Managing Talent Retention In The Workplace Of The Future: Implications For HRM, Employees, Leaders And Managers

Implications for employees

Around 59% seasoned HR professionals believe that in the next few years, major battle will be retaining talented and well-performing candidates. Moreover, it is going to become even worse to recognize and reward the real performers as the market competitiveness is growing and that needs more collaborated efforts to establish loyalty among employees. As unemployment rate in Australia is also high, recruitment and talent retention has become a future challenge (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). HR professionals have probable challenges in managing workforce such as talent and leadership are becoming even scarcer resources than earlier organizational environment, the work force, on average, is growing older. More companies are becoming world-wide organizations as they try to recruit overseas, incorporate diverse cultures and retain external talent (Marchington et al., 2016). The study focuses on the key issues and the possible recommendations for talent retention.

There are numerous definitions of talent found in the academic Human Resource Management literature. Talent can be conceptualized in two broad ways- object and subject approach. In object approach, talent refers to personal characteristics or an innate ability that manifests in a particular field, whereas in the subject’ approach talent refers to a person or persons of talent who possesses special skills or abilities (Cascio, 2014). Over past five decades, academicians and management practitioners have shown sustained interest on the employee turnover concept, as voluntary employee turnover is always a key concern for the organizations. During any job interview, a candidate’s job is to sell himself to the recruiters. Similarly, the recruiters also need to sell themselves before the candidate. It is now more important as the talent shortage is making every organization strive to bring in the best talent and become the most preferred choice among available options (Festing & Schäfer, 2014).

Around 36% recruiters feel that it is the need of the hour to establish a corporate culture, which will attract best candidates to your organization. The coming generation of employees emphasizes on working in flexible set-ups and the major concern must be kept on giving results and not on working in a traditional 9 to 6 set-up. If the company takes employee career development seriously and strives to work for it as well, then definitely you can shine out over your competitors who are also looking to grab talented prospects for the same jobs (Al Ariss, Cascio & Paauwe, 2014). Around 26% professionals have indicated this as a problem and major factor for increased attrition rate.

The Human Resource team plays an important role in employee retention. Whenever an employee resigns from his current assignments, it is the responsibility of the HR to intervene immediately to find out the reasons, which prompted the employee to resign. No one leaves an organization without a reason. There has to be one and the human resource team must probe into it. There can be innumerable reasons for an employee to leave his current job. The major ones being conflict with the superiors, lesser salary, lack of growth, negative ambience and so on. It is the duty of the HR to sit with the employee and discuss the various issues face to face (Jackson, Schuler & Jiang, 2014). HR personnel need to understand his problems and listen to employee side of the story as well. Remember the HR should not focus on conducting exit interviews, rather more emphasis should be laid on retaining the employees. Hiring is a tedious process and it is very difficult to recruit the right candidate and train him once again. The HR person must ensure that he is recruiting the right employee who actually fits into the role. A right person doing the wrong job would never find his job interesting and certainly look for a change. Make sure every individual has been assigned responsibilities according to his specialization and interest. The employees must be clear with their KRAs from the very beginning. Every individual works for money and the HR must quote a justified salary acceptable to the other person (Wilton, 2016).

HRM implications

Presently, human resource managers use social media websites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, to recruit best suited candidates for different department of organization to enhance productivity and gain monetary benefit. It is a big challenge for professionals. HR will need to use social media for the organization’s benefit in an extremely competitive job market for both candidates and hiring companies (Stone & Deadrick, 2015). HR professionals need to be prepared to hire suitable candidates before the competitor, and this could mean beginning the discussion even before the candidate applies. Social media participants often set their profile settings to private, so human resource staff need to develop thorough knowledge of the social media tools and online search engines to uncover the information they need. Performance reviews are a must. The HR along with the respective team leaders must monitor their team member’s performance to ensure whether they are enjoying the work or not. The employees look for a change only when their job becomes monotonous and does not offer any growth or learning. Job rotation can be one of the effective ways to retain employees (Deery & Jago 2015).

An employee quits his job whenever he faces problems at the workplace and is not satisfied with his work. The job must be challenging enough and the employees should learn something new every day for them to stick to it for a long time. It is the responsibility of the team leader to ensure that the team members are contented with their work and share a good rapport amongst them. An over burdened worker never finds his job interesting and would always be eager for a change. It is the duty of the team leader to distribute the work equally among all the employees (Kwenin, Muathe & Nzulwa, 2013). The manager should not be partial to anyone and treat all his members as one. Manager should not let negativity creep in the team. The superiors must have a control on their subordinates and make sure they do not fight with each other. Nothing productive comes out of disputes, rather it de-motivates the individuals and prompt them to look for some another opportunity. A team leader should be a role model for the team. The team managers should not be arrogant and avoid misuse of their position. They should let all the team members participate in the decision making process (Jackson, Schuler & Jiang, 2014). Every employee should have the freedom of expression and no one should be left out or neglected. Participatory leadership needs to be chosen instead of autocratic leadership.

Conclusion 

Employee retention is going department to be a major concern for management and human resource. It is essential for an organization to do well and earn profits that the high potential employees stick to it for a longer duration and contribute effectively. The employees who spend a considerable amount of time tend to be loyal, committed towards the management, and always decide in favour of the organization. Research says that most of the employees leave an organization out of frustration and constant friction with their superiors or other team members. In some cases low salary, lack of growth prospects and motivation compel an employee to look for a change. A well defined career path, compensation, work relationship and job- work life balance, organisational environment are the factors affecting talent retention. The human resource department must ensure that it is hiring the right candidate. Employee recognition is one of the most important factors, which go a long way in retaining employees. Performance appraisals are also important for an employee to stay motivated and avoid looking for a change. The salary hike should be directly proportional to the hard work put by the employees.

References

Al Ariss, A., Cascio, W. F., & Paauwe, J. (2014). Talent management: Current theories and future research directions. Journal of World Business, 49(2), 173-179.

Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Cascio, W. F. (2014). Leveraging employer branding, performance management and human resource development to enhance employee retention.

Deery, M., & Jago, L. (2015). Revisiting talent management, work-life balance and retention strategies. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(3), 453-472.

Festing, M., & Schäfer, L. (2014). Generational challenges to talent management: A framework for talent retention based on the psychological-contract perspective. Journal of World Business, 49(2), 262-271.

Jackson, S. E., Schuler, R. S., & Jiang, K. (2014). An aspirational framework for strategic human resource management. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), 1-56.

Kwenin, D. O., Muathe, S., & Nzulwa, R. (2013). The influence of employee rewards, human resource policies and job satisfaction on the retention of employees in Vodafone Ghana Limited. European Journal of Business and Management, 5(12), 13-20.

Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A., Donnelly, R., & Kynighou, A. (2016). Human resource management at work. Kogan Page Publishers.

Stone, D. L., & Deadrick, D. L. (2015). Challenges and opportunities affecting the future of human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 25(2), 139-145.

Wilton, N. (2016). An introduction to human resource management. Sage.