International Journal of New Practices in Management and Engineering: Vol: 4 Issue: 1 - 20 CURRENT TRENDS IN EMPLOYEE RETENTION STRATEGIES Ms.

Vaishali Chhabra ABSTRACT Employees are a valuable asset to any organization. It is essential to protect this vital resource as talented and motivated employees play a crucial role in overall growth and success of the organization. Focusing on employee retention techniques can positively impact the organization as it increases employee productivity, performance, quality of work, profits, and reduces turnover and absenteeism. More and more businesses are using innovative perks that go beyond the traditional financial benefits characteristic of the past. In fact, many companies are now offering employees health, wellness and green incentives.. This has proven beneficial to both the employee and employer. Improved vacation allowances, gym memberships, pro-bono opportunities and family friendly policies are just some of the changes that are becoming vital in an increasingly competitive and dynamic market of retaining legal talent. Companies big and small are increasingly realizing that fostering employee health and wellness, facilitating and encouraging employee personal growth opportunities and helping the environment can be in line with their long-term business objectives. Some of these initiatives can cost businesses very little, but they can also have a big impact on branding, and more important, recruiting and retaining talent. This paper puts forward the various initiatives taken by the business for retaining their talented employees and also discusses the benefits of these perks both from the viewpoint of employee as well as employer. International Journal of New Practices in Management and Engineering: Vol: 4 Issue: 1 - 21 INTRODUCTION Employees are a valuable asset to any organization. It is essential to protect this vital resource as talented and motivated employees play a crucial role in overall growth and success of the organization. Retention of key employees is critical to the long-term health and success of any organization Focusing on employee retention techniques can positively impact the organization as it increases employee productivity, performance, quality of work, profits, and reduces turnover and absenteeism. Employee retention is a process in which the employees are encouraged to remain with the organization for the maximum period of time or until the completion of the project. Effectively creating an engaging environment, recognizing good performance, giving benefits and rewards, promoting mutual respect are some of the ways for effective employee retention. Employee retention is beneficial for the organization as well as the employee. Employee retention matters as organizational issues such as training time and investment; lost knowledge; insecure employees and a costly candidate search are involved. Hence failing to retain a key employee is a costly proposition for an organization. Various estimates suggest that losing a middle manager in most organizations costs up to five times of his salary. It is a known fact that retaining your best employees ensures customer satisfaction, increased product sales, satisfied colleagues and reporting staff, effective succession planning and deeply imbedded organizational knowledge and learning. From an employee perspective, consultants feel that people are looking for breadth of

role more than monetary benefits and promotions. Promotions and financial perks do have their attraction, but to an extent, these are knee jerk reactions from companies, and may not be sustainable in the long term. What employees truly want is to have greater depth and breadth in their job roles and functions FACTORS WHICH MAKE EMPLOYEE LEAVE 1. No growth opportunities 2. Lack of appreciation 3. Lack of trust and support. 4. Stress from overwork. 5. Compensation 6. New Job offers 7. Job is not what employee expected International Journal of New Practices in Management and Engineering: Vol: 4 Issue: 1 - 22 ATTRITIVE FACTORS RETENTIVE FACTORS Compliance Brand Image Control Talent Utilization and Job Satisfaction Rigid Norms Good Culture Abrupt Changes Good Culture Unexciting Job Organization Environment Unjust Discrimination Credibility Unrealistic Deadlines Transparency Lucrative Offers Empowerment Poaching Responsiveness Bad Succession Plan Good Succession Plan EMPLOYEE RETENTION STRATEGIES Employee Retention involves five major things: 1. Compensation 2. Environment 3. Growth 4. Relationship 5. Support NEW TRENDS IN EMPLOYEE RETENTION STRATEGIES More and more businesses are using innovative perks that go beyond the traditional financial benefits characteristic of the past. Improved vacation allowances, gym memberships, pro-bono opportunities and family friendly policies are just some of the changes that are becoming vital in an increasingly competitive and dynamic market of recruiting and retaining legal talent. In fact, many companies are now offering employees health, wellness and green incentives. This has proven beneficial to both the employee and employer. INCREASE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT Effectively implementing employee retention program by increasing employee engagement ensures that the employees are satisfied with their work, take pride in their work, report to duty on time, feel responsible for their job, feel valued for their contributions, and have high job satisfaction. As employees actively focus on their work, it increases the productivity levels in the organization and leads to improvement in

