Dear All,
I would like to share some retentions initiatives taken by companies:
INCREASING THE ORGANISATION'S LEVEL OF PROFESSIONALISM.
Employees leave companies where intra-organisational interactions are unstructured, and decisions, ad-hoc and driven more by personal prejudice rather than professional consideration. By adopting systems that introduce an element of objectivity into its internal operations, a company can create a better workplace.
MOVING FROM FAMILY TO PROFESSIONAL MANAGEMENT.
In most family-managed organisations, professional managers leave because they cannot see themselves holding key positions, or functioning with the level of independence that their designations merit. By inducting professionals into senior management positions, a company can lower its attrition-rate.
MAKING PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS OBJECTIVE.
Employees like to know how, when, and by whom their performance is going to be measured. An appraisal process that lists objective and measurable criteria for performance appraisal removes the uncertainty in the minds of employees that their superiors can rate their performance any which way they please.
INVOLVING EMPLOYEES IN THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS.
People like to work in organisations where their opinions count. The higher an employee's involvement in decision-making, the higher the organisation's retention-level. A participative decision-making process is good; total empowerment, better.
ENSURING A MATCH BETWEEN AUTHORITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY.
Most companies fall into the trap of holding an employee accountable for a specific activity without empowering her with the authority to perform it well. Often, the situation is exacerbated by the fact that they vest another employee with the same authority, but do not hold him accountable!
MEASURING EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION.
Obsessed with catering to the demands of their external customers, companies ignore their internal customers. Periodic employee satisfaction surveys can highlight the potential flash-points, and enable the company to take corrective action.
ACHIEVING A MATCH BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANISATIONAL GOALS.
Many companies fall into the trap of expecting their employees to subsume their individual objectives before the organisational one. Which forces employees to leave. The best companies achieve a balance between the two.
DESIGNING A COMPETITIVE COMPENSATION PACKAGE.
Money isn't a motivator, but it is an effective de-motivator. While organisations that pay best-in-industry salaries may find themselves unable to use that fact to motivate their employees, those that do not could find their best employees leaving.
INCREASING ORGANISATIONAL TRANSPARENCY.
People do not like to work in black-box like organisations, where information is rationed out on a need-to-know basis. They prefer a transparent organisation that is willing to share every aspect of its functioning with its employees.
PROMOTING EMPLOYEES FROM WITHIN.
A company that constantly fills vacancies by hiring from outside is certain to face retention problems. Employees who realise that they are unlikely to be promoted to fill the vacancies will leave the organisation. Growing your own is a sound retention strategy.
HELPING EMPLOYEES ACQUIRE NEW SKILLS.
As the job-profiles and desired skills-sets for a particular job change, companies may feel the need to hire employees with new skills, or retrain their existing employees. Companies that choose to do the latter will find it easier to retain their people since the training signals that the organisation values their contribution, and is willing to invest in upgrading their skills.
OFFERING STOCK OPTIONS.
ESOPs are a sign that the organisation recognises the role of the individual in its performance, and is willing to share the benefits with her.
FOCUSING ON WELFARE MEASURES.
Employees are not just warm bodies; they are individuals with families and lives of their own outside the workplace. Organisations that recognise this, and help employees achieve a better balance between life and work are likely to face fewer problems than those that do not.
Across industry-types, increasing the organisation's level of professionalism, instituting an objective performance appraisal system, and ensuring a match between responsibility and authority are the 3 most-used techniques to improve retention. In addition, infotech companies focus their efforts on 3 more techniques: increasing employee satisfaction, designing competitive compensation-packages, and involving employees in decision-making.
Hi-tech companies differ from other industries in one other aspect. Most manufacturing, marketing, and services companies are not able to achieve the desired level of performance along any of the retention techniques they adopted, but infotech and telecom companies exceed the desired level. High potential attrition-rates, and the growing demand for trained infotech professionals is, evidently, a motivation enough for companies operating in this sector to focus on retention management.
BEST PRACTICES.
The best companies focus on professionalisation, appraisal, employee satisfaction, and participative decision-making. However, their higher-than-average retention levels can be attributed to the way in which they go about these initiatives rather than the choice of initiatives themselves. So, the best companies set themselves stretch targets on each dimension, and then, try and better them.
