Despite the advancement of technology and the successful expansion of companies into global scales, organizations still face a challenge in the turnover rates and employee retention. Unidentified occupational stressors and job dissatisfaction are the leading cause of high turnover rates (Gegenfurtner, 2013). Company policies are aimed at addressing the working conditions of employees due to the expensive and time consuming nature of hiring and training new staff.
Managers, therefore, need to focus on the employee motivation that entails satisfaction of interchangeable personal needs and behaviors. The understanding of the motivation cycle includes reward systems that link behaviors and needs to improve retention and reduce the company’s turnover rates.
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Theories of recruitment and retention of employees
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow’s theory, commonly referred to as “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,” consists of five motivational needs that explain the unconscious desires in humans (Hiong et al, 2012). The pyramid has a motivation system that relates the fulfillments in every step. The psychological needs of food, water and shelter are the most basic. The safety level provides the satisfaction of financial and personal security, therefore, creating the good health and a feeling of wellbeing in an individual. The third level is love or belonging in relationships such as family and friendships.
The fourth level is the esteem where people have the need to be respected and feel confident in social setups. Once all these needs are met, humans reach the self-actualization stage where they develop the capability of achieving their full potential (Hiong et al, 2012). The hierarchy can further be categorized into basic and growth needs. The basics are the safety, love, esteem, and physiological needs while the growth part includes self-actualization.
People are often motivated when they haven’t met some needs. The longer the duration of denial leads to the increase in motivation. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a motivational model that prioritizes some needs in comparison with others. The approach proposes that in order to activate satisfaction from items in the higher positions, one has to meet the basic human needs.
When employees work for long hours, they are denied the need for interaction with their significant others and therefore they cannot perform to their full potential. Additionally, Joe’s controlling nature makes the workers feel that they do not have control over their work. This leads to absenteeism, high turnover rates and customers dissatisfaction due to delays.
In order to improve the retention and recruitment issues of employees at JC’s Casino, the president should understand the basic needs proposed by Maslow. The employees should appreciated the value of their roles. Due to absenteeism, most house keepers are overworked despite the standard wages with similar roles in other casinos. Furthermore, when managers ask the accountants to participate in housekeeping, they feel disrespected and as a consequence look for other jobs.
The president needs to create a fair environment where employees develop motivation to reach their full potential. They also need to open communication lines so that the HR director does not hide the main concern of Joe, the incompetent stepson.
Hertzberg’s Two Factor Theory/ Motivation-Hygiene Model
In the 1950s, Frederick Herzberg designed the Hertzberg’s Two Factor Theory, which proposes that motivator and hygiene factors create or destroy job satisfaction among employees (Luscombe, 2013). The motivation-hygiene theory outlines recognition, enjoyment of work and career progression as a motivating factor. The hygiene factors include salary, benefits, relationships with coworkers and managers, and company policies. The motivator and hygiene factors act independently.
The president of JC’s Casino needs to improve employee retention by considering the motivator and hygiene factors. Dealers and housekeepers need to feel appreciated and supported through feedbacks and mentorship work to improve the company. The pay is good but the working environment is unfavorable for all employees. The relationship between the HR director and the president is based on fear rather than respect.
The president should make company policies that offer employee forums where they state their occupational stressors freely without fearing the implications. Nepotism during the hiring process also defies the goal of retention improvement and increases turnover rates (Gegenfurtner, 2013). The president should therefore hire new recruits based on merit rather than personal relationships.
Occupational stressors at JC’s Casino
Occupational stressors include the unexpected pressures and responsibilities that don’t align with an employee’s skills, expectations and knowledge and often inhibit the individual’s coping ability. Dealers and housekeepers do not feel that they that they do not get support from their HR director. They leave because they feel incapable of controlling their work environment. The dealers and the housekeepers feel that they are overworked due to the ratio of rooms cleaned per person and the number of hours due to absenteeism.
The accountants are often required to participate in cleaning the rooms, which creates role conflict and ambiguity. This managerial decision offers a barrier to career development goals. Additionally, the exiting employees cite difficult relationships with their supervisors due to managerial bullying, harassment and toxic behaviors. According to Tom Sneed, the HR director, many dealers cite the controlling and incompetent nature of their pit manager, Joe, who is the owner’s stepson.
