Effective Employee Retention Strategies

Introduction

Employee retention is one of the common organisational strategies in terms of maintaining long term relationship with staffs. Employee performance is strongly associated with setting relevant and useful employee retention and performance improvement strategy. This study is going to discuss employee retention strategy that the new HR manager of given company, Open Market needs to use to deal with current issues of staff turnover. Additionally, the study will also demonstrate different conflict management approaches that is going to be implemented by this company to combat current conflict going on in the workplace. Finally, the study will also discuss that how Open Market can use effective performance appraisal and reward management strategies to improve its overall organisational framework.

Relevant employee retention strategies that Open Market can use:

Employee retention is one of the common goals of any organisation to keep highly skilled and talented employees and reduce the chances of their turnover by creating highly positive as well as supportive work culture in workplace (Leatherbarrow and Fletcher, 2014). The current organisational context, the given company, Open Market desperately needs to take highly relevant and innovative employee retention strategy to deal with current issue regarding huge turnover of young staffs.

Employer branding strategy:

Employer branding is another most important retention approach used by modern HR managers, in which the overall internal work culture of organisation is marketed in front of the job seekers smartly in terms of attracting highly skilled and talented candidates (Leatherbarrow and Fletcher, 2014). As per the current organizational context of this company in which it suffers from high turnover and lack of young staffs, the HR manager needs to use and implement employer branding strategy. Although some evidences have suggested that this process is little bit lengthy and costly, if implemented correctly, it can be highly effective for companies to attract talent pool. This strategy will allow Open Market to highlight the uniqueness of its internal organisational culture, such as good work practice, reasonable HR policies, supportive and positive work culture and high advantages for professional development of staffs.

Induction program:

On the other hand, the second strategy, the induction program is highly recommended for this company, that will allow both the employers and the newly appointed staffs to understand each other well. As mentioned by Biswal (2018), employee induction program is highly preferred retention strategies used by modern marketers in which newly recruited staffs can introduce them with their colleagues and managers and familiarise with the overall work process, organizational policies and working environment. Good induction program is highly important for newly hired candidates to form good impression and positive image about entire organisation on their mind.

Training and development:

The third strategy, training and development program is going to be highly effective employee-retention strategy for Open Market, as it will assist the company to provide career opportunities and professional as well as personal development advantages to each staff. Conducting training and development is highly preferred and effective employee retention strategy that can assist newly hired staffs to have the facility to develop the professional and personal skills through undergoing the training process (Narayanan, 2016). As the company currently faces issues regarding employee retention and high rate of turn over, through conducting highly organized and effective training and development program HR manager can enhance involvement of newly appointed staffs to meet organisational goals.

Rewards:

The fourth strategy reward is also going to be highly effective for Open market to make long term relationship with its employee by providing them proper tangent and intangible rewards that will motivate staffs to put their best effort to meet company targets. In case of tangible rewards this company can offer high incentives, bonus, salary hike and payoff. For intangible rewards, the Open Market can provide the staffs with positive work culture, supportive management team, highly reasonable HRM and employment policies and workplace safety.

Work life balance:

Work life balance is highly preferred employee retention strategy in current organisational culture, through which an employee gets facilities from workplace to maintain good balance between the work time allocated to that staff and the other basic needs of life (Alias et al. 2017). In this context, Open market needs to focus on providing blending of personal time and work time to each staff, such as coffee time and tiffin time that can provide certain relaxion to employees and reduce their work stress. HR manager of Open market needs to conduct flexible and liberal working process for staffs that can be helpful for them to work freely in that organisation. Additionally, Open Market can offer its employees to have weekly off, pay-off facility and carry forward facility of leaves, that will make the employee motivated towards their task. HR manager of Open Market can also conduct official picnics or celebration in each year for keeping staffs motivated and encouraged throughout the year.

Positive organisational culture and strong leadership:

Positive work culture and staff-oriented leadership styles in an organisation are highly important for maintaining proper employee retention framework (Fahim, 2018). The HR manager of Open Market needs to use democratic leadership strategy, in which company can involve all staffs into decision-making process, which will make the staffs to feel valued and respected. On the other hand, HR team of this company needs maintain positive and creative work culture in workplace that will assist employees to have opportunities in developing their professional and personal skills.

What is conflict management in organisation?

Conflict management is the process of determining, monitoring and dealing with disputes or issues in the workplace that allows an organisation to maintain positive and disciplined work environment (Rahim, 2017). There are several types of conflict management strategy or approach that recent marketers use to deal with organizational conflicts. The conflict management strategies are competing, accommodating, collaborating and compromising (Başoğul and Özgür, 2016). In case of the given company, Open Market, there is severe conflict among newly appointed young employees regarding the establishment as well as fulfilment of their individual goals instead of focusing on meeting common organisational goals. On the other hand, there is huge conflict between managers and newly appointed young staffs due to lack of well-organised and disciplined organizational framework, that interferes with commitment and integrity of entire workforces. In this context, HR manager of this company can use four above-mentioned conflict management strategies such as collaborating, accommodating, dominating and compromising.

Conflict management strategies that Open Market can use:

Accommodating:

The conflict among staffs can be managed and eliminated by using accommodating strategy, in which the company will focus on the needs of its staffs, their problems and issues rather than focusing only on own profit and benefits. As mentioned by Musah et al. (2017), accommodating is highly preferred conflict management process in modern business era, that assists an organisation to make a positive and synergistic workplace. In terms of implementing this strategy, the HR manager of Open Market needs to make clear interaction with the newly appointed staffs as well as existing staffs to understand their psychology, perception interest and preferences regarding their job. If correctly implemented this strategy is expected to be highly useful for this company to eliminate the unhealthy competition among young staffs and enhance the compatibility as well as commitment of each staff to their organisation.

