Employee Retention Dilemma: Should We Focus on High Performers or Retain Everyone?

Hey all,

I am working on a project on Employee Retention Management. I need to know if employees are classified into different categories such as high performers and then retained by the organization or whether all the employees of an organization are retained as a whole. Please help me sort this out. Thanks.

Regards, JP

Hi Jyoti,

In a way, classifying employees as high performers and retaining them is in the best interest of the organization. However, the basic problem behind it is that if they are high performers, you cannot guarantee how long they will stay. Secondly, every now and then, you may not be able to meet their demands for salary hikes, facilities, etc.

I would suggest that it might be better if you do not categorize them. In general, many people believe that a company grows because of high performers only. However, one thing I deeply feel is that even if growth occurs due to high performers (who are highlighted), there are many sincere individuals who work for the organization despite not receiving significant salary hikes or additional facilities. Many people lack presentation skills.

Thank you.

Hey,

Thanks a lot, Santosh. That really helped. I was a bit confused because some say that high performers are more important, whereas some others feel that the organization should try to retain everyone unless the employee is really bad at what he or she does. Your inputs were valuable.

Thank you, SKakkar. The website does have a lot of information on retention. I am going to check them out and use them in my project if I have a query that the site answers.

Regards,
JP

Jyoti,

Employee retention is the most difficult function in HR. Employee classification is a must for every organization as organizations have their own policies in place. Everything for an organization has to be calculated on cost, which is one among the 4M's.

A Players constitute the top 15% of employees who are exceptionally doing well. B Players make up 65% of employees who are at par. C Players represent the last 20% who are stagnant resources for organizations.

Retention policy should be strong enough to retain the A Players, those who build and earn for the organization. Retention strategy can involve using the best and most flexible practices. Retention cannot always be based solely on monetary factors; there are various other aspects that can help the organization in developing an effective retention strategy.

Hey Veerendra,

Thank you very much for your input. That was a different perspective altogether, which I will be working on further. I understand that employees belonging to Group A need to be given more attention, but should retention strategies also be used for people in Group C (albeit at a lower level than those used for Group A employees)?

Regards,
JP

Hi Jyoti,

Everything and anything is looked upon as a cost to the company. Retaining C-class players is not at all a big deal. Keeping them, training them, development programs, performance measurement after the completion of training would be a big deal. If you want to really retain them, on the other hand, you should also take care of the cost the organization will incur by keeping C-class players in the team. The reason is that we need to provide timely training, monitor their performance after they finish their work. For this cycle to complete, it would definitely take up 90 days, which would result in a significant loss to the organization. Think twice before you act.

Veerendra

Dear Jyoti,

I absolutely agree with Veerendra that for the company, everything is counted in terms of money. Here, I would like to add one thing: for retention, prior to considering performance, take the job into view as well. It is always the job first, then the job holder.

With the help of a job description (JD), you can pinpoint the criticality of each job, the required skill set for the job, the availability of the skill set in the market, the importance of one job over another, how easily it can be replaced, etc. Then, job holder performance comes into the picture.

If a job is critical and the required skill set is not available in the market, then even if the job holder is a mediocre performer, you would still want to retain them. Perhaps you will provide more training and counseling to enhance their performance, aiming to retain them.

Therefore, when formulating retention strategies, you cannot focus solely on performance.

Feel free to seek clarification.

Deepa

Hey Veerendra and Deepa,

Thanks a lot for clarifying my doubts. It really helped. I have used your inputs in my project and now have a clearer mind on how to deal with the retention of people belonging to different positions in the company.

Also, I have incorporated different strategies that can be adopted by a company to retain people in the organization. However, I haven't included how to calculate the attrition rate in the organization. I am aware that the general formula applied is the number of people who have left the company in a year divided by the total number of people in the company.

I understand that managing retention is a continuous process, and any company should not wait for attrition to occur to take action. In such a case, do you think it is mandatory for me to include how to calculate the attrition rate of the company? I am planning to use the title 'A Strategic Approach to Managing Retention.'

Please let me know what you think. Thanks a lot once again.

Regards,
JP

Hi Jyotipoojary,

I also like to work on the same project on Employee Retention Management but have not yet finalized it. I hope you have also collected some information on this. If you would like to forward it to me, it would be very nice of you. My email id is randhirsinha@yahoo.com.

With regards, RK Sinha

Hi Veerendra,

I just went through the discussion on Retention strategy; it was quite informative. I am heading the HR team in an IT company which currently consists of 40 people and has plans to expand to 100 by the end of this year.

We have implemented various motivational policies to retain employees, but it would be great if you could share some retention strategies with me to retain various categories of employees. Your insights would be of great help to me.

Looking forward to your response.

Regards,
Bhavna

Hi Jayoti,

In my opinion, based on knowledge and experience, employees' retention is greatly affected by Maslow's needs theory and market opportunities. Everyone wants to fulfill their needs. This dissatisfaction with their needs plays a significant role in employee retention within an organization. In addition to that, the organization's environment, working conditions, and mutual relations are also responsible for retention.

So, in the process of completing your project, keep in mind the points mentioned above.

Regards,
Devendra Sharma