With more than 7 billion people around the world, what are the chances of you finding the “right one?” When you know in your heart that you already got “the one,” will you not do whatever you can to make the “right one” stay? If not forever, at least a while longer?
Making the right one stay and believing in forever is not just a personal issue, it is also an organizational issue. In the organizational context, employee turnover is the rate of people joining and leaving the organization, while employee retention is concerned with how do we keep the right ones. So can management studies help us find ways on how to make the “right one” stay?
In a report by LinkedIn in 2017, the average global turnover rate is 12.8 percent and these rates are expected to increase over the next several years. The top global reasons for employees leaving are a lack of opportunity to advance (45 percent), dissatisfaction with senior management (41 percent) and the work environment or culture (36 percent). These issues coupled with easier access to more work options due to increased globalization and advancements in technology post even a greater challenge for human resource managers in retaining their talented employees.
Many human resource management practices have been explored to improve employee retention. However, widely adopted HR practices such as remuneration, training, and development might not really provide a competitive advantage for organizations to retain “the right employees.” Workers look beyond compensation in deciding whether or not to stay.
Making the right ones stay in the organization requires looking beyond traditional HRM practices. A study on employee retention conducted among BPOs in the Philippines by Presbiterio, Roxas and Chadee in 2016 sought to discover how an organization can leverage its HR practices to enhance employee retention rates.
Interestingly, the answer boils down to how fit the organization values are to that of its employees. This is actually a form of compatibility but is known in the field of human resource management as person-to-organization fit or as employee-organization values fit.
According to them, HRM practices such as remuneration, training and development, career development and work-life balance can lead to improvement in employee retention when it is anchored on basic values that employees and the organization share.
When the personal values of employees are compatible with the values and norms of the organization, they tend to become more productive and effective employees. They also tend to experience less burn-out and will more likely to develop a sense of affirmative feelings about the workplace.
Because employees experience organizational identification or a deeper sense of belongingness in the organization, employees with higher values similarities between the organization and their superiors are more likely to stay.
It was suggested that HR managers should consider this compatibility as an integral element in the design and implementation of HRM policies in addressing employee retention. The study also suggested that global BPO companies should undergo some degree of cultural adaptation in HRM practices to fit local values to be successful in retention planning.
The right one will stay, if we have compatible values with them and compatibility is something two individuals can work out.
Traditional HR practices alone are not enough in an organization setting. In love, typical efforts are also not enough. This may not be the first time you came across this. But yes, fancy gifts, expensive dinners, big surprises may not be enough to make your “right one” stay.
There must be a willingness between two individuals to know each other better and to find ways to adapt to each other’s differences so as to complement each other. It is these consistent efforts that matter to your significant. Going out of your way to show that what he or she values is also valuable to you is what really matters.
Joy Anne Evaristo is a Doctor of Business Administration student of the Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business of De La Salle University (DLSU). She is also a faculty member at Holy Angel University. She welcomes comments at joy_evaristo@dlsu.edu.ph. The views expressed above are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official position of DLSU, its faculty, and its administrators.