JC’s president needs formulate company policies where employees focus on their recommended tasks to avoid occupational stressors. The working environment should be free and a basis for career development. More workers put in more effort to their work when there is a supportive environment. The president should also evaluate the complaints raised against stepson’s actions because the company is losing valuable employees, time of business operations and the costs of hiring and training.
The president should also evaluate his management team due to the incompetency claims for improvement of the company’s reputation in order to attract employee retention.
Job satisfaction
Job satisfaction improves retention because employees develop passion in being a part of a company that has a positive working environment (Luscombe, 2013). A productive work environment supports employees’ career goals, exploits individual potentials and improves interpersonal relationships. The recommendations to improve job satisfaction include frequent feedbacks to employees so that they feel their needs are important. They feel respected when the manager acknowledges their work and their name. Moreover, they develop the sense of belonging in a team that aim to achieve the goals of an organization.
Job satisfaction is also achieved in contexts where employees lack communication barriers with their supervisors or managers. Additionally, fair salary packages and benefits improve the status of individuals in a company. The reward systems such as salary increment and bonuses on a periodic basis motivate them to work harder in projects. Workers also keep jobs that offer insurance and other packages as benefits. People prefer the spousal and family inclusion in such packages and the pay might not be high yet they report job satisfaction. As a result, most people stay loyal to such companies and uphold the brand for a long period.
JC’s managers should pay attention to their team and respond to the complaints raised so as to create job satisfaction. The employees feel unsupported because no one mediates between their grievances and the president of the casino. They feel that the managers and supervisors do not support them. Supportive relationships enable people to perform to their full potentials.
The HR director should develop a mutual respect and confront the manager on the complaints against his relative on such matters. Additionally, the president must recognize the uniqueness of each employee and therefore deal with them as individuals rather than a unit. In a move to improve retention, he should address the complaints and the employees will develop the job satisfaction and keep their jobs.
Counterproductive employee behavior
The counterproductive behavior among JC’s employees includes the increased rate of absenteeism and the wrongful delegation by managers. Such behaviors lead to loss in revenue, wastage of time, resources, development of occupational stressors and job dissatisfaction. These factors make most of the dealers and housekeepers quit and transfer their skills to JC’s competitors. The transfers affect the shortage of employees and cost the reputation of the casino where people fear the poor working conditions such as the managerial bullying, incompetency of managers, work overload, mismanagement of time and the psychologically toxic environment.
In a move to reduce the counterproductive employee behavior and encourage productive behavior, one should evaluate the working conditions of the business premise. The first step is to find the root of the problem where they interview the different levels of employees separately and report the anonymous results to the president to avoid victimization. The other step is to evaluate the qualifications and the skills of the employees so as to get rid of incompetent employees. Most workers had complained of the incompetent nature of the pit manager.
This stage is followed by creation of new application and hiring measures where the president hires enough staff on merit. He should also delegate supervisory roles that monitor the working areas of the employees to ensure that there is no shortage of workers at all times. The other step is to offer reward systems to employees who show exemplary performance and keep time. The most significant approach is the free communication policies that offer an interchangeable forum for the dissemination of information (Luscombe, 2013). This platform creates a supportive environment, reduces occupational stressors, increases job satisfaction and retention of employees.
Conclusion
Employees play a significant role in the success of business operations because they represent the brand of the company and facilitate business operation. Managers who focus on the objective to improve job satisfaction, reduce occupational stressors and increase productive behavior improve employee retention in their respective companies. Every individual is unique and they have needs that need to be satisfied. This can be done through motivation. When employers create a suitable working environment, they appeal to the motivation of employees, therefore, gaining productive behavior.
References
Gegenfurtner, A. (2013). Dimensions of motivation to transfer: A longitudinal analysis of their influence on retention, transfer, and attitude change. Vocations and Learning , 6 (2), 187-205.
Hong, E. N. C., Hao, L. Z., Kumar, R., Ramendran, C., & Kadiresan, V. (2012). An effectiveness of human resource management practices on employee retention in institute of higher learning: A regression analysis. International journal of business research and management , 3 (2), 60-79.
Luscombe, J., Lewis, I., & Biggs, H. C. (2013). Essential elements for recruitment and retention: Generation Y. Education+ Training , 55 (3), 272-290.
