Business Management — Human Resource Issues — Post Responses
What is your company’s plan for employee retention? How effective is it?
Our organization’s plan for employee retention begins with our recruitment materials and the specific messages and values that are featured most prominently in them. Our human resource managers work together collaboratively with our corporate communications department managers to make sure that recruiting materials will draw the kinds of who will fit well within our organizational culture after being hired.
Once hired, new employees participate in a comprehensive series of training session to make sure that they understand the organizational culture and the overall environment within the firm. The main goal of these sessions is to help new hires understand what is expected of them by the organization and to recognize the importance of the values and corporate culture that the organization has worked hard to establish and uphold. Our management training programs promote the skills and reward initiative demonstrated by managers in helping their subordinate employees develop as professionals to their maximum ability. The organization approaches the issue of employee retention as an organizational concern rather than primarily as a human resources concern. Managers play an important role in evaluating the potential for their team members in terms of genuinely reflecting the organizational values and culture in their work and professional relationships both internally and externally.
That approach has worked well. Generally, retention rates have been high and retrospective analysis of attritions suggests that lack of compatibility between employees and organizational culture is not a significant factor. The recruitment methods and during the candidate evaluation period seem to ensure compatibility with organizational expectations among candidates ultimately offered positions.
Explain how “Fit Check” is valuable to both the potential employee and the company.
Programs like “Fit Check” help employees avoid derailing their and professional development by taking positions in organizations with whose values and expectations they are not compatible matches. Those programs are valuable to the organization because they help them reduce wasted resources on recruitment and training costs for employees who are not retained.
What types of problems are typically encountered by the employee and the employer when an employee doesn’t fit the organization’s culture?
Some of the problems encountered when respective expectations are mismatched include dissatisfied employees, detrimental influence as a specific motivational barrier, and erosion of group cohesion and of desired organizational culture. More complex problems may arise when employees who are professionally productive are poorly matched with organizational values and expectations.
What is the enculturation process in your company?
All phases of employment (i.e. candidate selection, new employee orientation, supervision and review, and career development) have direct ties to organizational values, internal culture, and expectations. Those concepts are continually reinforced during every phase.
How is HR involved in this process?
are directly involved in employee development. They are involved in many types of analyses and decisions that do not in many organizations. Employee evaluation and promotion decisions incorporate HR input and review.
If HR has been outsourced, how is the question of culture addressed when the outsourced firm recruits.
Ideally, the organizational values and cultural expectations should be expressed to whatever extent is reasonably possible within foreign cultures. Realistic accommodations must be made but the target should be to do so only to the extent necessary to avoid undermining business objectives for the sake of maintaining unrealistic expectations about cultural compatibility.
