Recommendations
Content
SUGGESTIONS Employee should be provided with proper training.Employee should be appreciated for good work.Employee should be motivated to welcome the change.If any changes are brought in to software or any module is added then propertraining should be given Recommendations 1. Develop an attractive employee value proposition.An employee value proposition means that your company has something attractiveto offer that is perceived as valuable to an employee. as an employer, you mustunderstand what makes your organization attractive to potential recruits andcurrent employees. Branding yourself as an employer of choice is not just a slick setof marketing tactics. The best advocates for an employer’s brand are its currentemployees. What messages do they send to others about their employer? Are theyhonestly saying and believing that,“This is a great place to work.” 2. 2. Create a total reward structure that includes more than compensation.Every company should have all the normal compensation mechanisms common totheir type of employment. yet, total rewards packages go far beyond money. Whilemoney might temporarily retain employees, it does not always equate withengagement. People want a chance to make a difference and realize themselves. That self-realization is multi-dimensional and different for each employee. The totalreward structure should include,in addition to compensation, support for employees to attain their personalobjectives aligned with the goals of their organization. 3. 3. Give feedback on employee performance on a regular basis.Most managers and employees are not enamored with the performance appraisalprocess in their organization. yet, an effective performance management processserves many purposes. Ongoing performance feedback allows employees to betterknow where they stand, gives them a formal means to provide input, indicates thattheir managers pay attention to them and that their performance matters. Thisfeedback contributes to employee engagement and retention 4. Be flexible in terms of work-life balance.Workers more and more value a balance between work and life. They want moreflexible ways to engage with their employer. To attract and retain workers withdifferent work and career expectations, organizations have to be more flexible instructuring work andits expectations. It calls for a different managerial mindset and practices thatinvolve letting go of old ways of controlling workers’ time and attendance in favor of result criteria such as output, productivity and quality
5. Create a culture of engagement.Employees have become more connected with others in the organization (and the broader supply-and-customer chain) through project-based team work and processmanagement activities. Employees are shifting their loyalty to people, teams andprojects and away from company loyalty. It is organizations that create the cultureand climate that allow people, processes and projects to become fully connectedand engaged with one another. Engaged employees are more likely to stay withtheir employer 6. Train managers to be effective.Exit interviews consistently show that “poor and bad” management practicesgreatly contribute to an employee’s decision to leave a company. It is imperative toprovide supervisors and managers with adequate tools to become effectivemanagers since we cannot assume that these competencies are innate. ProfessorPatrick Connor, recentlyretired after teaching 25 years at the atkinson Graduate school of Management, isfamous among MBA students and alumni for his ‘Connorisms.’He told them, “youremployees do not work for you, they work for themselves.” When I teach mystudents about managing organizations, I have them reflect on what really mattersto employees and what they are constantly asking of their managers and theirorganizations. In the end, what employees expect of their managers is fairly simple:Can I trust you? are youcommitted to excellence? Do you care about me? What people constantly askof their organization is: Do you tell the truth? Do you keep promises? Do you actfairly? Do you respect me? Managers and organizations that keep these questions inmind will have a competitive advantage over others in retaining their employees
The Three Rs of Employee Retention To keep employees and keep satisfaction high, you need to implement each of the three Rs of employee retention: respect, recognition, and rewards.
Respect is esteem, special regard, or particular consideration given to people. As the pyramid shows, respect is the foundation of keeping your employees. Recognition and rewards will have little effect if you don’t respect employees.
Recognition is defined as “special notice or attention” and “the act of perceiving clearly.” Many problems with retention and morale occur because management is not paying attention to people’s needs and reactions.
Rewards are the extra perks you offer beyond the basics of respect and recognition that make it worth people’s while to work hard, to care, to go beyond the call of duty. While rewards represent the smallest portion of the retention equation, they are still an important one.
When you implement the “three Rs” approach, you will reduce turnover and enjoy the following: ➣ Increased productivity ➣ Reduced absenteeism ➣ A more pleasant work environment (for both employees and you!) ➣ Improved profits Furthermore, an employer who implements the three Rs will create a hard-toleave workplace, one known as having more to offer employees than other employers. You become a hard-to-leave workplace—one with a waiting list of applicants for any position that becomes available—purposefully, one day at a time.
