HRM textbook

CHAPTER 10 EMPLOYEE RETENTION, ENGAGEMENT, AND CAREERS 343
APPLICATION CASE
GOOGLE REACTS
On the face of it, Google would seem to be the last company
that one would expect to have an employee retention
problem. Google usually shows up in Best Employers to
Work for lists; it s famous for full benefits, from dry-cleaning
to free Web-enabled transportation from San Francisco
to great pensions; it offers great stock options; and as a fastgrowing
company, it usually has many job applicants.
So when its employee turnover began creeping up around
2010, Google s human resource team had to decide what to
do. Part of the problem is that as attractive as Google is to
work for, Silicon Valley is filled with attractive employers,
from Apple to Facebook. One of Google s first steps was to
boost compensation. It gave all 23,000 Google employees a
10% raise, plus a $1,000 tax-free holiday bonus. 82 But still,
Google management knew that pay was just part of the
solution. It had to take other steps.
Questions
1. Without doing any further research than what you learned
in this chapter, what other steps would you suggest Google
take to improve employee retention?
2. Was there any information in previous chapters of this
book that would help to illustrate other steps Google
took to improve retention?
3. Use other Internet sources, including Google.com, to
finalize an answer to the question, What other steps
should Google take to improve employee retention?
CONTINUING CASE
CARTER CLEANING COMPANY
The Career Planning Program
Career planning has always been a pretty low-priority item for
Carter Cleaning, since just getting workers to come to work
and then keeping them honest is enough of a problem, as Jack
likes to say. Yet Jennifer thought it might not be a bad idea to
give some thought to what a career planning program might
involve for Carter. Many of their employees had been with
them for years in dead-end jobs, and she frankly felt a little
badly for them: Perhaps we could help them gain a better
perspective on what they want to do, she thought. And she
definitely believed that career support would have an effect on
improving Carter s employee retention.
Questions
1. What would be the advantages to Carter Cleaning of
setting up a career planning program?
2. Who should participate in the program? All employees?
Selected employees?
3. Outline and describe the career development program
you would propose for the cleaners, pressers,
counter people, and managers at the Carter Cleaning
Centers.
TRANSLATING STRATEGY INTO HR POLICIES & PRACTICES CASE
THE HOTEL PARIS CASE
The New Career Management System
The Hotel Paris s competitive strategy is To use superior guest
service to differentiate the Hotel Paris properties, and to
thereby increase the length of stay and return rate of guests, and
thus boost revenues and profitability. HR manager Lisa Cruz
must now formulate functional policies and activities that support
this competitive strategy by eliciting the required employee
behaviors and competencies.
Lisa Cruz knew that as a hospitality business, the Hotel
Paris was uniquely dependent upon having committed,
high-morale employees. In a factory or small retail shop, the
employer might be able to rely on direct supervision to make
sure that the employees were doing their jobs. But in a hotel,
just about every employee is on the front line. There is usually
no one there to supervise the limousine driver when he
or she picks up a guest at the airport, or when the valet takes
the guest s car, or the front-desk clerk signs the guest in, or
the housekeeping clerk needs to handle a guest s special
request. If the hotel wanted satisfied guests, they had to have
committed employees who did their jobs as if they owned
the company, even when the supervisor was nowhere in
sight. But for the employees to be committed, Lisa knew the
Hotel Paris had to make it clear that the company was also
committed to its employees.