Some of the reasons employees leave organisations are due to poor culture, poor work life balance, need for greater flexibility, poor management vs employee relationship, lack of communication, poor pay, no room for growth and poor working conditions, However, employees will stay with an organisation if there is a good work life balance, a sense of reward, good benefits packages, competitive salaries, fun environment to work, recognition and a financial need.
Peter Cheese, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said: “It definitely takes time to get a new employee up to speed. It depends on the nature of the job; on one end of the spectrum, somewhere like McDonald’s can get new employees up to speed very quickly. On the other hand, there is a business development person in a professional development organisation where you’ve got to spend quite some time understanding the network and building connections to the client base and so forth, then three to six months is probably fairly typical” (Replacing Staff Cost)
It’s important to understand the reasons why employees wish to leave an organisation as there are costs associated with a dysfunctional employee turnover, these costs may not only be financial but can also be Intrinsic and reputational. Intrinsic knowledge loss is difficult to measure, but would be a loss either way, if an employee brought clients to the business or has built fantastic relationship with clients whilst employed, that employee leaving the business would be detrimental. Reputational can cost the business immensely, if an organisation doesn’t treat their employees or ex-employees well and this becomes knowledgeable, it can be hard for the organisation to attract good talent and clients. According to an article in the telegraph (Financial) Financial costs in replacing staff can cost up to £4billion a year, that’s an average of £30k per person.
One method for retaining talent in an organisation is to ensure there is an open and inclusive culture which promotes communication. One way of doing this could be to ensure language used by the senior team inclusive of HR is as Lucy Adams say “human”. (Human) Adams surmises that often when we use jargon the company can end up creating a distance between themselves and the employee; whereas if we converse in a human approach using everyday language, we have the opportunity to create a more cohesive working team, where employees can feel involved in dialogue which could leader to greater engagement but encouraging a more human approach.
Of course, “jargon” has come about due to both a cultural need for some departments such as HR to retain a professional and non-committal distance. For example, if HR as an advisory agent apologised directly for offence caused to an employee, there could be ramifications later through allegations of admittance in sensitive situations.
Therefore, it’s vital that when encouraging engagement though treating employees as humans and not numbers that due consideration is provided to the wider ramifications of a change in language and method of communication should also be considered such as platform, surveys and daily briefings.
Another method employed by businesses is the approach of ensuring employees receive a greater work life balance. This can be done through several mediums:
- Flexible Working (statutory and company culture)
- Seeing the individual a whole
- Introduction of TOIL – for additional hours worked
- Implementing training for time management, According to HR Review (Poor TM) its “One of the biggest causes of stress in the workplace is poor time management”
- Increased leave benefits (holiday, paternity, maternity) Maternity for example According to Glass door (Women) Accenture pay, 9 months full pay
Such promotions can clearly be open to abuse and this can be a possible downside.
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Under the Equality Act 2010 [Equ Act2010], The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) stated that when managing retirement [Retirement], older workers can voluntarily retire at a time they choose and draw any occupational pension they are entitled to. However, employers cannot force employees to retire or set a retirement age unless it can be objectively justified as what the law terms ‘a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim – [Please see appendix 8], Acas have said that a direct question such as ‘when are you retiring’ should be avoiding, instead open ended questions such as ‘where they see them selves in a few years and there contribution to the organisation, this could be done during a performance development review. An employee can change their mind at anytime about retiring until they have handed in their formal notice
An employer cannot compulsorily retire an employee, as this would leave the employer open to a complaint of unfair dismissal.When managing a dismissal, ACAS states [Dismissal 2019 ] its always best to try and resolve any issues informally first.
According the Employment Rights Act 1996 [ERA 1996] employees have the right not to be unfairly dismissed, companies need to set out clear rules and procedures and act consistently when handling disciplinary procedures and to ensure employees and managers understand the procedures and rules.
One of the following reasons along with a fair procedure, an employee can be fairly dismissed; capability (including the inability to perform competently) redundancy, conduct or behaviour, breach of a statutory restriction (such as employing someone illegally) or some other substantial reason (such as a restructure that is not a redundancy).
Before holding a disciplinary hearing, an investigation should be carried out and the employee given any evidence in time to prepare for the meeting, the employee should also be given the opportunity to bring a trade union rep or a colleague, although they can’t answer any questions, they can ask them.
The employee should be given opportunity to share their side of the situation and challenge evidence.
If the disciplinary is based on performance, the employee should be given support and training and an opportunity to improve, Companies should not sack employees for a first offence unless its gross misconduct and a penalty should reflect the seriousness of the act, staff can usually appeal against Verbal, written 1st and final warnings.
If an Employee has been with the company less than two years, they do not have unfair dismissal rights, with exceptions around discrimination and equality.
CIPD tells us that [redundancy CIPD] redundancy is a special form of dismissal which happens when an employer needs to reduce the size of its workforce. An employee is dismissed for redundancy if the following conditions are satisfied:
- the employer has ceased, or intends to cease, continuing the business, or
- the requirements for employees to perform work of a specific type, or to conduct it at the location in which they are employed, has ceased or diminished, or is expected to do so.
If there is a genuine redundancy, employers that follow the correct procedure will be liable for:
- a redundancy payment, and
- notice period payment.
Employers don’t follow the correct procedure may be liable for unfair dismissal claims or protective awards. Redundancy legislation is complex and is covered by statute and case law, with both determining employers’ obligations and employees’ rights.
2019-1-18-1547854403