several associated areas. Employee engagement ensures that the employees have a clear International Journal of New Practices in Management and Engineering: Vol: 4 Issue: 1 - 23 understanding of their roles and responsibilities in the organization. Increasing employee engagement helps to develop emotional connection, enthusiasm among the employees that promotes teamwork and healthy environment at the workplace. MOTIVATE EMPLOYEES Motivating employees by offering them better opportunities for career development can help in employee retention. Giving rewards, recognitions, promotions, and appreciation to employees can motivate them to increase their productivity, commitment to work, and loyalty to the organization. They feel that their contributions are valued in the organization. Giving incentives, pay hikes, bonuses can also help to motivate employees. Recognizing employees contributions and aspirations motivates employee to work productively and increases his confidence that helps in employee retention. FOCUS ON TEAM BUILDING Promoting team culture helps to actively involve all employees in achieving the goals and in overall success of the organization. Promoting team building imbibes a sense of belongingness among the employees that they are a part of larger goals or objectives of the organization. Team building promotes team work and team effort that help employees to tackle work pressure and thus provide a competitive advantage to organization. Focusing on team building activities can help to reduce workplace conflicts between team members as they work in a team. Organizing team building games, seminars, outdoor events help to promote team spirit, unity, and reduce stress. RECOGNITION OF PERFORMANCE Recognition of performance of employees is an effective method of employee retention. Although monetary compensation can act as a motivating factor, openly recognizing the performance, initiative, and good work increases the morale and motivates the employee to work more productively. Appreciating the performance motivates the employee and they feel valuable within the organization. This helps in employee engagement and to increase the productivity levels. FOSTERING EMPLOYEE HEALTH AND WELLNESS Health and wellness trends are an exciting development in the employment market. Unlike traditional benefit plans which tend to focus on treating the illness, these new initiatives focus on the prevention of the illness in the first instance. In turn, these opportunities lead to positive consequences for the employer, through a happier, healthier and ideally more efficient workforce. PERSONAL GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES International Journal of New Practices in Management and Engineering: Vol: 4 Issue: 1 - 24 Another popular perk offered by employers is the facilitation and encouragement of personal growth opportunities. In Canada, for example, many law firms are increasingly placing value on providing high-quality learning and offering extensive professional development opportunities for lawyers, as well as encouraging public service work. GREEN INITIATIVES Firms are also beginning to set themselves apart by providing workplaces that encourage respect for the environment and foster green initiatives. In this case, helping the environment is not the only payoff, as green initiatives can also help attract new talent,

increase productivity and reduce costs. Whats more, studies show that students coming out of school increasingly place value on workplaces that have less of a negative impact on the environment. Preliminary studies also link eco-friendly workplaces to higher productivity and less absenteeism. MANAGERS ROLE IN RETENTION 1. Creating a motivating environment 2. Standing up for the team 3. Providing Coaching 4. Delegation 5. Extra Responsibility H R DEPARTMENT ROLE IN RETENTION 1. Gives infrastructure facilities to ensure that employees give their best. 2. They can make employees friendly policies, processes and procedures to ensure that employees grow in organization. 3. They can appreciate employees work. 4. They can ensure proper communication process takes place and make sure that employees are heard. 5. They can give regular feedback and recognition. 6. They can give training to boss, if his management style is not good. BENEFITS OF EMPLOYEE RETENTION TECHNIQUES Effective employee retention techniques help to leverage the most valuable asset, the employees, to achieve growth of the company and increase the bottom line profits. International Journal of New Practices in Management and Engineering: Vol: 4 Issue: 1 25 Various employee retention techniques increase the employee productivity levels in the organization leading to reduction in cost per item or services produced. Health, wellness and green initiatives are indicative of the times. Companies big and small are increasingly realizing that fostering employee health and wellness, and helping the environment, can be in line with their long-term business objectives. Some of these initiatives can cost businesses very little, but they can also have a big impact on branding, and more important, recruiting and retaining talent. EMPLOYERS AND THEIR KEY DRIVERS TO ATTRACT AND RETAIN TALENT Employers Key Drives To Attract And Retain Talent Procter and Gamble India o Early responsibilities in career o Flexible and transparent organizational culture o Global opportunities through a variety of exposure and diverse experiences o Performance Recognition American Express (India) o Strong global brand o Value-based environment o Pioneer in many people practices NTPC o Learning and growth opportunities

o Competitive rewards o Opportunity to grow, learn and implement o Strong social security and employee welfare performance- oriented culture Johnson & Johnson o Strong values of trust, caring fairness, and respect within the organization o Freedom to operate at work o Early responsibility in career o Training and learning opportunities o Visible, transparent and accessible leaders o Competitive rewards o Innovative HR programs and practices Glaxo Smith Kline Consumer Healthcare o Performance-driven Rewards o Its belief in Growing our own timber o Comprehensive development and learning International Journal of New Practices in Management and Engineering: Vol: 4 Issue: 1 - 26 programs o Flat organization, where performance could lead to very quick progression o Challenging work context o Competitive rewards o Exhaustive induction and orientation program Tata Steel o Organization philosophy and culture o Job stability o Freedom to work and innovate Colgate Palmolive India o Company brand o Open , transparent, and caring organization o Management according to the managing with respect to guiding principles o Training ad development programs o Structured career planning process o Global career opportunities Wipro o Companys brand as an employer o Early opportunities for growth o High degree of autonomy o Value compatibility o Innovative people program Indian Oil Corporation o Company brand image o Work ethics

o Learning and growth opportunities o Challenging work assignments o Growing organization TCS o The group brand equity o Strong corporate governance and citizenship o Commitment to learning and development o Best in people practices o Challenging assignments o Opportunity to work with fortune 500 clients International Journal of New Practices in Management and Engineering: Vol: 4 Issue: 1 - 27 REFERENCES 1. Personnel Management- C.B. Mamoria and S.V. Gankar 2. Human Resource Management- VSP Rao. 3. Human Resource Management- G.S. Sudha 4. www.monster.com 5. www.scribd.com 6. www.hrmba.blogspot.com 7. www.retention.naukrihub.com