Frequent Turnover of Office Boys: How Can We Improve Training and Retention?

As you may be aware, there has been a frequent turnover of office boys in the organization in recent times, with changes occurring every 2-3 months. This constant turnover has made it challenging to effectively train them. In response to this issue, our Head has made the decision to provide repeated instructions on their routine work either weekly or fortnightly.

Consequently, our officer has put together a presentation outlining the routine duties of office boys, which I am sharing with you. I would appreciate your valuable input on how we can further enhance this initiative.

Best Regards,

This is definitely useful in a scenario where attrition is high. Good thinking! Considering the profile of the audience it is intended for, I would suggest using more pictures, as many as possible. Preferably, not more than five sentences on a slide. This may mean longer presentations, but it will ensure a quicker and better grasp of the contents. I think it would also be a good idea to have this bilingual—in English and the local vernacular—to aid understanding.

Regards,
Jayashree Sairam The Helping Hand

Thank you for the attachment; it seems to be a description for an office boy's job. The responsibilities appear to be quite demanding, and if I were in that role, I would consider resigning.

Best regards,
John

I am sorry to state that the presentation is prepared with a very high-intellect person as an office boy in mind—when it actually is not the case! The thing is that you have majorly listed what to do and what not to do for the office boys. However, it is nowhere mentioned how to do it. This is the major cause of conflict when it comes to attrition amongst the staff of the level of office boys.

Give it a thought—you have listed the problems to be avoided but not the process of how to avoid them—and that is critically important when your staff is not of high intellect. I am sure if you run this PowerPoint in front of your team of office boys, they will be least bothered. It will interest all the managers, not your target!

I suggest you have an outsourcing company handle your peon services. I feel the PPT is good for an Admin Officer and not for peons. You will need an Admin Officer to ensure they get what is required.

Suggestion

Limit your "Checklist" for Peons to a maximum of 3 pages. You can hand over the checklist to peons when they join.

Also, with such "Checklist/PPT," comes the employer's responsibility to train them and provide them with a proper working environment and tools for work balance, which are so important for them to perform as per your requirements.

Regards,
Ukmitra