KEi’s EMPLOYEE RETENTION WHEEL The first step to improving your employee retention is to understand why employees stay with their current employer. Many "experts" dwell on the reasons employees leave, which is not as important or revealing as the reasons they stay. Companies have tried many different programs and perks to hold onto good employees. However, studies show that these efforts are not enough to retain good employees when the support that is needed to achieve job success is not adequate. Don't Waste Your Money on Things That Don't Make a Difference... Among the countless inducements offered, only those identified in the center of KEi's Employee Retention Wheel™ are truly what give employees a consistent reason for saying "no thank you" when tempted with a "sweeter offer." After years of study and experience, KEi has determined, and presented in the Retention Wheel, what factors do have the greatest impact on keeping employees. KEi has used this information to give employers the tools to meet the core needs that keep employees successful at their jobs, thus reducing the high costs associated with unwanted employee turnover.
Using the Wheel to Improve Employee Retention KEi's Employee Retention Strategy is based upon two primary beliefs: (1) It is difficult for employers to retain good employees if they don't have a process to hire the right people in the first place. (2) Retention processes must directly support the reasons that successful, satisfied employees stay. KEi's concentration on the center of the Employee Retention Wheel provides employers with Internet-based tools that give employees systematic, ongoing support to be successful in their work and satisfied with their employment. The Center of KEi's Employee Retention Wheel: EIGHT FACTORS Definition of successful: my job is helping me to grow personally, professionally and financially. Definition of satisfied: my employer is providing what I need to perform my job successfully.
These eight central processes of the Employee Retention Wheel are the factors that are most critical to an employee's job performance success.
ATTITUDE FOR EMPLOYING A process to clearly define the way supervisors are expected to interact with employees; a process to give employees a way to express what is most important to achieve job success; and a process to give employers a way to demonstrate "Employing Values" through employment policies. This "Employer Mission Statement" is about how and who you hire, how you treat them, and the organization's values as an employer. It is about making sure that the Values for Employing™ are communicated to your employees and consistently implemented throughout your organization. It is about the total employment package that goes beyond salary and traditional benefits.
FINDING CANDIDATES A process that gives employers a comprehensive way to communicate to job seekers what it takes to achieve short-term and long-term job success, and to attract the candidates who fit this criteria. SORTING APPLICANTS A process that gives employers a way to confirm whether the attitudes and behaviors of job seekers are a match for their work environment. CHOOSING EMPLOYEES A process that gives employers a way to define the specific interview questions that prove job seeker abilities to successfully perform the target skills; and a process that gives employers a way to verify the accuracy of resume/application data and interview responses. STARTING EMPLOYEES A process that provides a way for new employees (before performing the job) to understand "why the employers business exists;" "what makes the business organization successful;" "why the employee's job exists;" and "what it will take for the employee to achieve job success." INFORMING EMPLOYEES A process that gives employers a way to provide essential information (from five critical information sources) that is needed by employees to make daily work decisions. IMPROVING EMPLOYEES A process that gives supervisors and employees a way to work together to build personalized plans for improving each employee's priority job skills; and a process that gives the employer a way to "deliver skills-improving training curriculum" and to "measure the learning effectiveness" from the training experiences. REWARDING EMPLOYEES A process that gives employers a way to define and communicate exactly how individual employee
salaries are determined; and a process that gives employers a way to provide employees with extra incentive income that is earned through the achievement of cash generating business goals.
10 WAYS TO RETAIN YOUR EMPLOYEE
Retaining key personnel is critical to long term success of an organization. A Retention Strategy has become essential if your organization is to be productive over time and can become an important part of your hiring strategy by attracting the best candidates who know of your track record for caring for employees. In fact, some companies do not have to recruit because they receive so many qualified unsolicited submissions due to their history of excellence in employee retention.
How do you get your employees to "fall in Love" with your organization? This is a great question. Some recently conducted research lists these Top Ten Strategies:
1. Treat your employees like you treat your most valuable clients. It is cheaper to keep your good employees than it is to hire and train new ones. Your top 20-25% should be courted as you would court and then service your top customers.
2. Get your employees to "Fall in Love" with your organization. Communicate your vision in a compelling way. Show everyone the role they have to contribute to this vision. Create opportunities for people to connect with each other for support and to improve communication in work teams.
• Capture the Hearts of your workforce with: Compelling vision/Balance/Celebration-Fun • Open Communication: Internal listening is a priority, multiple lines of communication (various channels.) This is essential for managing change in a positive way with less sabotage, anger, resistance, and fear. • Create partnerships: Squash status barriers/Open the books/pay for performance (not titles), share the "bad" times the "good" times. • Drive Learning: "Guarantee Employability," Encourage Life Long Learning (Train outside of job description). Loyalty comes from trusting your employees to develop their skills for the good of the company and for their needs for personal growth and satisfaction. • Emancipate Action: Freedom to Fail, reduce bureaucracy, challenge the "status quo." Breathe life into your organization. Do not let your employees stagnate.
