According to statistics by the catalyst.org, in 2018, a majority of companies in the USA had an average turnover rate of 22%. 15 % of these statistics was a voluntary turnover, while 81% of the individuals sought better employment opportunities. Turnover dynamics significantly affect organizations, especially when talent and skills have to be developed from scratch for new employees to fully assume their roles when employed. Moreover, low retention results in backlog, misuse of resources, and eventually results in a company's inability to compete favorably. In relation to the case study analyzed, Ms. Shivers' case is intricate because entities and individuals have strategized around her training skills, a factor that puts her at a disadvantage. Moreover, her inability to fully make decisions that positively influence employee retention is a significant concern. It is evident that one of the issues that can salvage the situation is job upgrades for data entry clerks as well as strategizing around job design. Besides influencing the creation of innovative products that would require the upgrade of skills hence job upgrade, to achieve her goals, Ms. Shivers should pursue other conventional means such as sourcing for employees whose jobs and responsibilities can be uniquely altered, understanding the dynamics that influence retention and most importantly differentiation of roles in a way that makes her institution unique and highly competitive in terms of employee retention.
Job diversification in a way that ensures extra skills acquisition and even innovation is one of the strategies Ms. Shivers can use to influence employee promotion. Regardless of the market niche an organization operates in, dynamic organizations stand a chance to better compete in a highly evolving work environment. Strategies that can be used to improve employee skills include orienting them to new ideas, enrolling them in virtual classes where they can practically acquire skills without worrying about making errors and reducing employee stress in a way that gives them the confidence to approach tasks in different innovative ways. On equipping employees with unique skills and giving them the capability to transform the organization by owning the brand, Ms. Shivers can present the idea of promotion of employee skills and the need for them to be promoted to her boss and argue out the case based on the ability of the employees to revolutionize the company's performance.
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Inspiring change in the organization's culture, especially at the managerial level, is indispensable in the leadership embracing change, specifically in this case of upgrading the data entry clerk and supervisory position. While change is inevitable and a necessary evil in ensuring the significant development of an organization, inflexibility, and agility in the management process hinder change implementation. From the analysis of the case, Ms. Shivers needs to influence the leadership into believing that it is time the organization changes its employee promotion structure. Closely related to the above, Ms. Shivers needs to talk to her boss about the need to eliminate autocratic leadership and implement collaborative leadership, one in which employee's needs, specifically promotion, are addressed. While it would difficult for a rigid leadership to accept such a proposal, it is necessary that Ms. Shivers strategizes around effective communication. Additionally, she could also organize seminars that mainly emphasize on effective leadership with the main aim of inviting her boss to such educational workshops. Most importantly, she could encourage her boss to embrace an open door communication strategy and invite the employees who need promotion to discuss the issue with Ms. Shiver's boss. When the problem is approached from different angles and by all the necessary stakeholders, it is possible that Ms. Shivers' boss thoughts will be positively impacted.
Employee appraisal, followed by actions that reward well-performing employees, is another strategy that Ms. Shivers could use to influence the upgrading of the two positions. It is undisputed that Ms. Shivers has a training program that produces some of the best entry clerks in the areas. With the experience she imparts the employees, it is undisputed that they are the best in the categories they work in. Some of the considerations in carrying out an appraisal would be the measurement of performance, employee's feedback and managers' feedback. The results from the appraisal should be presented to Ms. Shivers' boss and he should asked to analyze the extent to which the given employee contributes to the organization's success. Additionally, Ms. Shivers should suggest to her boss that dynamic employee appraisal approaches should be pursued. Negotiated appraisal, for example, would be instrumental in solving the current dispute about promotion. Most importantly, to better understand employee efforts and their role in ensuring the competitiveness or the functioning of the organization 360-degree feedback assessment should be focused on. This reduces bias that could be propagated by the party doing an appraisal. Ms. Shivers should then suggest performance-based compensation based on appraisal results. Such a prompt is likely to influence her boss to think about the promotion of the clerks, especially because their contribution towards the development of the organization would be made evident by the performance appraisal. Besides the above, Ms. Shivers should also use the result to discuss with her boss on employee compensation, extrinsic motivation, and employee benefits ( Byars & Rue,2011). In approaching the boss, she should mainly convince him of being result-oriented and mainly focusing on the process other than the outcome. This is because by critically analyzing the elements and the dynamics that influence employee output, it is possible to put in place strategies that positively influence the end results.
