Employee Retention Dilemma: Are We Tricking Workers or Offering Real Opportunities?

Hi Friends,

I am putting across the board a simple but worrisome question! How do you want to retain your employees? If yes, how long? Are you equipped with the requirements for retaining your employees?

Just for the information's sake, an organization opened a new factory in Bangalore recently with a lot of fanfare! Our ex-Prime Minister inaugurated the facility. Even before the official inauguration of the factory, a lot of people wait outside the gate for employment with applications in hand. After the inauguration, there is literally chaos there in front of the factory! The complete road was blocked, and no vehicle can move on that road! Later, all of a sudden, there was a scarce mob outside the gate! Enquired why? To retain the workers, the management is asking to sign a bond to serve the organization for 3 years! Also, to attract the workers, they announced a big figure as salary. But you have to work for 10 hours instead of 8 hours! Are we trying to retain the people by hoodwinking them?

The industry is an Apparel Industry. What do you feel? Is this the way to retain the employees? Can't we, as HR guys, think of any other way?

The question is mine, yours... everybody's!! The answer is yours!

Please participate in the discussion.

- Srinaren

Hello Narendra Sir,

Diwali Mubarak.

Today I am free, so I am participating in your debate topic.

It's a simple question and answer here. I myself raised a question in the 2nd meeting about how to retain employees for a minimum of 3 years.

For your information, it is not a difficult task to retain employees for a minimum of 3 years. We are supposed to analyze the organization's needs and the employees' needs. We act as a bridge. If the bridge is strong, anybody will cross the river without fear. I have some ideas, but they may seem against human nature. Personally, I adopted my idea when I was working with Coca-Cola in Bhopal. I was there for 2.5 years as a labor officer and I handled all contractual workforce. If I, a less experienced person, could retain the contractual workforce for 2.5 years during my work tenure by implementing my idea, anybody can retain employees for a minimum of 3 years. But when I raised my question in the meeting, everybody started giving examples of Infosys. However, I do not agree with that. We have the competence to retain employees for a minimum of 3 years if we genuinely work for the organization.

In my dictionary, there are two words as below:

1) NAUKARI

2) JOB

Can anyone define the difference between these two words?

I am waiting for a reply.

Regards,

Sidheshwar

Hi,

This is the hot topic everywhere. Even companies that had a lifetime employment concept are under threat from the environment, perhaps even from other countries.

One may recall that the Middle East used to be an attractive migration point for a long time, now it's everywhere, thanks to the knowledge industry and India's dominant position.

With India's GDP climbing up and our industries' captains taking over (Sundaram Fasteners, Bharat Forge, Tatas, Mittals, Jindals) industries across the globe, we are likely to witness a new level of talent requirement for these changing canvases.

We need to instill value-based management, which is a long-term one.

Employees work for the organization. You need to create a culture of trust, fairness, dignity, and employee-centric. There are no standard textbooks, rules available for this; it is evolved over years with careful nurturing.

The top management should visibly and actively be involved in this culture-building exercise; otherwise, it is only good intentions talked all around.

Visit the leaders of your industry and pick up threads from them, which will give a right direction and steps.

HR managers need to take this crucial role and should be the conscious keeper of the organization. For that, they themselves should stay in that company longer. 😊

I am one of those who grew with the organization, and it's a great feeling to be an active player in employee fostering and development.

Retention strategy can't be a separate, isolated action. It needs to be dovetailed with fundamental issues as man does not live by bread alone.

Ravichandar M V 😊

Hi Ravi,

Kudos to your narration. Yeah, I do strongly feel that to know the ups and downs in one's life, one needs to struggle in the initial stages of organizational development. Self-development will be phenomenal once the organization starts growing. Retention needs no specific strategies as long as the management views employees as its family.

Regards,
Srinivaskvmk

By getting a job at Naukri, you become a servant (sort of slave). By getting a job, you become an employee (sort of servant).

Please let me know if you need further assistance.

Hi, this is Bhaskar.

Retaining employees is a difficult task in all industries such as software, manufacturing, and apparel. The method used to retain employees by bonding with the written declaration is not the right way.