3. Strong retention strategies become strong recruiting advantages.
4. Retention is much more effective when you put the right person into the right job. Know the job! Know the employee and their motivations. Half of the Fortune 500 companies are now using assessments to more fully understand each job and the soft skills that are required for top production within their specific company culture. These benchmarked skills are then compared against qualified applicants to help determine who will be successful in the position and fit well within their company's culture. These assessments are also used as a powerful professional development tool to enhance the training of continuous life-long learning (which is another powerful retention strategy.) Advanced Fibre Communication is beginning to use this assessment process in hiring.
5. Money is important but it is not the only reason people stay with an organization. If your compensation plan is in the top 20-30% of your industry, then money will often not be the reason why people leave.
6. Employee committees to help develop retention strategies is a very effective strategy. Get their input! Ask, what do people like about working here? What would you like changed to make your company a better place to work?
Some companies, such as Advance Fibre Communication (AFC), have recognized that the special engineers and technical experts that are the cornerstones of their business, require special attention. Victoria Perrault, VP of Administrative Services for AFC, says that her company has identified the top 25% of their staff and caters to these special people by meeting their financial requirements and looking for the best package of benefits that these people will find most positive as incentives to stay. They even have employee committees that work as "focus groups" to determine why people stay at AFC and what they might want to see changed to make AFC an even better place to work.
7. Leadership must be deeply invested in retention. Management must be skillful communicating company policies in a way that creates "buy-in" from their staff and be open to employee input. Help create "ownership" in your employees. The companies with the best retention percentages are the same companies that are actively committed to retention. They know that is costs less to keep good people than to continuously have to replace unsatisfied employees and managers.
8. Recognition, in various forms, is a powerful retention strategy. It does not have to cost a lot. US Dept. of Labor - 46% of people leave their jobs because they feel unappreciated. 9. Remember, the "Fun Factor" is very important to many employees. Greg Peters, Past President and CEO of Mahi Networks in Petaluma, is one of many executives who reported that retention is often related to interpersonal connections and amount of FUN in work teams. The FUN Factor is part of the generation of workers that use activities as stress management in highly charged production environments where long hours are required. Greg has encouraged Ping-Pong tournaments and basketball leagues for interpersonal interaction, fun, and stress
management. Though not everyone can participate in physical activities, this sets the tone in a culture based on competition, health/well-being, and interactions that are inclusive beyond work.
10. Know the trends in benefit packages. Do your best to offer the ones your employees need. Consider offering the best of the rest.
REASON FOR EMPLOYEE TO COME TO THE ORGANISATION? • • • • • • • Pay, Location, Benefits, Advancement Possibilities, Job Security, Nature Of Work, Personal/Family Time.
REASONS FOR EMPLOYEE TO STAY WITH THE ORGANISATION?
• • • • •
Confidence Factor-they believe in potential success/leadership strategies Emotional Factor- (Huge) contribution, recognition, appreciation Trust Factor- 2 ways- promises/commitments kept (strong link to loyalty) Fit Factor- Values/ethics are a good fit Listening Factor- Are they heard and valued?
SOLUTION FOR THE PROBLEM FINDING THE CAUSE OF ATTRITION Have a survey among employees to find the reasons for attrition. If possible, have exit interviews to know the reasons for resignations. If a key employee resigns, it should be taken up on a priority basis and the senior management should meet the employee to discuss his reasons for leaving and evaluate whether his issues bear merit and whether they can be resolved. Steps can be taken to avoid similar reasons from occurring in the case of others, in similar positions.
What can be done? Though, it is impossible to scrap problems totally, there are certain ways by which BPO managements can tackle attrition. Since the every organisation is unique, these companies need to develop innovative ways to tackle their problems. Human Resources department of companies must address these issues, and along with the management need to evolve strategies to retain employees at all levels.
At the time of Recruitment • • • • • Select the right people through competency screening. Use psychometric tests to get people who can work at night and handle the monotony. Offer an attractive, competitive, benefits package. Make clear of performance enhanced incentives and other benefits. Keep these promises, later. BPOs can set up offices in smaller towns, or recruit from there, where opportunities are few.
