Ch.

10 Employee Retention, Engagement, and Careers

MANAGING EMPLOYEE TURNOVER AND RETENTION

Turnover-the rate at which employees leave the firm
Voluntary turnover
Involuntary separations (due to poor performance, disability or
corporate downsizing)
Involuntary turnover

1. Costs of Turnover
2. Managing Voluntary Turnover
5 top reasons high commitment/top performing employees leave:
1. Pay
2. Promotional opportunities
3. Work-life balance
4. Career development
5. Health care benefits
6. Unfairness
7. Not having their voices heard
8. Lack of recognition
3. Retention Strategies for Reducing Voluntary Turnover
*retaining employees is a talent management issue
* Employers can only address such issues by instituting effective and
comprehensive talent management (recruitment, selection, training,
appraisal, and compensation) practices.
*Put another way, turnovers (both voluntary and involuntary) often
start with poor selection decisions, compounded by inadequate
training, insensitive appraisals, and inequitable pay.
Identifying the issues-first step in any retention strategy

a. A Comprehensive Approach to Retaining Employees

1. Selection-choosing the right worker and supervisors
2. Professional growth
- professionals who feel their company cares about their
development and progress are much more likely to stay.
3. Provide career direction
-dont wait until performance reviews to remind top employees
how valuable they are to your company
4. Meaningful work and ownership of goals
-People cant do their jobs if they dont know what to do or what
their goals are
-making it clear what your expectations are regarding their
performance and what their responsibilities are
5. Recognition and reward
6. Culture and Environment
 7. Promote work-life balance
8. Acknowledge achievements
a. Managing Involuntary Turnover
- dismissals due to poor performance are sometimes avoidable. As
b. Talent Management and Employee Retention
c. Job Withdrawal
Withdrawal-separating oneself from ones current situation; a means
of escape for
someone who is dissatisfied or fearful
Job Withdrawal-actions intended to place physical or psychological
distance between employees and their work environments
-ex. Poor attendance, voluntary turnover, taking undeserved work
breaks, spending time in idle conversation and neglecting aspects of
the job one is obligated to perform. 15 Other employees stop showing
up mentally ( psychological withdrawal )
* job withdrawal process tends to be incremental, often evolving
from daydreaming to absences to quitting: [W]hen an employee
perceives that temporary withdrawal will not resolve his/her problems,
then the employee is apt to choose a more permanent form of
withdrawal (i.e., turnover, assuming that alternative work opportunities
are available). 17
DEALING WITH JOB WITHDRAWAL
*negative emotional states make people aware that their current situation is
problematic, and this awareness motivates them to take action.
*People are repelled by situations that produce unpleasant, uncomfortable , and
are attracted to those that produce pleasant, comfortable ones
Potential negatives
-boring jobs, poor supervision, low pay, bullying, lack of career prospects, and
poor working conditions.
Potential positives
- job enrichment, supportive supervision, equitable pay/family-friendly benefits,
disciplinary/appeals processes, career development opportunities,

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Diminished employee engagement is reflected in:
o Poor attendance
o Voluntary turnover
o Psychological withdrawal
Engagement-being psychologically involved in, connected to,
and committed to getting ones jobs done

1. Why Engagement is Important

-satisfied employees arent enough
- Instead, Employees should be engaged by providing them with
reasons and methods to satisfy customers and then rewarded for
appropriate behavior
 2. Actions That Foster Engagement
Engagement-supporting actions include making sure employees:
1. Understand how their departments contribute to the
companys success
2. See how their own efforts contribute to achieving the
companys goals
3. Get a sense of accomplishment from working at the firm
3. Monitoring Employee Engagement

