Retaining Your Employees

Employee Retention involves taking measures to encourage employees to remain in the organization for the maximum period of time. Corporate is facing a lot of problems in employee retention these days. Hiring knowledgeable people for the job is essential for an employer. But retention is even more important than hiring. There is no lack of opportunities for a talented person. 

There are many organizations which are looking for such employees. If a person is not satisfied by the job he’s doing, he may switch over to some other more suitable job. In today's environments it becomes very important for organizations to retain their employees. The top organizations are on the top because they value their employees and they know how to keep them glued to the organization. Employees stay and leave organizations for some reasons. The reason may be personal or professional. These reasons should be understood by the employer and should be taken care of. The organizations are becoming aware of these reasons and adopting many strategies for employee retention.

En Adzhar Ibrahim, the Head of Human Resource Department of DiGi, shares his valuable ideas on how you can retain employees successfully.

Adzhar Ibrahim, Head of Human Resources at DiGi.

                                                 

Employee Turnover and Incentives

Employee turnover can be expensive, especially for a small business with few employees. Some of the industries highly effected by high turnover rate in Malaysia are like the call centre industry, fast food industry, and customer service industry  Every time an employee leaves, there may be expenses for advertising the position and training the new employee. To decrease the employee turnover in any company, it's crucial to keep the employees happy where they are.

Here are some suggestion to the Human Resource Managers on what to do to reduce the turnover rate. The key point here is to keep the employees happy. 

• Offer them a fair working condition and above average pay. You can actually do a 'market research' on the pay and benefits your competitor are giving. Raise employees pay when necessary.
• Be a down-to-earth Boss. Get to know your employees. Understand their concern and be attentive to their complaints. Be accessible anytime an employee has a problem for you to solve. Accept suggestions even from low level employees.
• Think on incentives that will decrease the turnover. Offer unique incentives for specific level of productivity. Give incentives regularly when warranted apart from bonuses Be creative with the type of incentives that will excite your employees and you can be assured every employee will be interested in staying for the next round of incentives. 
• Allow promotional opportunities. Listen to employees who want to cross train for other skills or to be considered for promotions. Remember that employees will be more willing to stay if they have a future with the company.
• Start with quality employees with a good work history. Look for employees who have few or nonexistent gaps in their resumes. Hire employees with a history of company loyalty and job retention.
• Stay in communication with your employees. Stay ahead of any problems that might be brewing among the employees and try to keep the workplace pleasant. Make each employee feel like an important and irreplaceable part of the company.

Happy employees are productive employees

Remember, being unique from your competitor does not only appliy to the products, marketing gimmick or promotions. It also applies on keeping employees loyal and happy working with you.

What gets Rewarded, Gets Repeated!

This very blunt, yet humorous video targeted to all the Bosses, Employers and Business Owners out there! The actor conveyed a brilliant message across to all the ignorant employers who are so focused on catching their employees doing the wrong thing instead of praising them for the right things they did. This scenario is actually very common in Malaysia. Employers cultivated the idea - 'Don't Do Mistake', and this actually creates a fear in the mind of the employees and the focus on not doing any mistake. And guess what will the result be? More Mistakes! More Errors! And Less Confidence to handle the work assigned to them!

Instead, when employers focus on the idea of praising or even a friendly tap on the shoulder can make a lot of difference to the employees. Rewarding employees is always seen as a tonic to improve performance of the employees. Their confidence gets a boost, they are willing to try new things and eventually all this will contribute in the growth of the company! More importantly the cultivate a healthy working life!

Happy Employees = Better Business

I came across this humorous video about the efforts Google puts in to make their employees happy. I was wondering, how many of us wish to be an employee of Google. But then, there is surely a way to bring out the 'Google in the company you are working in  - only if the Bosses see the potential of having happy employees.

I particularly like what Alexa said -Honey attracts more bees than vinegar.. Treat us well and we work better for you!

Enjoy the video.

Understanding the Pros and Cons of Employee Incentive Programmes

Sometime back, I met a friend of mine, who is also a HR Manager. It was really an interesting conversation as he shared about the challenges he faced when he decided to give incentives to his employees. 