At the office • An employee’s work must be communicated to him clearly and thoroughly. The details of the job, its importance, the way it should be done, maximum time that can be allotted to complete it etc., must be made clear. If there are changes to any of these, let the employee know at the earliest • Give the employees necessary tools, time and training. The employee must have the tools, time and training necessary to do their job well - or they will move to an employer who provides them. • Have a person to talk to each employee at regular intervals. Listen and solve employee complaints and problems, as much as possible. Fairness and impartial treatment by seniors is important. Help employees manage stress, both at work and if possible, off work too. Give them special concessions, when in need. Treat the employees well & provide dignity of job.
• The quality of the supervision an employee receives is critical to employee retention. Frequent employee complaints arise on this issue. • Provide the employees a stress free work environment. People want to enjoy their work. Make work and work place cheerful and fun-filled as possible. • Make sure that employees know that their work is important for the organisation. Feeling valued by their employer is key to high employee motivation and morale. Recognize their strengths and help them to improve those they lack. • Employees must feel rewarded, recognized and appreciated. Giving periodical raise in salary or position helps to retain staff. • Offer excellent career growth prospects. Encourage & groom employees to take up higher positions/openings. If they don’t get opportunity for growth within the organisation, they will look elsewhere for it. • Work-life balance initiatives are important. Innovative and practical employee policies pertaining to flexible working hours and schemes, granting compassionate and urgency leave, providing healthcare for self, family and dependants, etc. are important for most people. Work-life balance policies would have a positive impact on retaining skilled employees, as well as on attracting high-caliber recruits. • Implement competency models, which are well integrated, with HR processes like selection & recruitments, training, performance appraisal and potential appraisal.
Night shifts 1. Have doctors to advise them about health problems and the ways and means to deal with them. Provide dietary advice: - Dos and donts. Help them to maintain their health. 2. Organize programmes where people from other professions, who have night shifts talk to BPO employees about their experiences. Other organisations like Army, Railways, Hospitals and various government services etc., also have night shifts. 3. Organize training, counselling and development programmes for employees. Tell them that their work is important. Encourage the best performers to share their experiences with others and guide others. The emphasis is to create the desire to learn, enjoy and be passionate about the work they do. 4. If needed, provide special lights in the office/workplace to ensure that their bodies get sufficient vitamin D.
One distinct disadvantage of night shifts is the sense of disorientation with friends and family members. Concentrate on this problem and develop innovative solutions and ways to deal with it. Additional holidays for work on national holidays and festivals, holidays for family functions etc., can go a long way.
BPO SECTOR INDUSTRY Business process outsourcing Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a broad term referring to outsourcing in all fields. A BPO differentiates itself by either putting in new technology or applying existing technology in a new way to improve a process. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the delegation of one or more IT-intensive business processes to an external provider that in turn owns, administers and manages the selected process based on defined and measurable performance criteria. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is one of the fastest growing segments of the Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) industry. Few of the motivation factors as to why BPO is gaining ground are: • Factor Cost Advantage • Economy of Scale • Business Risk Mitigation • Superior Competency • Utilization Improvement
Challenges for a HR Professional in BPO
1. Brand equity: People still consider BPO to be "low brow", thus making it difficult to attract the best talent. 2. Standard pre-job training: Again, due to the wide variety of the jobs, lack of general clarity on skill sets, etc, there is no standard curriculum, which could be designed and followed. 3. Benchmarks: There are hardly any benchmarks for compensation and benefits, performance or HR
policies. Everyone is charting their own course. 4. Customer-companies tend to demand better results from outsourcing partners than what they could actually expect from their own departments. "When the job is being done 10,000 miles away, demands on parameters such as quality, turn around timeliness, information security, business continuity and disaster recovery, etc, are far higher than at home. So, how to be more efficient than the original? 5. Lack of focused training and certifications given this background, the recruiting and compensation challenges of HR departments are only understandable.