My suggestion is that, in the apparel industry, people know how their work will be under huge pressure or at the cutting edge. Hence, instead of taking a declaration, select candidates who have family commitments, usually married individuals. Provide facilities such as space to have lunch, and offer refreshments like coffee or tea, maybe once by 5.00 pm, that the management is budgeted to provide.

Furthermore, a company should develop empathy in employees towards the organization. Just moving to a meeting will add value once back.

Hi friends, please also comment on my suggestion or add value to this.

Goodbye! 😛

Hi Bhaskar,

I have to say that I agree and disagree with your comment.

I agree with not having a bond and things like that which would make the employees feel doubtful about the company policies.

I disagree with your comment that we need to employ people who are committed to being married. This is not justified. HR people need to search for people with knowledge and skills to do the work and not search for people who are married.

Nowadays, we have the young force brigade who are single and capable to work with efficiency. If the company puts trust and confidence in them, it's important for us HR people to understand the needs of these star employees in our company and try to nurture their needs in sync with the organization's goals.

We don't need to have 100% retention; we need some attrition so that new fresh talent can come into the organization and bring a freshness in terms of concepts and ideas.

I did my project in a manufacturing firm, and my project was to devise a retention strategy for the company.

So here, I have given a gist of my thoughts. Any more comments and suggestions will be great.

Regards,

Vikram

Hi Vikram,

As this is the apparel industry, the main employment will be types of tailors, sewers, threaders, etc., so I justed for a married person or family commitment. Also, I agree with your comment on the new pool of talents, but the retention strategy will differ from industry to industry and the environment provided in the company.

I think when we hire an employee we always want him/her to stick around at least for more than 2 years or so. Mainly because having to hire employees frequently to fill a position is time consuming as well as costly for an organization. This also can be harmful to the image of an organization.

So hiring long lasting employees should be planned and maintained. Even though this can't be accurate all the time if a company succeeds on having a low employee turn over it can be a huge boosting factor for their growth as well.

In my view the employees should be satisfied with their job, pay, work environments, benefits, superiors & subordinates to be retained for longer periods. More over employees feel motivated when they are supported by the management for their personal growth and the management should understand that the personal growth of the employee affects the organizational goals.

All in all Managers' should make sure their employee dissatisfaction is always maintained in a minimal level. A high level of dissatisfaction is the main cause as I see, to switch jobs.

Managers should understand not only monetary rewards but also non monetary rewards such as appreciation, recognition, self importance motivates employees in a high degree

Hi,

Although it seemed impossible to retain your employees, in my opinion, if you rely on two factors which are listed below, then you might get results out of it. These factors are:

- Performance appraisals
- Training and Development (T&D)

These factors might seem to you as bookish or boring, but results show that these factors play a vital role in retaining employees, considering the high level of competition in the market.

If you have any further questions or need more information, feel free to ask.

Thank you.

Hi Friends,

Until a decade-and-a-half ago, our economy was closed. Employees did not have many options. Even CEOs' salaries were regulated by the GOI under the Companies Act, 1956. Even to pay the CEO a salary of Rs. 7500 per month, companies were required to go to the government for approval. Today, the scenario has totally changed. All meaningless corporate and economic regulations were dismantled. With the entry of tens of MNCs in India and the emergence of many Indian companies as MNCs, a whole world of career opportunities has opened up for knowledge workers. I do not find anything wrong if a capable employee can find better employment and opts for it. Why not seize this opportunity and make hay? It is the job of companies to create conditions for their continuation.

The question is, if you want a really knowledgeable and capable person to continue in your organization and contribute to your growth, how do you handle him/her? How do you make him/her own the enterprise? How many learning opportunities do you provide? How do you enable him/her to grow in the organization? How do you treat him/her fairly? How do you treat his/her meaningful suggestions and advice? How do you secure a rewarding career for him/her and treat him/her like a partner in your enterprise? These are crucial factors that will decide whether a truly knowledgeable and performing individual will stay and continue in the organization. Although attrition is a multi-headed monster afflicting every organization, including the best ones, if the organization follows the policies spelled out above scrupulously, the attrition problem will be far less than that of organizations without these employee-centric policies.

Finally, beware employers! Today is the age of knowledge. Every person with real knowledge can write his/her own salary check! They do not bother whether their opportunity is here, there, or elsewhere!

R. Sundararajan

Chennai