Recruitment and Orientation
A review of the Human Resource literature seems to confirm that good retention is about
more than what a company does once an employee has been hired and established within
an organization. How companies recruit and how they provide orientation in the first days
on the job can be of crucial importance to keeping workers over the longer term. Failure
to effectively recruit and orient employees may impose significant separation and
replacement costs down the road. Jackofsky, (1984) attributes 60% of undesirable
turnover to bad hiring decisions on the part of the employer. “Bad hiring decisions” may
cover a number of considerations, including overly hasty selection processes that fail to
ensure that the job candidate really has the adequate skills and qualifications to do the job
for which she or he is hired.
Good employee retention is in part a result of a good “fit” between a company’s
workplace culture, its way of doing business and the qualities that it espouses as valuable
and the interests, character, and motivations of the individuals that exist within it. In
terms of recruitment, companies should therefore put an emphasis on not only evaluating
formal qualifications, job-relevant technical ability, etc., but also more general types of
qualifications and dispositions on the part of the recruit. Staw (1980) suggests that
allowing both parties to the employment contract to make informed decisions can help to
ensure that the right hiring decision is made. Of course, the underlying assumption in the
literature is that the cost of recruitment will more than compensate for the costs
associated with unwanted turnover; naturally each company must also engage in making
such calculations. Many companies place great trust in candidates referred to them by
members of their own firm, and some even support this process by awarding bonuses to
employees who refer a candidate who eventually gets hired by the company Milman,
(2003). While less formal in nature, employee referrals seem to accomplish both of the
objectives just described. The employee who provides the referral is able to provide the
candidate with a realistic preview of what it’s like to work in the company based on
personal experience and observation (Williams & Livingstone, 1994).
Finally, providing a good initial orientation to the newly-hired employee can not only
help to effectively integrate that person into the workplace but can also help to make the
new person feel welcome and provide him or her information about how to cope with the
demands of the workplace, and any possible problems that may arise. These can be
important elements of the socialization process, and some companies spend two weeks or
more on orientation, during which they provide information about the company, its
values, structure, goals, objectives, clients, customs, and history (Foundation for
Enterprise Development, 1994).
Supervisor Support
Ontario, (2004) stated “the supervisor support is so essential to retention that it can be
said that employees leave bosses, not jobs” (Madiha et al., 2009). Association between
workers and the boss is a significant factor that influences the employee retention as
supervisors are the “human face” of the organizations. Employee’s relationship with a
supervisor strongly affects the employee’s opinion about the organization (Eisenberger
and associates, 1990). Supervisor’s support is an essential factor to change the worker’s
propensity to quit and create high involvement in job by establishing strong relationship
and free interaction with the supervisor (Mahal, 2012).
After a two year survey of more than three thousand employees in different job functions
and industries demonstrated that manager, bosses and team leaders or who direct and
work together with workers have a large influence on the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of
employees with their jobs. Or briefly, it can be said that employees look for other
opportunities elsewhere as a consequence of “problems with the boss”. Issues that exert
or force the satisfaction and commitment in employees are mostly under the charge of
manager, supervisor or the team leader (Kaye & Evans, 2003).
Employee development programs cannot exist without a culture that supports them. Any
effective program must have strong support from people in senior management positions,
and these people must also serve as positive role models to subordinates (Zenger, Ulrich,
Smallwood, 2000). Managers and supervisors take on a new role when an organization
gets into the business of employee development. They must become coaches to help
people manage their careers and support their development efforts. Managers at Sears
actually go through a workshop called “Managing Career Development” to prepare them
to work with employees under their career planning system (O’Herron and Simonsen,
1995). Coaching employees is valuable in helping them meet their goals, but it is also
important for managers to simply show that they care. It is an intangible incentive that
can make a big difference in employee motivation (Moses, 2000).
Work Environment
Although learning and growing opportunities seems to be significant for the employee
retention (Arnold, 2005), an organization needs to develop a supportive learning and
challenging work environment. It generally relates with the climate where employees can
learn and perform. Particularly, support and aspiration at work, stress of work, degree of
empowerment and the responsibility that workers acknowledge, alternatives in the job
tasks and development, stipulation of challenging and significantly meaningful work and
developmental opportunities, are the other concepts that describes the term working
environment (Natalie et al., 2011).