Employee Retention
Retention involves five major things: Ø Compensation Ø Environment Ø Growth Ø Relationship Ø SupportCompensation Compensation constitutes the largest part of the employee retention process. Theemployees always have high expectations regarding their compensation packages.Compensation packages vary from industry to industry. So an attractivecompensation package plays a critical role in retaining the employees.Compensation includes salary and wages, bonuses, benefits, prerequisites, stockoptions, bonuses, vacations, etc. While setting up the packages, the followingcomponents should be kept in mind:Salary and monthly wage: It is the biggest component of the compensationpackage. It is also the most common factor of comparison among employees. ItincludesBasic wageHouse rent allowanceDearness allowanceCity compensatory allowanceSalary and wages represent the level of skill and experience an individual has. Timeto time increase in the salaries and wages of employees should be done. And thisincrease should be based on the employee’s performance and his contribution to the organization. Bonus: Bonuses are usually given to the employees at the end of the year or on a festival. Economic benefits: It includes paid holidays, leave travelconcession, etc.Long-term incentives: Long term incentives include stock options orstock grants. These incentives help retain employees in the organization's startupstage. Health insurance: Health insurance is a great benefit to the employees. Itsaves employees money as well as gives them a peace of mind that they havesomebody to take care of them in bad times. It also shows the employee that theorganization cares about the employee and its family. After retirement: It includespayments that an Employee gets after he retires like EPF (Employee
ProvidentFund) etc. Miscellaneous compensation: It may include employee assistanceprograms (like psychological counseling, legal assistance etc), discounts oncompany products, use of a company cars, etc.
5. Create a culture of engagement.Employees have become more connected with others in the organization (and the broader supply-and-customer chain) through project-based team work and processmanagement activities. Employees are shifting their loyalty to people, teams andprojects and away from company loyalty. It is organizations that create the cultureand climate that allow people, processes and projects to become fully connectedand engaged with one another. Engaged employees are more likely to stay withtheir employer 6. Train managers to be effective.Exit interviews consistently show that “poor and bad” management practicesgreatly contribute to an employee’s decision to leave a company. It is imperative toprovide supervisors and managers with adequate tools to become effectivemanagers since we cannot assume that these competencies are innate. ProfessorPatrick Connor, recentlyretired after teaching 25 years at the atkinson Graduate school of Management, isfamous among MBA students and alumni for his ‘Connorisms.’He told them, “youremployees do not work for you, they work for themselves.” When I teach mystudents about managing organizations, I have them reflect on what really mattersto employees and what they are constantly asking of their managers and theirorganizations. In the end, what employees expect of their managers is fairly simple:Can I trust you? are youcommitted to excellence? Do you care about me? What people constantly askof their organization is: Do you tell the truth? Do you keep promises? Do you actfairly? Do you respect me? Managers and organizations that keep these questions inmind will have a competitive advantage over others in retaining their employees
The Three Rs of Employee Retention To keep employees and keep satisfaction high, you need to implement each of the three Rs of employee retention: respect, recognition, and rewards.
Respect is esteem, special regard, or particular consideration given to people. As the pyramid shows, respect is the foundation of keeping your employees. Recognition and rewards will have little effect if you don’t respect employees.
Recognition is defined as “special notice or attention” and “the act of perceiving clearly.” Many problems with retention and morale occur because management is not paying attention to people’s needs and reactions.
Rewards are the extra perks you offer beyond the basics of respect and recognition that make it worth people’s while to work hard, to care, to go beyond the call of duty. While rewards represent the smallest portion of the retention equation, they are still an important one.
When you implement the “three Rs” approach, you will reduce turnover and enjoy the following: ➣ Increased productivity ➣ Reduced absenteeism ➣ A more pleasant work environment (for both employees and you!) ➣ Improved profits Furthermore, an employer who implements the three Rs will create a hard-toleave workplace, one known as having more to offer employees than other employers. You become a hard-to-leave workplace—one with a waiting list of applicants for any position that becomes available—purposefully, one day at a time.
KEi’s EMPLOYEE RETENTION WHEEL The first step to improving your employee retention is to understand why employees stay with their current employer. Many "experts" dwell on the reasons employees leave, which is not as important or revealing as the reasons they stay. Companies have tried many different programs and perks to hold onto good employees. However, studies show that these efforts are not enough to retain good employees when the support that is needed to achieve job success is not adequate. Don't Waste Your Money on Things That Don't Make a Difference... Among the countless inducements offered, only those identified in the center of KEi's Employee Retention Wheel™ are truly what give employees a consistent reason for saying "no thank you" when tempted with a "sweeter offer." After years of study and experience, KEi has determined, and presented in the Retention Wheel, what factors do have the greatest impact on keeping employees. KEi has used this information to give employers the tools to meet the core needs that keep employees successful at their jobs, thus reducing the high costs associated with unwanted employee turnover.
