INTRODUCTION:

The emerging trend in today’s fast-changing competitive business environment occasioned by globalization has presented evident challenges before the human resources professionals. With increasing globalization, there have been enormous and far reaching changes in global organizations. These changes are the result of fierce international competitive pressure faced by enterprises operating in the global place encircled with knowledge – driven productive economy (Wokoma and Iheriohanma, 2010). The new demands of international competitive and dramatic advances in information and communications technologies (ICT), and new patterns of consumer demands for goods and services have propelled organizations across the world to change substantially and adopt new methods of production and organization of work. This situation has tremendously enhanced the mobility of individuals, thereby accelerating the rate of employee turnover in organizations, as a result, the recruitment of competent personnel equipped with the requisite knowledge has increasingly been difficult .employee commitment, productivity and retention issues are emerging as the most critical challenge on the management of workforce in the immediate future.

This challenge is driven by the concerns of employee loyalty, corporate restructuring efforts and tight competition for key talents (Kresiman, 2002). For many firms, employee departures can have significant effects on the execution of business plans and may eventually cause a parallel decline in productivity. This phenomenon is especially true in the light of current economic uncertainty and following corporate downsizing, as occasioned by outsourcing and other intricate production dictates. employee retention connotes the means, plan or set of decision-making behavior put in place by organizations to retain their competent workforce for performance (Gberevbie, 2008). there have been many human resource strategies provided to retain employees for the advantage of the organizations. these strategies are aimed at avoiding employee turnover. Mobley (1982) defines turnover as the cessation of membership in an organization by individuals who have received monetary compensation from the organization. organizations rely on the expertise, knowledge, skills, and capital resource and capacity development of their employees in order to compete favorably and indeed gain competitive advantage in the international market. some of the traditional employee strategies currently being employed by most organizations

Job satisfaction: Job satisfaction is a general attitude toward an individual’s current job. This encompasses the feelings, beliefs and thoughts about the job. Riggio (2003) describes job satisfaction as consisting of the feelings and attitudes one has about one’s job. This includes all aspects

of a particular job, good and bad, positive and negative, which are likely to contribute to the development of feeling of satisfaction or dissatisfaction or turnover intentions. job satisfaction can be influenced by a variety of factors, such as pay practice, quality of workers’ relationship with their supervisor, and quality of the physical environment in which they work (Hamdia and Phadett, 2011).job satisfaction and turnover are basically related to the extent that job satisfaction has direct effect on employee retention and turnover. Al-Hussami (2008) affirmed that if employees are more satisfied with their job, it will enhance their ability of creativity and productivity. This will in turn impart on their intention to remain in the organization.

Training: Training is referred to as a planned effort to facilitate the learning of job-related knowledge, skills and behavior by employee (Noe, Holleneck, Gerhart, and Wright, 2006). Wan (2007) posits that the only strategy for organizations to radically improve workforce productivity and enhance their retention is to seek to optimize their workforce through comprehensive training and development. to achieve this purpose, organizations will have to invest on their employees to acquire the requisite knowledge, skills and competencies that will enable them function effectively in a rapidly changing and complex work environment. Batt (2002) argues that high-involvement practices such as autonomy, team collaboration, and training are related to reduce employee turnover and increase productivity. employees consider training, education and development as crucial to their overall career growth and goal attainment and will be motivated to remain and build a career path in an organization that offers them such opportunity (Samuel, 2008). a study by Babakus, Yavas, Karatepe and Avci (2003), reports that an organization that provides training sends a strong signal to its employees regarding management commitment to their retention and customer service. the study by steel, griffeth, and Hom (2002) reveals that empirical data show that lack of training and promotional opportunities were the most frequently cited reasons for high performers to leave the company. also, the study by Bradley, Petrescu and Simmons (2004) reports that an increase in high-performance work practices is as a result of training which is converted to a decrease in employee turnover in organization. this implies that when an organization provides training to its employees, it will, to a large extent, reduce turnover and enhance employee retention.

Reward strategy: According to Agarwal (1998), reward is defined as something that an organization gives to the employees in response to their contributions and performance and also something which is desired by the employees. a reward can be extrinsic or intrinsic. the extrinsic variables include company policies, co-workers relationship, supervisory styles, salary, work conditions and security. the intrinsic variables include achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, advancement and growth (Bassett-Jones and Lioyed, 2005) reward can be in form of cash, bonuses, and recognition amidst others. the purpose of reward strategy is to develop policies and practices which will attract, retain and motivate high quality people (Armstrong, 2003).