The concept “learning and working climate” is derived from previous research (Abrams
et al., 2008 etc). In general it refers to the environment wherein employees both learn and
work. More specifically, the concept could be described by referring to: guidance and
appreciation at work; pressure of work; the amount of empowerment and the
responsibility that employees experience; choice in job tasks and development; provision
of challenging and meaningful work; and advancement and development opportunities.
Results from previous research show that the appreciative approach, operationalised
through an appreciative learning and working climate, positively influences employee
retention (Abrams et al., 2008; Christiaensen et al., 2009; Van Hamme, 2009; Visser,
2001; Verheijen and Dewulf, 2004). Employees get stressed form the bosses who control
excessively with attention or did not delegated properly. Some employees feel satisfied
by taking other’s works responsibility on themselves and even more pleased in getting
and achieving those challenges in the job. It makes the employees feel more pride in their
achievements and is more excited in their work (Kaye & Evans, 2003).
REFERENCES
Abelson, M. & Baysinger, B. (1984). Optimal and dysfunctional turnover: Towards an
organizational level model. Academy of Management Review, 9: 331-341.
Agrela, R., Carr, R., Dunn, c., Ellis, D., Gandolfi, A., Gresham, B., King, L. , Sims, A., &
Troutman, (2008). Retention issues and solutions: tools to ensure University of
California becomes an employer of choice.
Allen, D.G., & Griffeth, R.W. (2001). Test of a mediated performance-turnover
relationship highlighting the moderating roles of visibility and reward
contingency. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 1011-1021.
Aquino, K., Griffeth, R.W., Allen, D.G., Hom, P.W. (1997). Integrating justice constructs
into the turnover process: A test of a referent cognitions model. Academy of
Management Journal, 40, 1208-1227.
Baker, D. (2007). Strategic Change Management in Public Sector Organisations.
Oxford , Chandos Publishing.
Borg, W. R. & Gall, M. D. (1989). Education Research: An Introduction. 4th ed. New
York: Longman.
Boyens, M. (2007). Organizational socialization, career aspirations and turnover
Intentions among design engineers. Leadership and Organization Development
Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 26(6), 424-441
Branham, L. (2005). Planning to become an employer of choice. Journal of
Organizational Excellence, 24, 57-68.
Breaugh, James A., and Mary Starke. (2000) "Research on Employee Recruitment: So
Many Studies, So Many Remaining Questions." Journal of Management 305-434.
Charles, M. (2009). Employees’ retention in state corporations. Journal of management.
Vol 33.
Chew, J.C.L. (2004). The influence of Human Resource Management Practices on the
Retention of Core employees of Australian Organizations: An empirical study. A
published Master’s Thesis, Murdoch University.
Chiboiwa, M., Samuel, M., & Chipunza, C. (2010). An examination of employee retention
strategy in a private organisation in Zimbabwe. African Journal of Business
Management, 4(10), 2103-2109.
Cooper, E. (2007). Job Stickiness & Employee Retention Rate. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 92, 180-190.
Dalton, D. & Todor, W. 1979. Turnover turned over: An expanded and positive
perspective. Academy of Management Review, 4: 225-235.
Eisenberger, R., Stinglhamber, F., Vandenberghe, C., Sucharski, I., & Rhoades, L. (2002).
Perceived supervisor support: Contributions to perceived organizational support
and employee retention. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 565-573.
Eyster, L., Johnson, R. and Toder, E. (2008). Current strategies to employ & retain older
workers. [PDF document]. Retrieved from:
http://www.urban.orguploadedPDF/411626_0lderworkers.pdf.
Fitz-enz, J. (1997). It's costly to lose good employees. Workforce, 50, 50.
Fombrun, C. J., & Shanley, M. (1990). What’s in a name: Reputation-building and
corporate strategy. Academy of Management Journal, 33, 233-258.
Glebbeek, A., E. Bax. 2004. Is high employee turnover really harmful?An empirical test
using company records. Acad. Management J. 47(2) 277–286.