Regards,
Sashmita
From India, Delhi
7I would like to share some retentions initiatives taken by companies:
INCREASING THE ORGANISATION'S LEVEL OF PROFESSIONALISM.
Employees leave companies where intra-organisational interactions are unstructured, and decisions, ad-hoc and driven more by personal prejudice rather than professional consideration. By adopting systems that introduce an element of objectivity into its internal operations, a company can create a better workplace.
MOVING FROM FAMILY TO PROFESSIONAL MANAGEMENT.
In most family-managed organisations, professional managers leave because they cannot see themselves holding key positions, or functioning with the level of independence that their designations merit. By inducting professionals into senior management positions, a company can lower its attrition-rate.
MAKING PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS OBJECTIVE.
Employees like to know how, when, and by whom their performance is going to be measured. An appraisal process that lists objective and measurable criteria for performance appraisal removes the uncertainty in the minds of employees that their superiors can rate their performance any which way they please.
INVOLVING EMPLOYEES IN THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS.
People like to work in organisations where their opinions count. The higher an employee's involvement in decision-making, the higher the organisation's retention-level. A participative decision-making process is good; total empowerment, better.
ENSURING A MATCH BETWEEN AUTHORITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY.
Most companies fall into the trap of holding an employee accountable for a specific activity without empowering her with the authority to perform it well. Often, the situation is exacerbated by the fact that they vest another employee with the same authority, but do not hold him accountable!
MEASURING EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION.
Obsessed with catering to the demands of their external customers, companies ignore their internal customers. Periodic employee satisfaction surveys can highlight the potential flash-points, and enable the company to take corrective action.
ACHIEVING A MATCH BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANISATIONAL GOALS.
Many companies fall into the trap of expecting their employees to subsume their individual objectives before the organisational one. Which forces employees to leave. The best companies achieve a balance between the two.
DESIGNING A COMPETITIVE COMPENSATION PACKAGE.
Money isn't a motivator, but it is an effective de-motivator. While organisations that pay best-in-industry salaries may find themselves unable to use that fact to motivate their employees, those that do not could find their best employees leaving.
INCREASING ORGANISATIONAL TRANSPARENCY.
People do not like to work in black-box like organisations, where information is rationed out on a need-to-know basis. They prefer a transparent organisation that is willing to share every aspect of its functioning with its employees.
PROMOTING EMPLOYEES FROM WITHIN.
A company that constantly fills vacancies by hiring from outside is certain to face retention problems. Employees who realise that they are unlikely to be promoted to fill the vacancies will leave the organisation. Growing your own is a sound retention strategy.
HELPING EMPLOYEES ACQUIRE NEW SKILLS.
As the job-profiles and desired skills-sets for a particular job change, companies may feel the need to hire employees with new skills, or retrain their existing employees. Companies that choose to do the latter will find it easier to retain their people since the training signals that the organisation values their contribution, and is willing to invest in upgrading their skills.
OFFERING STOCK OPTIONS.
ESOPs are a sign that the organisation recognises the role of the individual in its performance, and is willing to share the benefits with her.
FOCUSING ON WELFARE MEASURES.
Employees are not just warm bodies; they are individuals with families and lives of their own outside the workplace. Organisations that recognise this, and help employees achieve a better balance between life and work are likely to face fewer problems than those that do not.
Across industry-types, increasing the organisation's level of professionalism, instituting an objective performance appraisal system, and ensuring a match between responsibility and authority are the 3 most-used techniques to improve retention. In addition, infotech companies focus their efforts on 3 more techniques: increasing employee satisfaction, designing competitive compensation-packages, and involving employees in decision-making.
Hi-tech companies differ from other industries in one other aspect. Most manufacturing, marketing, and services companies are not able to achieve the desired level of performance along any of the retention techniques they adopted, but infotech and telecom companies exceed the desired level. High potential attrition-rates, and the growing demand for trained infotech professionals is, evidently, a motivation enough for companies operating in this sector to focus on retention management.
BEST PRACTICES.