Job enlargement and rotation are two critical aspects of job design that Ms. Shivers can use to reduce turnover. While compensation is one of the critical elements that drive turnover, other elements such as job monotony and job redundancy could motivate turnover ( Kim et al., 2017). Besides, employee improvement through the acquisition of new skills is imperative ( Byars & Rue,2011). Through rotation, monotony is reduced. At the same time, the strategy is likely to motivate employees who are curious to learn to obtain a variety of skills. The above also help in the organization of work, hence reduces employee burnout that could be indirectly influenced by a lack of motivation to perform work tasks. While job enlargement is beneficial in reducing production cost, improving employee motivation, and improving workplace efficiency, it is critical that with the increase in responsibilities, employees' compensation and benefits are equally taken care of. In the case of Ms. Shivers', employees should be motivated by making their roles dynamic and ensuring their efforts are recognized and rewarded. Besides this, the biological job design approach should be a critical consideration when enlarging a given job ( Campion et al., 2001). Responsibilities should not be increased to a level where people's physical capabilities and limitations are exceeded. Such a job design would limit employee productivity by increasing liabilities, for example, those related to workplace injuries. Besides, job enlargement should be critically scrutinized to avoid the introduction of new challenges, especially in jobs that require a high level of sophistication and one that requires continuous attainment of new skills. Enlargement in such a case would probably result in employee burnout, an aspect that negatively influences retention.
Job enrichment is another indispensable approach that could reduce the high rate of employee turnover (Parker, 2015). Even though Mrs. Shivers' programs are known for the production of highly experienced employees, an introduction of other programs that look into dynamic aspects such as employee leadership development and their ability to embrace diversity could be explored. Most importantly, where the organization has several departments requiring skill sets that have a point of overlap, collaboration among employees could be encouraged to enable employees to gain skills in a field that they are not specialized in but could be interested in understanding its dynamics. Most importantly, employee skills should be complemented through paid online classes and the creation of a virtual situation that enables employees to freely learn without the fear of making errors. This way, extrinsic motivation is possible ( Valaei et al., 2016). In job enrichment, Ms. Shivers should emphasize elements such as task variety, skill variety, and the varying of mental activities. Data entry clerks should have a glimpse of how to operate systems that influence their activities and how to take advantage of technology to make their work easier and faster.
Job simplification and Engineering are other indispensable strategies that can positively reduce the turnover rate at Ms. Shivers' organization ( Parker, 2015). Even when it is necessary to perform job rotation, simplification should be achieved by ensuring a repetitive work process, ensuring one employee concentrates on a single particular aspect of work and creating natural tasks. Besides the above, Job engineering would also improve retention. It entails job standardization, planning, and strategizing around workplace tasks to maximize human effort and increase the output. The engineering approach also allows the user to incorporate scientific management principles into their human resource management practices. Better management reduces turnover because it implies that employees' needs are fully taken care of.
Improvement of quality of work-life is another job design strategy that Ms. Shivers could pursue. Given her boss's lack of initiative to promote some of the organization's best employees, the design should focus on how the boss views or employees involvement in the companies' undertakings could be positively influenced ( Daniels et al., 2017). Job involvement is one of the critical elements to be looked into in this case. Employees should be willing to engage with a particular job either because of their satisfaction from the given undertaking or extrinsic motivation. Involvement can be improved by welcoming employees' feedback on how their jobs and work environment can be improved, and incorporating strategies that improve employee's brand ownership. Quality of life improvement should focus on the reduction of isolation, work overload, work underload, limited control over the work by employees, and excessive working hours, among others( Daniels et al., 2017). Even when employees prefer to work overtime, they should be compensated in a fair and equitable manner.
In conclusion, employee retention is a problem that Ms. Shivers must strategize around. One of the critical elements that she should address is upgrading data entry and supervisory positions. Given her boss's lack of intention to oversee the promotion, strategies such as suggesting embracing collaborative leadership and carrying out employee appraisal could come in handy. Additionally, influencing the change of organizational culture and embracing change could be effective solutions. In terms of reducing employee turnover by using job design, Ms. Shivers should consider job enlargement, rotation, and job simplification. Furthermore, she could also introduce job enrichment and improvement of the quality of work life. One approach is not sufficient; a combination of two or more should be used to improve the workplace, hence increasing employee motivation and satisfaction.
References
Byars, L. L., & Rue, L. W. (2011). Human resource management.
Campion, M. A., & Thayer, P. W. (1987). Job design: Approaches, outcomes, and trade-offs. Organizational Dynamics , 15 (3), 66-79.
Daniels, K., Gedikli, C., Watson, D., Semkina, A., & Vaughn, O. (2017). Job design, employment practices and well-being: A systematic review of intervention studies. Ergonomics , 60 (9), 1177-1196.
Kim, S., Tam, L., Kim, J. N., & Rhee, Y. (2017). Determinants of employee turnover intention. Corporate Communications: An International Journal .
Parker, S. K. (2015). Job design. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management , 1-5.
Valaei, N., & Rezaei, S. (2016). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Management Research Review .
