Role of HR Department in Retaining Employees

Come March/April and we hear that so and so employee left so and so company!

It seems that it is now becoming an accepted trend, more so March being the financial year end and appraisal time for employees. While the increasing employee turnover may seem high in specialized service sector like Information technology, Consulting etc it is not negligible in other industries.

Many onlookers may reject this trend but it keeps any HR department on its toes and could pose serious issue for any organization. It is sad to note that in most cases HR department acts as mere extension of the legal department of the company e.g., documenting the reasons for resignation, ensuring that there is no litigation with regard to settlement and notice period etc.

HR department assumes a significant independent role in an organization and should ensure that it arrest or reduce the trend of resignations.

Handhold new employee

A key role which needs to be played by HR department at the time a new employee joins is to ensure that he is provided with a brief introduction to company, people who matter, policies and procedures etc.A full day PowerPoint presentation is welcome suggestion. Sending a flower bouquet to a new employee immediately prior to his joining would mean a lot and act wonders.

Introduction to the work atmosphere

Mostly HR department send “intro-mail” followed by joining of employee and we do not hear any more. A nicer gesture would be to ensure that the employee is taken for a “personal introduction rounds” to each and every department and person.HR department should also ensure that employees are provided with his arms and ammunition such as computer, stationeries, other accessories, important telephone numbers, logins, etc, to get going on his day of joining in smooth coordination with the admin department.

Grievance Redressal

Unaddressed grievances bore seed into the mind and if not addressed in time grows into a huge tree of dissatisfaction. HR department generally never communicates with the employees once he has joined and leaves him high and dry to cop up on his own. The saying “Any relation which lacks attention leads to separation” aptly applies to HR-employee relation. A “feel at home” atmosphere should be in place whereby any employee grievance is followed by prompt response.

Continuous relation and seamless coordination

HR department should play an arterial role in any organization reaching out to each and every employee’s right from the top to bottom with an unbiased approach. Employee achievements should be regularly highlighted and important personal occasion should be gladly shared across the organization. HR department should conduct a regular employee surveys and soft skills training to assess the degree of employee grievance and provide adequate tonic.

HR department should work hand in hand with the line managers whom the employees are reporting to in terms of feeling the pulse of employees. An informal attitude from HR department is a most suitable way to reach out widely and would give them universal acceptance.

We note that most companies have a robust 3 way or 4 way appraisal system in place which ensures that an employee is evaluated on a independent manner with respects to his technical and soft skills from more than one resource. It is seen that even these processes fail to fully provide an effective result since the independency of appraisal is marred by influence of immediate supervisor and this process is more subjective.HR department should play important role during such appraisal by ensuring a more objective analysis of the whole process and presenting independent reports.

Learning from exit processes

Most of the resignations are not reversed since chances of bridging the gap become impossible.HR should ensure that necessary mechanism is in place to document reasons. HR jobs become more crucial since most employees may not register the complaints/grievance in the exit interview or forms fearing that doing so would affect his future career prospect such as relieving letter etc.Employees should be assured at the highest level about the independence, autonomy and unbiased approach of HR. Communication of an important action taken based on employee input may infact be a good tool to get back good employees.

Summary

The need of the hour for any company is to have a proactive and independent HR department which is not only neutral in its role but also ensures confidential atmosphere which allows the employee to frequently interact with them. HR department should not only coordinate with the employees whilst they join or leave but work seamlessly and continuously in shaping the roles of employees within an organization.