He mentioned that problems arise among his employees when the Employee Of The Month  was chosen and the management gives him an incentive for his achievement. The co-workers  express their dissatisfaction as they fell like there is 'favoring factor' involved when selecting the Employee Of The Month ( some how, the same person was nominated for 3 months in a row).  They felt that since the workload is been shared equally, the incentive should be given to all to make it fair.

So, the management decided to introduce Group Incentives instead. Yet, another problem crop up. Team members feel that not all the members should be entitled for the incentives as there are some 'lazy' ones in the team who does not contribute to the team's success.

This is just one scenario out of thousands of challenges faced by the HR Department. Discussing about the pros and cons about employee recognition problems draws the question whether these system are outdated. 

Since the modern day job descriptions outline in details the employers's expectation and employees are briefed about the disciplinary action for workers failing to perform, is it really necessary for employee reward programs? Is there really a need if it only causes dissatisfaction and ill feelings? The short answer is- YES!

Recognizing efforts and superior accomplishments serve to motivate the employees. Employee recognition programmes provide the formal 'pat on the back' for job well done.

Lets look into the pros and cons of employee recognition progammes.

The Pros of Employee Incentives Programmes would be :

• Employee recognition programmes reward employees who achieve the business goals. This opens door to rewards for hard work, creativity, loss prevention and initiative by employees at all levels.
• Increases employee loyalty and retains good employees.
• Promotes good relationship between the management and the employees.
• Motivate employees to perform to their potential, for the higher and better their performance, the higher their rewards. It helps in establishing a competitive performance oriented work culture and an environment of continuous learning, improvement, and innovation where employees take responsibility for the outcome of their work

The cons of Employee Incentives Programmes :

• Management selection of employees leads to allegations (or actual cases) of favoritism.
• Limiting recognition of an employee to only one occurrence per calendar year supress the continued willingness of the employees to excel.
• Unrealistic incentives will de-motivate employees- for example an employee who just invented a way to prevent some computer virus which can save thousands of ringgit,should get more than merely a computer-generated certificate and a mug with the corporate logo.

However it is, at the end of the day, the overall success or failure of a recognition programmes is determined by the way it is structured and administered.

The discussion over the pros and cons of employees recognition programs should never been an issue at all as its clearly the way to move forward to have a strong corporate culture and happy employees.

The Carrot Culture : Power of Employee Recognation

When we talk about employee benefits, the one  most important thing that comes to my mind is the Carrot Culture, which is getting  popular among the employers and seen as an effective ways of employee recognition method.

For those who are new to Carrot Culture, let me explain to you what is it all about.

A Carrot Culture is an environment where employees are valued and appreciated for their contributions - creating passion and performance. Every major workplace survey conducted in the last twenty years has shown the need for praise and recognition in driving business results. In fact, long-term success is almost impossible without effective recognition.

A lot of organization is opting to the methods of recognition of Carrot Culture and sure enough it is doing miracles to them and definitely increasing the performance of their staff.

Now, what are the ways to implement recognition programs in the most effective way?

These are the areas to consider to have a win-win environment with your staffs. 

Positive - managers sometimes use a recognition presentation as a time to talk about how far someone has come, or how they could have done even better. This is not the time or place. Comments must be positive and upbeat.

Immediate - too often by the time an employee is recognized for a job well done, weeks if not months have passed. Obviously the closer the recognition to the actual performance the better.

Close - recognition is best presented in the employee's work environment among peers. Invite the person's team members and work friends to attend.

Specific - a great presentation is a time to point out specific behaviors that reinforces key values.

Shared - typically, recognition comes from the top down; however, recognition that means the most often comes from peers who best understand the circumstances surrounding the employee's performance. Peers, as well as managers and supervisors, should be able to comment during the presentation.


Put these suggestions into action and see the wonders that the culture will do. Good luck! 

Why Are Employee Benefits So Important?

Joe Dunlop is a business consultant and an adjunct professor at Steven Henegars College in Salt Lake City, Utah. Understand why employee benefits are so important and how it encourage employees to stay on the job even when there are higher-paying job opportunities.