Using the Wheel to Improve Employee Retention KEi's Employee Retention Strategy is based upon two primary beliefs: (1) It is difficult for employers to retain good employees if they don't have a process to hire the right people in the first place. (2) Retention processes must directly support the reasons that successful, satisfied employees stay. KEi's concentration on the center of the Employee Retention Wheel provides employers with Internet-based tools that give employees systematic, ongoing support to be successful in their work and satisfied with their employment. The Center of KEi's Employee Retention Wheel: EIGHT FACTORS Definition of successful: my job is helping me to grow personally, professionally and financially. Definition of satisfied: my employer is providing what I need to perform my job successfully.
These eight central processes of the Employee Retention Wheel are the factors that are most critical to an employee's job performance success.
ATTITUDE FOR EMPLOYING A process to clearly define the way supervisors are expected to interact with employees; a process to give employees a way to express what is most important to achieve job success; and a process to give employers a way to demonstrate "Employing Values" through employment policies. This "Employer Mission Statement" is about how and who you hire, how you treat them, and the organization's values as an employer. It is about making sure that the Values for Employing™ are communicated to your employees and consistently implemented throughout your organization. It is about the total employment package that goes beyond salary and traditional benefits.
FINDING CANDIDATES A process that gives employers a comprehensive way to communicate to job seekers what it takes to achieve short-term and long-term job success, and to attract the candidates who fit this criteria. SORTING APPLICANTS A process that gives employers a way to confirm whether the attitudes and behaviors of job seekers are a match for their work environment. CHOOSING EMPLOYEES A process that gives employers a way to define the specific interview questions that prove job seeker abilities to successfully perform the target skills; and a process that gives employers a way to verify the accuracy of resume/application data and interview responses. STARTING EMPLOYEES A process that provides a way for new employees (before performing the job) to understand "why the employers business exists;" "what makes the business organization successful;" "why the employee's job exists;" and "what it will take for the employee to achieve job success." INFORMING EMPLOYEES A process that gives employers a way to provide essential information (from five critical information sources) that is needed by employees to make daily work decisions. IMPROVING EMPLOYEES A process that gives supervisors and employees a way to work together to build personalized plans for improving each employee's priority job skills; and a process that gives the employer a way to "deliver skills-improving training curriculum" and to "measure the learning effectiveness" from the training experiences. REWARDING EMPLOYEES A process that gives employers a way to define and communicate exactly how individual employee
salaries are determined; and a process that gives employers a way to provide employees with extra incentive income that is earned through the achievement of cash generating business goals.
10 WAYS TO RETAIN YOUR EMPLOYEE
Retaining key personnel is critical to long term success of an organization. A Retention Strategy has become essential if your organization is to be productive over time and can become an important part of your hiring strategy by attracting the best candidates who know of your track record for caring for employees. In fact, some companies do not have to recruit because they receive so many qualified unsolicited submissions due to their history of excellence in employee retention.
How do you get your employees to "fall in Love" with your organization? This is a great question. Some recently conducted research lists these Top Ten Strategies:
1. Treat your employees like you treat your most valuable clients. It is cheaper to keep your good employees than it is to hire and train new ones. Your top 20-25% should be courted as you would court and then service your top customers.
2. Get your employees to "Fall in Love" with your organization. Communicate your vision in a compelling way. Show everyone the role they have to contribute to this vision. Create opportunities for people to connect with each other for support and to improve communication in work teams.
• Capture the Hearts of your workforce with: Compelling vision/Balance/Celebration-Fun • Open Communication: Internal listening is a priority, multiple lines of communication (various channels.) This is essential for managing change in a positive way with less sabotage, anger, resistance, and fear. • Create partnerships: Squash status barriers/Open the books/pay for performance (not titles), share the "bad" times the "good" times. • Drive Learning: "Guarantee Employability," Encourage Life Long Learning (Train outside of job description). Loyalty comes from trusting your employees to develop their skills for the good of the company and for their needs for personal growth and satisfaction. • Emancipate Action: Freedom to Fail, reduce bureaucracy, challenge the "status quo." Breathe life into your organization. Do not let your employees stagnate.
3. Strong retention strategies become strong recruiting advantages.
4. Retention is much more effective when you put the right person into the right job. Know the job! Know the employee and their motivations. Half of the Fortune 500 companies are now using assessments to more fully understand each job and the soft skills that are required for top production within their specific company culture. These benchmarked skills are then compared against qualified applicants to help determine who will be successful in the position and fit well within their company's culture. These assessments are also used as a powerful professional development tool to enhance the training of continuous life-long learning (which is another powerful retention strategy.) Advanced Fibre Communication is beginning to use this assessment process in hiring.
5. Money is important but it is not the only reason people stay with an organization. If your compensation plan is in the top 20-30% of your industry, then money will often not be the reason why people leave.
