Sunday, August 26, 2012

Is Appraisal the key for retention ?



Employee retention is considered to be very important for the Human Resource managers in almost all the companies across the world. Employees will never try to stay in a single organisation for many years even they have many appraisals and rewards. I can never remember my friend's and colleagues’ working place even though I ask them several times as they change frequently to many companies having reasonably good offers in all the companies. They prefer shifting companies than staying in the same organisation prior appraisals. So this made me more interesting to study about why people shift companies more frequently? What are the key factors made them to shift?  




Companies across the world always look to earn profits and get revenues and only concerned about shares and business and never consider the "Human Factor" which is one of the main resources. But there are few companies where they consider "Human Factor" as the main resource to the company with their other resources. They consider employees' as their bench strength for their productivity and profits. Do you think we should listen to all employees and fulfill their all "wants"? Will these "wants" ever end? Does "wants" of each employee be the same? Will every employee be satisfied with the same solutions? There are few companies where they have cracked all these questions with suitable answers. Let me give you in brief about those companies who have done this and still doing this. 

One big question stroked me- "Do industry matters a lot for employee retention?" This found little tricky to get an answer. Are service industries more concerned with "Human Factor" than manufacturing industries? Yes service industry is more bound to human resources than manufacturing industries. But even in service industry; many companies neglect human resource development and employee empowerment and motivation of the employee. They think that monitory benefits can only fulfill human needs which may not be true in all the cases when service industry is concerned. There may be many factors that might influence the employee to retain in the same company. You will be shocked to hear that employee attrition is more in a service industry than in a manufacturing industry. Do you think that service industry is concerned about "Human Factor" than a manufacturing industry? If so why is this attrition more here? What is manufacturing industries doing in their firms to retain employees so long? What benefits that the employees are getting that a service industry is lacking? What is that gap between employees and a firm that service industry is lacking? 

The gap between employees and the management of the company will be there always that can never be closed. Management of both service and manufacturing sectors has equal concentration on employees as human resource is one of the main resources to all the firms. But gaps are almost the same in both the sectors. It also depends on the "Company culture" which makes an employee doesn't suit the roles in his organisation.  Company has its own policies and culture to keep it uniform and maintain discipline in the organisation. This creates a "Gap" between management and the employees in every company. Service sectors are very strict when rules and deadlines are concerned than a manufacturing industry even though they have deadlines. 

So why this “Gap” does arises in every organisation? Does Corporate culture makes them feel pressure and irritated? Maintaining corporate culture, company discipline is main factor for attrition? Many companies won't prefer things to be on employees’ way as they think that they lose control over employees and affects Company’s culture. Do company's culture very much important than retention? Do companies have a flexible Company's culture? So is that flexibility should be defined? Corporate culture is very important for every company to maintain uniformity and discipline in every organisation. It’s still a tough challenge with the company's management to fulfill every employee "wants" and makes everybody satisfied with the work and the work environment also work culture. Every employee has the sacrifice one thing to gain something. The gap is very difficult to solve but companies can minimize that to some extent which makes employee retain. Corporate culture is always inversely proportional to satisfy employee wants. Having a corporate culture is not bad but being flexible will be better. Culture is important for every employee to be together and work together and to maintain discipline in your work. To retain employees every company can have a flexible work culture which makes employee feel better. Management can never satisfy every employee needs and requirements as every employee will have different issues and different concerns. 

Building pressure on employees can also cause attrition. Pressure on employee can happen even with the work culture or anything else. There are many companies that they have fired an employee because of their poor performance even that employee could perform. Employee performance can affect with the work environment and work culture. Performing his job would feel more pressure and irritated which intern leads to employee attrition searching for a new role in different company. Work irritation also makes people change job frequently. This reduces a person's performance and which induce the company to make the person to quit.

Human mentality is always different with time as well as with person. Humans always try to understand others than understanding themselves. Human behavior can never be same but can be similar but that can never be expected in your work culture. Humans have tendency to adjust with the nature and environment but he needs space and time to breathe. Every corporate expects every new employee adjust with their corporate culture very soon. But it takes time for all to adjust even the person is so lively. Even employees don't realize that this will have a different environment and expect the same culture which makes them to quit the job. This happens as the company expects employee to follow the company culture very soon and employee thinks that he is in a wrong place.  


There are few service based industries that have considered the "Human Factor" as the key to success which made them stand on top. As mentioned earlier there are few companies where they have minimized the gap between the management and the employee and tried to satisfy every employee and retained. The top best companies where they have maintained company culture which satisfied the employees working in the company are:


1. Google
2. Makemytrip
3. American Express
4. Marriot Hotels
5. Intuit Technology
6. NIIT
(Source : Economic Times ) 

These companies have excelled in service industries and are among the top 10 best companies to work in India. They have their own policies and culture but they could make employees to be satisfied and happy to work and made employees to retain in the same company. This says that appraisals are not only a key factor to make an employee retain, there are many factors that are to be considered. Human resource is a very vital resource for any company irrespective of industries. Appraisals should be done periodically but that really won't affect employee retention.

And finally a quick question that stroked my mind, after seeing the list of companies was - 


"Do Brand really matters for employee retention?"




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