HRM textbook

CHAPTER 10 EMPLOYEE RETENTION, ENGAGEMENT, AND CAREERS 341
R E V I E W
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CHAPTER SECTION SUMMARIES
1. Managing voluntary turnover requires identifying its
causes and then addressing them. A comprehensive
approach to retaining employees should be multifaceted,
and include improved selection, a wellthought-out
training and career development program,
assistance in helping employees lay out potential career
plans, providing employees with meaningful work and
recognition and rewards, promoting work life balance,
acknowledging employees achievements, and providing
all this within a supportive company culture.
2. Employee engagement is important. Numerous employee
outcomes including turnover and performance
reflect the degree to which employees are engaged. For
example, business units with the highest levels
of employee engagement have an 83% chance of
performing above the company median, while those
with the lowest employee engagement have only a
17% chance. Engagement-supporting actions include
making sure employees (1) understand how their
departments contribute to the company s success,
(2) see how their own efforts contribute to achieving the
company s goals, and (3) get a sense of accomplishment
from working at the firm.
3. Employees ultimately need to take responsibility for
their own careers, but employers and managers should
also understand what career management methods are
available. These include establishing company-based
career centers, offering career planning workshops,
providing employee development budgets, and offering
online career development workshops and programs.
Perhaps the simplest and most direct is to make the
appraisal itself career-oriented, insofar as the appraisal
feedback is a link to the employee s aspirations and
plans. Supervisors can play a major role in their
employee s career development. For example, make sure
the employee gets the training he or she requires, and
make sure appraisals are discussed in the context of the
employee s career aspirations.
4. Getting employees to do better requires improving your
coaching skills. Ideally, the coaching process involves
preparation (in terms of analyzing the issues), developing
an improvement plan, active coaching, and follow-up.
Effective mentors set high standards, invest the time, steer
protégés into important projects, and exhibit professional
competence and consistency.
5. For employers, promotions can provide opportunities
to reward exceptional performance, and to fill open
positions with tested and loyal employees. Several decisions
loom large in any firm s promotion process: Is
seniority or competence the rule? How should we measure
competence? Is the process formal or informal? and,
Vertical, horizontal, or other? Women and people of
color still experience relatively less career progress in
organizations, and bias and more subtle barriers are
often the cause. In general, the employer s promotion
processes must comply with all the same antidiscrimination
laws as do procedures for recruiting and selecting
employees or any other HR actions.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Why is it advisable for an employee retention effort to be
comprehensive? To what extent does IBM s on-demand
program fit that description, and why?
2. Explain why employee engagement is important, and
how to foster such engagement. What exactly would
you as a supervisor do to increase your employees
engagement?
3. What is the employee s role in the career development
process? The manager s role? The employer s role?
4. List and discuss the four steps in effectively coaching
an employee. How could (and would) a professional
football coach apply these steps?
5. What are the main decisions employers should address
in reaching promotion decisions?