Supervisory support: The immediate supervisor is very important in organizational change. When a supervisor provides mentoring, the relationship affects the protégés skill development and intentions to remain with the employer (Atif, Kashif, Ijaz, Muhammad and Asad, 2011). when an employee’s skill improves, it will positively affect productivity in organization. conversely, non-supervisory mentor may increase mentee’s confidence by providing access to outside organization (Scanduraa and Williams, 2004).

REASONS FOR EMPLOYEE TURNOVER IN ORGANIZATIONS

the phenomenon of turnover is of interest to organizations and theorists because it is significant, potentially costly and relatively clear cut (Mobley, 1977; price, 1977; Lazear, 2000). employee turnover is defined as the rotation of workers around the labour market; between the status of employment and unemployment (Abassi and Hollman, 2000).turnover in organizations has not so far proved amenable to prediction. despite an enormous literature on turnover in organizations, the concept has no universally accepted reason or framework for why employees choose to leave their organizations. However, employee turnover has been classified into two categories:

Voluntary and involuntary turnover: Voluntary turnover takes place when competent and capable employees particularly leave an organization to work elsewhere. This turnover is costly to the organization, because losing a valued employee reduces organizational productivity, increases expenses associated with recruitment, hiring and training a replacement and also provides an opportunity to competitors to utilize the skills, abilities and critical knowledge of an experienced and competent employee.

Involuntary turnover: Involuntary turnover occurs when an employee is fired or laid off. a certain amount of involuntary turnover is likely to be considered inevitable, and possibly even beneficial. For instance, firing workers who are not performing at desirable levels can be viewed as positive (Mobley, 1982). this type of turnover enhances the effectiveness of the organization. organizational researchers have advanced many factors as being responsible for employee turnover. Sherratt (2000) and van Vianen, Feji, Krauz, and Taris (2004) have distinguished two motives for turnover; the push and pull motives. The pull motives include inequity in compensation of an organization, the availability of opportunities to improve one’s career opportunities on the external labor market and resignation by employees from organization to go into private business. the push motives are related to dissatisfaction with employee’s current work situation, autocratic managerial patterns and job stress.

EFFECTS OF TURNOVER ON ORGANIZATIONS

Employee turnover is costly and seemingly intractable human resource challenges confronting several organizations globally. The major factor of employee turnover that impinges on organizations is the costs. These costs include search of external labor market for possible substitute, selection between competing substitutes, induction of the chosen substitute, and formal and informal training of the substitute until he attains performance levels equivalent to the individual who quits (john, 2000). There are also indirect costs that are also involved when an employee leaves the organization. These, according to Sutherland (2004), include the knowledge, skills and contacts that the departing employee takes out of the organization. Turnover affects both employees and organizations. Workers experience disruption, the need to learn new job-specific skills and find different career prospects. From organizational perspective, organization suffers the loss of job-specific skills, disruption in production and incurs costs of hiring and training new workers. All these affect the profitability of the organization. Researchers have argued that high turnover rates might have negative effects on the profitability of organizations if not managed properly (Hogan, 1992; Wasmuth and Davis, 1993; and barrows, 1990). Turnover also makes it difficult for organizations to maintain a steady and successful operation.

EMERGING TRENDS IN EMPLOYEE RETENTION STRATEGIES

The fierce competition globally for qualified workforce has made it pertinent for organizations to radically alter and initiate new workplace trends that will provide for sustainable and attractive retention strategies for their critically talented employees. This is so, because as business growth continues to move to the forefront, people issues are becoming even more critical as organizations seek for skilled people to handle the growth.

 Establishment of strategic retention plan ,

 Employee participation in decision-making ,

 Personalized compensation plan

 Career planning, training and development programs ,

 Creation of work flexibility and outsourcing strategy ,

ESTABLISHMENT OF STRATEGIC RETENTION PLAN

For organizations to compete favorably in this business world that is characterized by increased global competition and tensed business area, it is imperative that management of organizations should design strategic retention programs that will align and integrate their choice employees into the organization. This should be done by aligning the organization’s human capital processes with its overall business strategy. This entails elevating the retention strategies to a more strategic level which in turn yields indisputable business benefits and employee’s satisfaction to remain with the organization. In doing this, organizations must regularly analyze the effectiveness of these strategies, making sure that all employees data are captured and aligned. This will help increase the efficiency of the program and also serve as an early warning sign for problem areas

Participatory decision-making process: The challenging trends in the competitive global economic market and workplace require organizations to involve the participation of workers in the decision-making process of the organizations in order to retain their critical employees and to secure their loyalty, commitment, dedication and ensure their security. This involves the integration of these choice employees in organizational participation, management and administration that will usher in industrial and organizational efficiency and harmony.