Dominating:

As Open Market faces severe conflict due to indiscipline staffs, the HR manager needs to also use another important strategy, dominating. As mentioned by Caputo et al. (2018), although there are many criticisms regarding implementing organisational dominance over employees as it can pose adverse impact on work environment, in some cases the HR manager needs to use this strategy to maintain a well-disciplined workforce. Here the given company, Open Market currently face conflict regarding managing disciplines in newly appointed young staffs. This conflict can only be managed by implementing the organisational dominance on them to make it obligatory for them to obey as well as follow the organisational rules and regulation. In this context, the HR manager needs to set strict but fair as well as relevant HRM policies that would enhance the overall productivity of entire workforces and improves the overall work culture.

Collaborating:

Another important conflict management strategy the HR manager of Open Market can use is collaborating. As mentioned by Du et al. (2018), in this approach both the employers and employees agreed to cooperate but not at the expense of their basic needs. This strategy will assist this company to make a mutual understanding with new staffs in terms of getting proper support and cooperation from each other to meet their own goals. Her HR manager will determine the issues and needs of staffs and will meet those needs that will also benefit the entire organisations to meet its goals. For example, in case salary hike claimed by newly appointed staffs, the HR manager of Open Market will consider that whether the demanded salary will n affect the overall expenditure of the company and its profit margin. Then the company will make clear interaction with staffs to make certain level of mutualism that will benefit both employers and employees.

Compromising:

Compromising is another conflict management strategy that the HR manager of Open market can use only when the situation is beyond their capacity to handle it. In this aspect, the company needs to agree with demand and needs of staffs and avoid its own needs and interest.

Importance of performance appraisal, training and development and rewards strategy for managing performance of newly recruited employees?

Performance appraisal:

Performance appraisal is the systematic assessment of the overall performance and professional growth of employees (Idowu, 2017). As Open Market faces severe internal issues in the workplace such as poor discipline in newly recruited employees and prioritisation of individual goals rather than focusing on common company goals, the newly recruited HR manager needs to conduct a highly effective and systemic performance appraisal process. Through performance-appraisal, the HR manager of the company can not only evaluate the overall performance of newly recruited staffs but also discuss the strength and limitations of each staff. As mentioned by Islami et al. (2018), performance appraisal is widely used by today's employers in terms of motivating the workforce by paying them the justified salary and incentives based on the quality of their overall performance. Open Market can adopt this strategy to improve professional skills, technical knowledge and decision-making power of new talents who are recruited in the company to make them compatible as well as efficient in achieving the company goal to launch and run the entrepreneurial start-up successfully. On the contrary, Husain (2017) argued that, performance appraisal sometimes demotivates staffs who have poor performance throughout the year that makes them devoid of any financial reward, that can pose an adverse impact on overall workforces’ activity. In this context, HR manager of Open Market needs to ensure that performance appraisal would be highly effective for all newly recruited staffs that will not only focus on improving their performance stand but also keeping the staffs motivated throughout the year. In addition to this, through conducting performance appraisal process, the HR manager of Open Market can make group discussion of the overall company goals and contribution of newly recruited staffs to achieve these goals. This group discussion can develop strong relationships among newly recruited staffs, which can lead to a synergistic work process.

Training and development:

Training and development are highly recommended for newly recruited staffs of Open Market for not only developing overall performance, profession skills and ability but also educate them about the overall company vision, mission and organizational regulation. As stated by Fletcher et al. (2018), professional training and development can assist an organisation to develop both professional and personal skills of staffs which can assist them to follow organisational guidelines and company rules to maintain systematic and well-disciplined work environment. Through conducting highly effective and modern training and development process, the HR manager of Open Market can improve involvement of newly appointed staffs to their work. In addition to this, professional training and development process will also assist new staffs of Open market to develop their moral values and ethics that will make them understand the importance of synergistic work process, discipline and commitment in performance. Training and development process will assist HR manager to improve the perception and psychology of newly recruited staffs to improve their adaptability skill that will assist them to work in collaboration with different team members rather than establishing their passion for the personalized work experiences.

Employee rewards:

Reward system is another important organizational strategy the Open Market needs to adapt to motivate and encourage the newly recruited staffs towards achieving common company goals rather than prioritizing the individual goals. As mentioned by Taba (2018), there are two types of organizational rewards such as tangible and intangible rewards. In case of tangible rewards, the HR manager of Open Market would offer attractive salary hike, incentives, bonus and pay off to all the staffs. On the other hand, in case of intangible reward HR manager can offer workplace safety, highly organised workplace, positive as well as supportive work environment, creative work process, career opportunities, professional training and development, health insurance, healthy relationship between new and old staffs. These two types of rewards strategy, if correctly implemented in organisational framework of Open Market, it will assist this company to improve activities, performance and psychology of newly recruited staffs that will enhance their interest in common organizational goals, collaborative work culture and shared vision.

Conclusion:

From the overall discussion it can be concluded that, employee’s retention is process of keeping staffs in an organisation for long time by setting effective strategies for meeting their basic needs. Employee retention is strongly associated with performance improvement and employee motivation in an organisation. Through conflict management process, organisation can manage and eliminate chances of any conflict among staffs and maintain long term relationship with staffs.

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