The best companies focus on professionalisation, appraisal, employee satisfaction, and participative decision-making. However, their higher-than-average retention levels can be attributed to the way in which they go about these initiatives rather than the choice of initiatives themselves. So, the best companies set themselves stretch targets on each dimension, and then, try and better them.
Regards,
Sashmita
From India, Delhi
Dear Sashmitha,
You have analyzed the factors in a very good manner .
But involving employees in decission making process for a profitmaking
organization !! Whether it will result good ? and How much it is effective in
long run ?
Thanks
Regards
Tribikram
From India, Delhi
You have analyzed the factors in a very good manner .
But involving employees in decission making process for a profitmaking
organization !! Whether it will result good ? and How much it is effective in
long run ?
Thanks
Regards
Tribikram
From India, Delhi
The general principles of effective management can be applied in every field, the differences being more in application than in principle. The Manager's functions can be summed up as:
Forming a vision
Planning the strategy to realize the vision.
Cultivating the art of leadership.
Establishing institutional excellence.
Building an innovative organization.
Developing human resources.
Building teams and teamwork.
Delegation, motivation, and communication.
Reviewing performance and taking corrective steps when called for.
Thus, management is a process of aligning people and getting them committed to work for a common goal to the maximum social benefit - in search of excellence. Major functions of a manager are planning, organizing, leading and coordinating activities -- they put different emphasis and suggest different natures of activities in the following four major functions..
From India, Kochi
Forming a vision
Planning the strategy to realize the vision.
Cultivating the art of leadership.
Establishing institutional excellence.
Building an innovative organization.
Developing human resources.
Building teams and teamwork.
Delegation, motivation, and communication.
Reviewing performance and taking corrective steps when called for.
Thus, management is a process of aligning people and getting them committed to work for a common goal to the maximum social benefit - in search of excellence. Major functions of a manager are planning, organizing, leading and coordinating activities -- they put different emphasis and suggest different natures of activities in the following four major functions..
From India, Kochi
Dear Tribikram,
I believe you are aware about quality circle, good companies follow these concepts to overcome the problems that arise from root level.
And if a profit making organisation is not involving its employees in decision making, then the company's future is in stake.
And all the measures mentioned is what some of the organisations have started implementing it. As in today attrition is major hassle which HR dept has to face it.
As per your organisational need any of the mentioned measures can be applied, to bring down/ control the high attrition rate.
What say folks????????
Sashmita
From India, Delhi
I believe you are aware about quality circle, good companies follow these concepts to overcome the problems that arise from root level.
And if a profit making organisation is not involving its employees in decision making, then the company's future is in stake.
And all the measures mentioned is what some of the organisations have started implementing it. As in today attrition is major hassle which HR dept has to face it.
As per your organisational need any of the mentioned measures can be applied, to bring down/ control the high attrition rate.
What say folks????????
Sashmita
From India, Delhi
I am currently pursuing MBA and currently working on a summer project 'attrition and retention strategies'...
thanks a lot for the post...has helped me to get a better idea about the currently adopted retention strategies...
thanks
From India, Hubli
thanks a lot for the post...has helped me to get a better idea about the currently adopted retention strategies...
thanks
From India, Hubli
Dear Sashmita,
I agree with you. Today be it in manufacturing or services or hi tech, participative/consultative decision making is the key to success. As we move away from labour oriented/machine oriented towards hi technology sector, we need to communicate the organizations priority and visions to the last employee in the hierarchy. Involvement at all levels is the key, not only to profits but also to the other drivers like Innovation and employee engagement.
It definitely makes good business sense to have a participative culture.
Regards
Srivathsa
From India, Bangalore
I agree with you. Today be it in manufacturing or services or hi tech, participative/consultative decision making is the key to success. As we move away from labour oriented/machine oriented towards hi technology sector, we need to communicate the organizations priority and visions to the last employee in the hierarchy. Involvement at all levels is the key, not only to profits but also to the other drivers like Innovation and employee engagement.
It definitely makes good business sense to have a participative culture.
Regards
Srivathsa
From India, Bangalore
Dear All, Highly engaged employees are always best performers and can be retained. Hence, focussing on employee engagement levels is also a good retention strategy.
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Retention quest.doc
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