Personalized compensation plan: according to samuel (2008), money acts as a “scorecard” which enables employees to assess the value the organization places on them in comparison to others. in this context, organizations are required to devise sustainable compensation strategies that will cover the broad spectrum of total compensation, not just basic pay and salary, but including performance - based and special recognition programs to its critical employees. the pay should be equitably comparative to the ones prevailing outside and within the industry for similar jobs. in devising this personalized compensation plan for critical employees in the organization, the plan should cover many diverse compensation techniques like competitive salary, project bonus, superannuation and fringe benefits.

Career planning, training and development: career development is a system which is organized and formalized, and it is a planned effort towards achieving a balance between the individual career needs and the organization’s workforce requirement. opportunities for career development are considered as one of the most important factors affecting employee retention. it is suggested that a company that wants to strengthen its bond with its employees must invest in the training and development of these employees this entails creating opportunities for promotion within the company and also providing opportunities for training and critical skills development that allows employees to improve their employability competitively on the internal and/or external labor and objectives

Creation of work flexibility and outsourcing strategy : creation of work flexibility entails work-life balance in the organization. work-life balance is an efficient tool by which every employee is given an opportunity to choose time out during work hours. it is a policy that defines how the organization intends to allow what they do at work to align with the responsibilities and interests they have outside (Armstrong, 2003). work-life balance is necessary because the current employees attach much importance to quality of life due to the ever increasing work pressure. in the same vein, outsourcing provides organizations the challenging opportunity to fan out jobs to specialist firms and contractors at little or no cost and burden thereby creating enough space and time for their employees to concentrate on the ones they have competence and comparative advantage.

The reasons for which employees choose to stay

There should be good career prospects within an organization to retain employee for longer. More over attitude of employer, or a supervisor or a manager is very important in this regard. employee loyalty comes when an employee is fully satisfied with his employer, good working conditions ,having benefits and fair pay, recruitment should be on merit and there must be no favoritism and his abilities are been polishing through training and development time by time. There should be proper work and family life balance having flexed working hours. An employee should have job security at all the times.

WHY EMPLOYEE RETENTION AND MOTIVATION IS IMPORTANT

Turbulence in the work environment: In slightly more than a decade (1988-2000), the eminent issue for companies was one of attracting and retaining people with the skills necessary to do the work. The situation became even more complex during 2001 as an economic downturn forced thousands companies to cut back or downsize their employee populations. The characteristics needed in today’s environment are those that embody the entrepreneur: drive innovation, energy and a special commitment to seeing something through to its maturity. Abilities to work cooperatively with other people and organizations are also needed (Buckingham and Coffman, 1999). What is important for employers about these statistics is that they must now maximize the contributions and value of all employees—regardless of age, ethnicity, gender or style.

Retention as a strategic business issue: in today’s turbulent workplace, a stable workforce becomes a significant competitive advantage. If an organization has unstable workforce conditions, it’s forced to invest thousands of dollars in recruiting, orienting, training, overtime and supervision. Those dollars come right off the ‘bottom line’ (Reichheld, 2001; Dibble, 1999; Herman, 1999). Without continuity, organizations don’t have ongoing close relationships with customers; customer loyalty is fragile; managers are stressed; conflict is more likely; efficiency is hampered. Such challenges make it difficult for an organization to compete in the marketplace. Arguably, the most valuable (and volatile) asset is a stable workforce of competent, dedicated employees. Longevity gives a company a powerful advantage; depth of knowledge gives organization strength. The loss of a competent employee is increasingly difficult to replace with someone of comparable competence—even with an effective succession planning process. With a volatile labor market and competition for good people, organizations are forced to hire persons with less competence.

Why employees become disengaged and leave

When managers or supervisors are asked why good people leave, most respond by saying “its about money”. or, they simply dismiss the departure matter-of-factly by stating that the employee “received a better offer”. Managers often blame organizational policies or pay scales for the loss of talent. (Kaye and Jordan-Evans, 1999) contrary to expectations, research indicates that money is not even in the top five reasons employees give when asked why they are leaving an organization. the way an organization distributes money indicates what management really wants however. it sends a message to employees whether the company truly pays for performance; incentive plans indicate service or sales to customers; and an organization that pays and supports employee development will generously pay for academic and training courses. salary and benefits tend to attract people to organizations, but are not usually the reasons employees leave (Herman, 1999). listed below is what pay really means to employees (Dibble, 1999): that pay means to employees :• value – perceived worth to an organization .• equity – perceived worth compared to other individuals .• finances – ability to maintain certain standard of living .• jealousy – difficulties that arise if someone is not recognized according to perceived worth .• favoritism – perception that one person may be singled out to receive more/less .• anomaly – pay for reliability (attendance) .• precedent – recognition of similar actions in the future .• appropriateness – entitled to more than salary (bonus, profit sharing) for extra effort? recent research study conducted at a large multinational technical firm showed that a significant number of employees (96 per cent of those interviewed) admitted they did not provide the “real” reason for departure (Kreisman, 2002). For these individuals, acknowledging that their manager was the primary reason they left seemed “too risky”. Instead, they chose to give reasons (for resigning) such as:

• Better opportunity • Industry change • Better working conditions • Lack of development

Why employees said they were attracted to the organization

• Type of work • career opportunities • skills development • company reputation • potential for significant financial reward

Why employees said they left the organization

• Poor management/leadership • inability to use core skills (type of work not stimulating/challenging) • feeling unappreciated; not valued • lack of development; no career opportunities • frequent reorganizations

HOW INSIGHTS CAN HELP ATTRACT, MOTIVATE AND RETAIN VALUABLE EMPLOYEES

Manager/employee relationship and insights: When managers or supervisors are asked how they keep good people, many respond, “with money.” research suggests that 89 percent of managers still believe it’s largely about money (Kaye and Jordan-Evans, l999; Kreisman, 2002; Herman, 1999). As noted previously, the manager matters most because the factors that drive employee satisfaction and commitment are largely within the direct manager’s control (Buckingham and Coffman, 1999). once again, these include providing recognition and feedback, opportunity to learn and grow, fair compensation which reflects an employee’s contribution and value to the organization, a “healthy” work environment, and above all, recognition and respect for the uniqueness of each person’s competencies, needs, desires and style. Insights can help bridge the gap between manager and employee. it can be used a tool for enhancing communication which then helps managers to better understand the motivational drives and interests of each person. Insights can further be utilized as a vehicle for providing feedback about performance and style. coupled with a 360 degree feedback report, insights becomes a powerful mechanism to reinforce other’s views of an individual’s behavior and/or style indicating areas of strength or developmental opportunities (collins, 2000). In essence, insights can bring about a closer relationship between employee and manager which enables both parties to better adapt, connect and understand one another.

Job descriptions and insights: The first step in building a foundation for retention is to have a clear picture of the work needed to be done and the skills required to do it. To support retention, job descriptions should: • define what an organization is looking for so that people with the right skills and abilities will be selected. • identify the required competencies, style, capabilities, and type of individual needed for the job.

Selection (interviewing) and insights: During the interviewing phase, potential employees should be treated as prospective customers. Potential employees have the power and knowledge of their abilities and confidence in their value in the marketplace (dibble, l999). the worst mistake a company can make is to misrepresent its culture, reward system, advancement/ development possibilities and/or business strategy (kreisman, 2002). treat all candidates fairly and with respect for their individual skills and unique attributes. Use the insights discovery system to educate all incumbent managers on the value of understanding and recognizing differences amongst types. This will help minimize the “halo” effect often associated with managers who favor (give job offers to) people most similar to themselves.

RETENTION IS NOT FOR EVERYONE

It would be a mistake to believe that organizations should attempt to retain each and every employee—especially in light of today’s economic turmoil. the challenges that confront managers are therefore not only how to minimize the possibility of losing good employees, but also how to identify the employees an organization needs and wants to keep. the preceding sections of this paper focused on minimizing unwanted turnover. this section will briefly outline a methodology for identifying those employees who have “talent” and are “contributors” to the organization. they are the employees who make a difference to:

• customers • other employees • managers and executive management • shareholders, boards of directors and other constituents

these key players exhibit:

• Breadth as well as depth of technical/functional knowledge • customer service • creativity • continuous learning• flexibility • self-direction • commitment to the organization’s success

Losing one or more of these individuals could have a significant impact on the organization goals and ability to maintain its stature in the marketplace. these valuable employees are often not concentrated at the top of the organization. instead, they are spread throughout, at the frontline, in the back room, and in leadership positions. They are customer service representatives, programmers, accountants, nurses, clerks and program coordinators (dibble, 1997; thomas, 2000). The employees an organization wants and needs to keep differ from others with the same job titles. They are known best by their skills. An organization may not know the actual number of employees it wants to retain, but a working assumption is that the employee population follows a normal distribution: (dibble, 1997)

• three percent (3%) are crucial to the organization’s success and everything should be done to keep them.

• thirteen percent (13%) are very important and the organization should do a lot to keep them.

