally, it is necessary to determine how vital each of these factors are for sustaining the overall motivation of employees. Compensation packages, for instance, might present certain forms of motivation that are influential for retaining or attracting employees than have desirable training methods, for instance. It is important to identify the correlation between these aspects of human nature and their effects on motivating, attracting, and maintaining employees.
Research: Consider how the course content could help you to develop a solution or• understand your question better.
The course content provides a substantial amount of aid in developing a solution to the question denoted in the wonder section. Furthermore, it offers assistance for understanding some of the implications discussed at the end of that section. One of the most valuable aspects of attracting employees pertains to knowing which ones to attract to contribute to the organization. As previously indicated, the conventional menas of attracting employees is by offering generous compensation and benefits packages—which are somewhat limited in the amount of resources organizations have to devote to this activity. Moreover, traditional means of recruiting employees, which is not necessarily the same as attracting them, involve placing ads on web sites such as Indeed or Monster.com
However, a fairly robust way to genuinely attract employees is by providing a referral program for current employees. This way, those working for the organization can leverage their contacts and field experience to handle some of the recruitment process by soliciting talented people to come work for their company. It is beneficial to formalize this process as much as possible by having standard overviews of the agency, its benefits, its history, and other points of attraction for additional employees (2). Current employees, then should know this material and also gain some form of compensation for referring competent job prospects.
Nonetheless, the research for this tactic for attracting employees reveals a crucial factor for the attraction of employees. Organizations themselves must organize their own histories, benefits, perks, and ‘selling points’ to enable job prospects to want to work for them. Perhaps what is most significant about this knowledge is that it is applicable to both the attracting and retention process of keeping employees motivated to apply and continue working for a company. Those selling points should involve factors which make the organization unique, fun, competitive, and with a positive future. Thus, organizations should identify features which can help to satisfy employees beyond their benefits packages and salaries. These include formulating activities for after work and perhaps even during work hours such as Christmas galas, happy hours, complementary food and beverages, etc. The purpose of these activities—as well as the fundamental principle behind the notion of attracting employees and even retaining them—is creating an environment which is productive, enjoyable, and indicative of the organization’s overall progress. There is no circumscription to the ways of achieving this objective, whether that involves enabling employees to work in their pajamas or some other unconventional measure. Organizations should adopt a motif for doing so representative of their company cultures.
Evaluate: Think critically about what you have read and/or have learned about the topic.
One of the foremost factors in the research gained from taking this course regarding attracting, maintaining, and motivating employees to work for an organization is related to the overall organizational milieu. In this sense, the environment (3) in which an organization operates and how it operates transcends the basic necessities of offering competitive salaries and benefits. This notion of milieu actually consists of a host of intangibles which, when aligned with a companies culture, makes a workplace desirable for its employees. The benefits other than vacation time and health insurance options are what will ultimately retain employees. Furthermore, there is the notion of job satisfaction which underpins the entire tenet of employee motivation. Employees are satisfied with their jobs when they know that they are upwardly mobile, engaging, and fulfilling their needs both as workers and as humans. Thus, it is invaluable to have streamlined processes for attracting, training, and enabling employees to do their jobs effectively. Similarly, it is necessary to give employees the technological support—from the most mundane aspects of IT related to data integration and access to front end means of retrieving data—to empower them to perform their work suitably. Research indicates that training is a definite factor involved with the overall satisfaction employees have with their work environments (4).
The reality is that there are many within the insurance vertical who leave an organization only to work at another within this same industry (5). This fact not only makes retention more difficult, but also makes it even more competitive among organizations. It is always a bonus to not only hire qualified personnel, but also qualified personnel with previous experience in the insurance industry. In this respect, the rigors of employee retention probably supersede those of initially attracting qualified employees, because the former have the sort of experience which is an integral part of increasing efficiency and reducing time spent learning a position. Again, the implications of this reality are simply that it is necessary to determine how to create stimulating environments for employees. To this end, it is important to relate such an environment to not only motivating employees to apply and continue working an organization, but also to overall organizational success. Whether or not employees are working for eminent organizations or those with proven track records of success is another pivotal factor for attracting and keeping them. Thus, there is something of a virtual dichotomy in which not only are talented individuals required to help an organization achieve its business objectives propitiously, but that attaining those objectives also factors into how much employees want to work for such an organization.
Apply what you learn to your own organizational or professional experience.
My professional experience largely adheres with the findings of this document. The organization for which I work is competitive in terms of its compensation. Nevertheless, it has experienced a significant amount of employee turnover this year. After gleaning some of the more salient points of the readings in this course, it becomes clear that a good part of that rate of turnover is attributed to a less than satisfactory work environment. A large amount of attracting, retaining, and motivating employees to work at a company involves making it an enjoyable place to work. However, implicit in making a place desirable for employees is having smooth operational processes. My organization was lacking in its succession capabilities—both in the instances in which employees left or when there was new technology augmenting or replacing legacy technological methods. The resultant disorder, disproportionate work loads, and overall tenuous nature of the work environment did not contribute to it, but rather detracted from it. Human resources is certainly responsible for streamlining such processes and adequately preparing the organization for different people to work in different roles. Still, this facet of human resources is the most important one my organization needs to improve in order to satisfy employees. Once that satisfaction is derived, the overall work environment will become much more desirable. This in turn will make it more adept at attracting, retaining, and motivating employees to work at this insurance brokerage firm. The importance of succession in contributing to such an environment should not be underestimated, because it can undermine even the most attractive compensation packages if that environment is stressful.
Bibliography 

Clawson, J. G. (2012). Level Three Leadership. (S. Yagan, Ed.) Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, United States of America: Prentice Hall. Chapter 23 - Human Resources Management Systems
Crutcher, Gordon, et al. F520 Leading in the Insurance World. The Insurance Institute of Canada, 2012
Cunningham, Sharon. “Attracting and Retaining Employees in a Competitive World.” (2002).
Berris, Michael, Jackson, Vanessa. “The Art of Retaining Employees.” (2008).
The Insurance Institute of Canada. “Slim Pickings How to Deal with the Diminishing Supply of Top Talent.” Top Broker. (2012).
End Notes
Clawson, J. G. Level Three Leadership. 8-3.
Cunningham, Sharon. “Attracting and Retaining Employees in a Competitive World.” Berris, Michael, Jackson, Vanessa. “The Art of Retaining Employees.” 8-27.
Berris, Michael, Jackson, Vanessa. “The Art of Retaining Employees.” 8-28.
The Insurance Institute of Canada. “Slim Pickings How to Deal with the Diminishing Supply of Top Talent.” 8-41.