6. Employee committees to help develop retention strategies is a very effective strategy. Get their input! Ask, what do people like about working here? What would you like changed to make your company a better place to work?
Some companies, such as Advance Fibre Communication (AFC), have recognized that the special engineers and technical experts that are the cornerstones of their business, require special attention. Victoria Perrault, VP of Administrative Services for AFC, says that her company has identified the top 25% of their staff and caters to these special people by meeting their financial requirements and looking for the best package of benefits that these people will find most positive as incentives to stay. They even have employee committees that work as "focus groups" to determine why people stay at AFC and what they might want to see changed to make AFC an even better place to work.
7. Leadership must be deeply invested in retention. Management must be skillful communicating company policies in a way that creates "buy-in" from their staff and be open to employee input. Help create "ownership" in your employees. The companies with the best retention percentages are the same companies that are actively committed to retention. They know that is costs less to keep good people than to continuously have to replace unsatisfied employees and managers.
8. Recognition, in various forms, is a powerful retention strategy. It does not have to cost a lot. US Dept. of Labor - 46% of people leave their jobs because they feel unappreciated. 9. Remember, the "Fun Factor" is very important to many employees. Greg Peters, Past President and CEO of Mahi Networks in Petaluma, is one of many executives who reported that retention is often related to interpersonal connections and amount of FUN in work teams. The FUN Factor is part of the generation of workers that use activities as stress management in highly charged production environments where long hours are required. Greg has encouraged Ping-Pong tournaments and basketball leagues for interpersonal interaction, fun, and stress
management. Though not everyone can participate in physical activities, this sets the tone in a culture based on competition, health/well-being, and interactions that are inclusive beyond work.
10. Know the trends in benefit packages. Do your best to offer the ones your employees need. Consider offering the best of the rest.
REASON FOR EMPLOYEE TO COME TO THE ORGANISATION? • • • • • • • Pay, Location, Benefits, Advancement Possibilities, Job Security, Nature Of Work, Personal/Family Time.
REASONS FOR EMPLOYEE TO STAY WITH THE ORGANISATION?
• • • • •
Confidence Factor-they believe in potential success/leadership strategies Emotional Factor- (Huge) contribution, recognition, appreciation Trust Factor- 2 ways- promises/commitments kept (strong link to loyalty) Fit Factor- Values/ethics are a good fit Listening Factor- Are they heard and valued?
SOLUTION FOR THE PROBLEM FINDING THE CAUSE OF ATTRITION Have a survey among employees to find the reasons for attrition. If possible, have exit interviews to know the reasons for resignations. If a key employee resigns, it should be taken up on a priority basis and the senior management should meet the employee to discuss his reasons for leaving and evaluate whether his issues bear merit and whether they can be resolved. Steps can be taken to avoid similar reasons from occurring in the case of others, in similar positions.
What can be done? Though, it is impossible to scrap problems totally, there are certain ways by which BPO managements can tackle attrition. Since the every organisation is unique, these companies need to develop innovative ways to tackle their problems. Human Resources department of companies must address these issues, and along with the management need to evolve strategies to retain employees at all levels.
At the time of Recruitment • • • • • Select the right people through competency screening. Use psychometric tests to get people who can work at night and handle the monotony. Offer an attractive, competitive, benefits package. Make clear of performance enhanced incentives and other benefits. Keep these promises, later. BPOs can set up offices in smaller towns, or recruit from there, where opportunities are few.
At the office • An employee’s work must be communicated to him clearly and thoroughly. The details of the job, its importance, the way it should be done, maximum time that can be allotted to complete it etc., must be made clear. If there are changes to any of these, let the employee know at the earliest • Give the employees necessary tools, time and training. The employee must have the tools, time and training necessary to do their job well - or they will move to an employer who provides them. • Have a person to talk to each employee at regular intervals. Listen and solve employee complaints and problems, as much as possible. Fairness and impartial treatment by seniors is important. Help employees manage stress, both at work and if possible, off work too. Give them special concessions, when in need. Treat the employees well & provide dignity of job.