• sixty-eight percent (68%) of the population should be considered valuable and the organization should do what it can to accommodate them.

• thirteen percent (13%) of an organization’s population probably need to improve their skills and performance, or leave.

• three percent (3%) of an organization’s population at any one time should probably be in a process leading to their termination of employment.

Here are three tips for infusing social hr into your traditional methodology so that organizations can avoid high turnover rates and ensure employees are vocal champions for your brand:

1. Alternative forms of recognition

It’s a universal truth: people love to be recognized for a job well done. for most companies, recognition most often comes in the form of an annual raise, a holiday bonus, or a pat on the back. While there’s no doubt that raises and bonuses are appreciated, employees enjoy all kinds of recognition, even when it’s not tied to financial rewards. Why not ask successful employees to chair new committees or offer them an increased budget? these types of responsibility-based recognition demonstrate a high level of trust in employee abilities. supervisors should also consider asking employees for help or feedback on their own work.

2. Employee satisfaction as a process

When companies commission employee satisfaction surveys, they do it with the best of intentions. They want to know and understand how their employees feel about their work and their workplace, so that they can make adjustments if needed, but traditional surveys are deeply flawed, periodic, one-way feedback mechanisms that cannot accurately capture the overall mood of an office for an entire year. they’re highly skewed towards whatever is going on in the office at the time of the poll. it shouldn’t be a satisfaction survey; it should be a satisfaction process. Supervisors should solicit feedback from employees regularly and continuously to address or head-off problems as they arise. Most importantly, all feedback should be taken seriously. If concerns aren’t heard or addressed, employees feel that they can’t be honest and the flow of feedback stops.

3. Putting your values to work

Maybe you’ve committed some company values to paper and distributed them in a fat packet of information to new employees on day one. But do you consistently reinforce them? Are they part of an ongoing conversation with your employees? could your employees define them if asked? When you give employees the opportunity to understand that they’re working for something larger—not just the person above them—it creates a sense of purpose. people work best when they believe in the vision of an organization; when they can make decisions on their own in pursuit of that vision; when they have the skills, knowledge and training necessary to be successful in their roles; and when they understand the purpose of their jobs and how they contribute. your values will never become part of the organizational culture if your executives and managers don’t reflect them. any contradiction between what is communicated about company values and what is done by management will generate cynicism and may result in significant backlash from employees.

CONCLUSION:

It is concluded that almost all the factors or indicators that directly or indirectly influence employee retention are correlated. one has an apparent effect on other. So not only a single factor promotes an employee to leave the organization but it’s a blend of many reasons. Sometimes an employee is more concern with one reason as compare to other according to human nature and priorities. But it is a challenge for an organization to be more concerned about their employees to pace with them for longer. It is a new era of modern technology and competitive business environment. Organizations are continuously changing .this changing environment is not only effecting the organizations but also the employees working in it. In order to maximize organizational efficiency and for optimal utilization of the resources, human resources must be managed properly. Human resource management plays a vital role in this regard. They are responsible that how employees are treated in the organization. Employee retention is a vital issue and challenge to all the organizations now days. There are numbers of factors which promote the employees to stay or leave the organization. It may be external factors, internal factors and the combined effect of both. Human resource practices counts a lot in this regard.

It is the need of the hour that hr managers should identify the needs of the employee and then devises the retention strategies. One strategy does not fit to all as different individuals have different priorities. Hr professionals face the vital challenge to retain talented employees. Employee retention is very critical to the long term health of any organization. when an organization loses its talented employee ie it lefts a negative impact on innovation, customer satisfaction, knowledge gain during the past years and on the profitability of the organization .more over replacing cost of another employee contribute a lot to the organization. Management theorist like Abraham Maslow and Frederick Herzberg and many more believed that people have needs that should be satisfied with in the work place 50 years ago or more than that. They have proposed the hierarchy of needs to motivate the person with in a working environment .so it is a challenge which management have been facing a years before.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

It is highly recommended to hire right person for a right job for long-term relationship. Role of a supervisor is very important to gain the trust of an employee. There should be a good judgment of job security and future prospects in an organization.

Restrain favouritism. Establish flexible work hours. Safe and good working environment must be there. Training as well as personal development plans should be in place which will show more affiliation between employee and employer and will play a vital role in removing the gap between the top, higher and middle level management. Individual’s performance measurement should be in place based on tangible and measurable goals. There should be personal development plan for every individual in the organization based on his role and responsibilities.

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Received on 20.01.2014 Modified on 30.01.2014

Asian J. Management 5(2): April-June, 2014 page 221-226