1. Reflection of HRM practices, Employee Retention in Asian Perspective: A Prologue

Researches has revealed that very few companies interconnect with cohesive understanding of the potentiality of their business to deliver unremitting value-creation through their employees[1].I n other words, human resource management practices (such as retention strategies) are not in rigorous or consistent application within operational framework of organizations as other management practices (such as those supply chain management or total quality management)[2].

That is why CIPD/Halogen (2014) report suggests that it is of dire necessity for organizations to think very carefully about creative retention strategies in order to retain their employees. Organizations has to be crafty to architect their existing retention strategies aligning with their business goals because sustainable growth would be unachievable if employee perceptions are dominated by fears of redundancies and intentions to leave remaining high in relation to the improved job market[3]. Another research has shown that the retention of employees is a widespread problem across Asia[4].Though over the last few decades national governments are beginning to recognize the colossal value of human capital as resources in all areas of their economy[5] [6]. Still a very few number of researches has been conducted in the context of Asia Pacific region concerning management of employees while the area is highly diverse with huge potential of economic progress[7]. The flaws in traditional Western management practices are well articulated by the academics and practitioners in the Asia-Pacific arena [8]. That is the reason this paper would try to critically analyse the retention strategies as HRM practices of Generation Y employees in organisational contexts of Asia. By outlining such points, thispaper would be enabled to design systematic thinking in human resourcing and implementing those in farther implementation.

2. Generation Y Employees: Reality Check:

Generation Y or Millennials (also known as GenMe, Nexters) is a term applied for individuals born after 1980s. The pragmatic understanding of the issue call for a solid understanding of the characteristics of the gen y employees. Scott Richardson (2010) mentioned some of the characteristics of Gen Y employees that are mentioned below [9]:

A. First of all, they are self-reliant and independent. That means they want guidance but after that they want to be left alone to carry out the task.

B. They are techno-savvy, which means they were brought up with computers and gadgets and also they know how to utilize them in a working fashion.

C. They are by nature entrepreneurial, that means they want to build thins and operational processes by their own.

D. Gen Y seek for more and more responsibility, whether they are introvert or extrovert, or ambient.

E. They hate micromanagement. That means they do not want to be taught every time while they are not very aware of time management for their own.

F. Gen Y want everything fast, even if it is a case of experience. During this course of seeking newer opportunities and chances to show their tenacity, they also seek flexibility.

G. Gen Y adopted a ‘free agency attitude’. That means they have a very different idea of positional, situational or short-term employment than that of permanent or long-term employment. This is a huge paradigm shift from generation x to generation y.

These all suffice that the traditional HRM, though much deviated from scientific management, cannot enhance motivation, performance or engagement within organizational frame. The Generation Y members have experienced huge historical events in their formative years. These have fashioned their beliefs and values and in turn their attitudes. These key events may include the innovation of computers, the expansion of Internet, the advent of smart phones, the rise of all sorts of social media (like Facebook) omnipresence of television, financial crises aggravated by corporate and political scandals, man-made and natural disasters, the economic recession and like [10]. P. MatthijsBal (2015) explained that these points are further supported by the fact that cultural differences and generational differences are inherently active in the embodiment of professional performances[11]. And the problems regarding the stereotyping of generational differences are also in burgeon in Asian organizations [12]. So the necessity of outlining pragmatic, detail and result-oriented HRM policies to retain Generation Y employees in Asian organizations is the challenging call for HR intelligentsia[13].

3. Definitional Outlook of Employee Retention:

Researchers defined employee retention as “encouraging employees to remain in the organization for a long period of time can be termed as employee retention”[14]. Some also termed it as “keeping right people on right jobs for every organization”[15]. This paper would consider the amalgamation both of this view to meet te purpose of the study. Whereas some describe retention as "an almost untouched research topic" [16], some researchers have opined it to be far less focused than turnover in the mainstream management literature[17].This argument is further articulated by researches suggesting that organization can be negatively affected, from the micro-operational to the macro-strategic level, if employees are not retained systematically [18]. Many studies suggest that organizations with greater personnel stability perform better than those with less stability [19]. Moreover there is a risk of loss of contents from organizational knowledge bank due to higher levels of employee turnover [20].

Reitz and Anderson (2011) viewed that “reasons why a person stays at a job are not the reverse of the reasons why that same person might leave”[21]. That means only focusing on turnover research may lead to lack of insight to develop a sound retention management policy for employees. On the other hand, just to worsen the current situation, researches are showing a global trend of skill shortages in many organizations [22] [23]. Study conducted by Korsakienė, et al. (2015) revealed significant factors influencing employee retention, some of which are: competitive financial rewards, self-realization possibilities, career advancement opportunities [24]. Recent views of researchers also state the importance of retaining employees, particularly professional workers, is vitally important[25].

4. Demystifying Retention Policies for Generation Y Employees: Plausible HRM Practices:

As the Generation Y started to enter Asian organizations, they were facing new challenges and that is why innovative solutions to retain this group of employees has become extremely necessary [26]. So this article addresses three broad areas where HRM practices can play a very strategic and proactive role.

First of all, some identifies overview of the significant factors for retaining of Generation Y employees in the perspective Asian context in a strict operational manner. The factors they focused on are: mentoring, career development, job satisfaction, and inclusive style of management, work environment and nature of working style [27]. The researchers pointed out that the mentioned characteristics of an Asian organization pose the proper conditions where Generation Y employees feel comfortable to perform with prolonged period of engagement. Secondly, some researchers identify perceived organizational support (POS) as a vitally important characteristics of present organizations where Generation Y employees are retained in a very high frequency[28]. That means if the Generation Y employees perceive that the overall culture as well as HRM practices of their respective organizations are supportive to their care and protection, their job satisfaction level is heightened to a very effective level. As a result of such condition, the retention rate of Generation Y employees become enhanced significantly. Thirdly, a very result-oriented framework for talent management can be a very strong catalyst for higher retention rate of Generation Y employees. According to Schuler (2015), such framework entails of five areas of choices of talent management strategy in which choices need to be made: considerations, challenges, context, contingencies and consequences [29].According to Schiemann (2014), this framework is helpful for “coordinating the entire talent lifecycle” (p.285). The talent lifecycle consists of all the “stages of interaction between an organization and its human capital” (p.282). Other researchers also found a very positive correlation between the organization stalent management practices and higher retention rate of Generation Y employees [30].

CONCLUSION:

In the wake of 21^st century, world is facing newer economic and financial challenges. Expert predictions are sometimes proving wrong in a global scale in the test of time. Asian market is embracing newer policies to meet the challenges of its booming stage. It is a time of pleasure mixed with inherent tension of rapid changes. So it is the demand of the present turbulence to adopt dynamic strategies in terms of HRM practices in every aspect of organizational growth [31]. That is why this paper put an effort to identify some broad issues to address the retention issue for generation Y employees. It is necessary for covering both short-term and long-term relevance HRM practices in the dynamic growth of business and organizational growth [32].

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Received on 04.04.2016 Modified on 22.08.2016

Asian J. Management. 2016; 7(4): 159-163.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5763.2016.00039.1