• The quality of the supervision an employee receives is critical to employee retention. Frequent employee complaints arise on this issue. • Provide the employees a stress free work environment. People want to enjoy their work. Make work and work place cheerful and fun-filled as possible. • Make sure that employees know that their work is important for the organisation. Feeling valued by their employer is key to high employee motivation and morale. Recognize their strengths and help them to improve those they lack. • Employees must feel rewarded, recognized and appreciated. Giving periodical raise in salary or position helps to retain staff. • Offer excellent career growth prospects. Encourage & groom employees to take up higher positions/openings. If they don’t get opportunity for growth within the organisation, they will look elsewhere for it. • Work-life balance initiatives are important. Innovative and practical employee policies pertaining to flexible working hours and schemes, granting compassionate and urgency leave, providing healthcare for self, family and dependants, etc. are important for most people. Work-life balance policies would have a positive impact on retaining skilled employees, as well as on attracting high-caliber recruits. • Implement competency models, which are well integrated, with HR processes like selection & recruitments, training, performance appraisal and potential appraisal.
Night shifts 1. Have doctors to advise them about health problems and the ways and means to deal with them. Provide dietary advice: - Dos and donts. Help them to maintain their health. 2. Organize programmes where people from other professions, who have night shifts talk to BPO employees about their experiences. Other organisations like Army, Railways, Hospitals and various government services etc., also have night shifts. 3. Organize training, counselling and development programmes for employees. Tell them that their work is important. Encourage the best performers to share their experiences with others and guide others. The emphasis is to create the desire to learn, enjoy and be passionate about the work they do. 4. If needed, provide special lights in the office/workplace to ensure that their bodies get sufficient vitamin D.
One distinct disadvantage of night shifts is the sense of disorientation with friends and family members. Concentrate on this problem and develop innovative solutions and ways to deal with it. Additional holidays for work on national holidays and festivals, holidays for family functions etc., can go a long way.
BPO SECTOR INDUSTRY Business process outsourcing Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a broad term referring to outsourcing in all fields. A BPO differentiates itself by either putting in new technology or applying existing technology in a new way to improve a process. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the delegation of one or more IT-intensive business processes to an external provider that in turn owns, administers and manages the selected process based on defined and measurable performance criteria. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is one of the fastest growing segments of the Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) industry. Few of the motivation factors as to why BPO is gaining ground are: • Factor Cost Advantage • Economy of Scale • Business Risk Mitigation • Superior Competency • Utilization Improvement
Challenges for a HR Professional in BPO
1. Brand equity: People still consider BPO to be "low brow", thus making it difficult to attract the best talent. 2. Standard pre-job training: Again, due to the wide variety of the jobs, lack of general clarity on skill sets, etc, there is no standard curriculum, which could be designed and followed. 3. Benchmarks: There are hardly any benchmarks for compensation and benefits, performance or HR
policies. Everyone is charting their own course. 4. Customer-companies tend to demand better results from outsourcing partners than what they could actually expect from their own departments. "When the job is being done 10,000 miles away, demands on parameters such as quality, turn around timeliness, information security, business continuity and disaster recovery, etc, are far higher than at home. So, how to be more efficient than the original? 5. Lack of focused training and certifications given this background, the recruiting and compensation challenges of HR departments are only understandable.
Employee Retention
Retention involves five major things: Ø Compensation Ø Environment Ø Growth Ø Relationship Ø SupportCompensation Compensation constitutes the largest part of the employee retention process. Theemployees always have high expectations regarding their compensation packages.Compensation packages vary from industry to industry. So an attractivecompensation package plays a critical role in retaining the employees.Compensation includes salary and wages, bonuses, benefits, prerequisites, stockoptions, bonuses, vacations, etc. While setting up the packages, the followingcomponents should be kept in mind:Salary and monthly wage: It is the biggest component of the compensationpackage. It is also the most common factor of comparison among employees. ItincludesBasic wageHouse rent allowanceDearness allowanceCity compensatory allowanceSalary and wages represent the level of skill and experience an individual has. Timeto time increase in the salaries and wages of employees should be done. And thisincrease should be based on the employee’s performance and his contribution to the organization. Bonus: Bonuses are usually given to the employees at the end of the year or on a festival. Economic benefits: It includes paid holidays, leave travelconcession, etc.Long-term incentives: Long term incentives include stock options orstock grants. These incentives help retain employees in the organization's startupstage. Health insurance: Health insurance is a great benefit to the employees. Itsaves employees money as well as gives them a peace of mind that they havesomebody to take care of them in bad times. It also shows the employee that theorganization cares about the employee and its family. After retirement: It includespayments that an Employee gets after he retires like EPF (Employee
ProvidentFund) etc. Miscellaneous compensation: It may include employee assistanceprograms (like psychological counseling, legal assistance etc), discounts oncompany products, use of a company cars, etc.