CAREER MANAGEMENT
*Rather than focusing on incentives and perks to entice and retain
employees, organizations will hold onto the most talented workers by
offering them a range of professional experiences, broad functional
and geographic exposure within the organization, and more targeted
leadership opportunities
* employees should be better equipped, boost employee engagement,
recruitment and retention efforts
1. Careers Terminology
Career -occupational positions a person holds over the years
Career management-process for enabling employees to better
understand and develop their career skills and interests and to
use these skills and interests most effectively both within the
company and after they leave the firm
Career development-lifelong series of activities (such as
workshops) that contribute to a persons career exploration,
establishment success, and fulfillment
Career planning-the deliberate process through which someone
becomes aware of personal skills, interests, knowledge,
motivations, and other characteristics; acquires information
about opportunities and choices; identifies career-related goals;
and establishes action plans to attain specific goals
2. Career Today
2. Psychological Contract
Psychological contract-what the employer and employee expect of
each other; an unwritten agreement that exists between employers
and employees; identifies each partys mutual expectations
4. The Employees Role in Career Management
Career Planning-matching individual strengths and weaknesses with
occupational opportunities and threats
Personality is one career choice determinant.
John Holland found six basic personality types or orientations.
o Self-Directed Search (SDS) test
5. The Employers Role in Career Management
Before hiring
The first job
 Reality shock-a phenomenon that occurs when a new employees
high expectations and enthusiasm confront the reality of boring,
unchallenging job
On the job
6. Career Management Systems
a. CAREER CENTERS
Career development training
Follow-up support
Career assessment
Planning tools
b. CAREER PLANNING WORKSHOPS-planned learning events in which
participants are expected to be actively involved, completing career
planning exercises and inventories and participating in career skills
practice sessions; typically includes self-assessment exercises,
assessment of occupation trends and goal-setting and action
planning segments
b. LIFELONG LEARNING BUDGETS
b. PROVIDE CAREER COACHES
b. OFFER ONLINE PROGRAMS
b. CAREER-ORIENTED APPRAISALS
Performance review
Performance appraisal
7. Gender Issues in Career Development
Corporate career development activities were less available to
women that tom men
Glass ceiling
7. The Managers Role

IMPROVING COACHING SKILLS

Coaching-educating, instructing, and training subordinates; focuses on
teaching shorter-term job-related skills
Mentoring-advising, counseling, and guiding; focuses on helping
employees navigated longer-term career hazards
1. Building Your Coaching Skills
o analysis
o interpersonal skills
o Four-Step Process of Coaching
1. Preparation
2. Planning
3. Active coaching
4. Employees Skills
ii. Planning
1. Change of plans in the form of
1. Steps to take
 2. Measures of success
3. Date to complete
ii. Actual coaching-teacher
iii. An effective coach offers ideas and advice in such a way that the
subordinate can hear them, respond to them, and appreciate
their value
iv. Follow-up and re-observe the persons progress periodically
Building Your Mentoring Skills
i. Formal or informal
ii. MENTORING CAVEATS
1. Coaching focuses on the daily tasks that you can easily re-
learn, so coachings downside is usually limited
2. Mentoring-focusing on relatively hard-to-reverse longer-
term issues, and often touches on the persons psychology
(motives, needs, aptitudes, and how one gets along with
others, for instance)
ii. THE EFFECTIVE MENTOR
1. Set high standards
2. Invest the time
3. Steer protgs
4. Requires trust which reflects the mentors professional
competence, consistency, ability to communicate and
readiness to share control
ii. THE PROTGs RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Choose an appropriate potential mentor
2. Dont be surprised if youre turned down
3. Make it easier for a potential mentor to agree to your
request
4. Respect the mentors time
Improving Productivity through HRIS: Integrating Talent
Management and Career and Succession Planning
i. 360 Feedback
ii. Career Development
iii. Compensation Management
iv. Career Progression
v. Learning Management
vi. Performance Management
vii. Recruiting and Hiring

MAKING PROMOTION DECISIONS

Decision 1: Is Seniority or Competence the Rule?
o Favors competence
Decision 2: How Should We Measure Competence?
o Peter Principle-promote competent employees up to their
level of incompetence
o defining and measuring past performance is relatively
straightforward
o written knowledge test, an assessment center, credit for
seniority, and a score based on recent performance appraisal
ratings, personnel records review (includes evaluation of job-
related influences such as supervisory-related education and
experience, ratings from multiple sources, and systematic
evaluation of behavioral evidence
o THE 9-BOX ASSESSMENT-current performance and performance
potential
o 9-box matrix-assessing current employees promotional
prospects; displays three levels of current job performance
(exceptional, fully performing, not yet fully performing) across
the top
shows three levels of likely potential (eligible for
promotion, room for growth in current position, not likely to
grow beyond current position) down the side