Employee Retention

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Employee Retention

• Sandy Chan
• Michael Cornwell
• Matthew Vogel

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Catbert Understands Employee Retention
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Topics

• Overview Turnover and Retention
• Truths About Turnover
• How Do We Find Out What Is Causing Turnover?
• Employee Burnout
• Succession Planning

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Overview

• What causes attrition?
• How can agencies improve retention rates?
• What retention problems are unique to the public
  sector?

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Truths About TurnoverAdapted from Branham,
Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business

• Truth 1 Turnover Happens
• So focus on keeping the best.

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Truth 2 Some Turnover Is Desirable

• Zero turnover is actually not desirable.
• New employees bring new ideas and keep things
  from becoming stagnant.

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Truth 3 Turnover is Costly

• The cost of replacing a lost employee, including
  productivity cost can be between one and two and
  a half times the salary of the job in question.

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Truth 3 Turnover is Costly

• Turnover Costs
• Direct Costs
• Recruitment Advertising.................
• Applicant Expenses........................
• Selection Testing...........................
• Medical Exam/Screening.................
• Background Check.........................
• Indirect Costs
• Employment Office Overhead..........
• Orientation Time...........................
• Training Time................................
• Reduced Productivity......................

• Actual/Estimated Costs
• ______________
• ______________
• ______________
• ______________
• ______________
• ______________
• ______________
• ______________
• ______________

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Truth 4 Money is Not the Answer

• In survey after survey, money ranks
• far behind things like
• Meeting a Challenge
• Using Ones Talents
• Having a Good Manager
• Opportunity for Advancement

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Truth 4Money is Not the Answer

• Agencies focused on retention will find a way to
• Show employees that results are valued.
• Recognize important contributions.
• Provide a sense of ownership.

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Truth 5 Reasons Good People Leave - Management

• Management demands that one person do the job of
  two or more.
• Management cuts back on administrative help,
  making professional workers take on those tasks.
• Management puts a freeze on raises and
  promotions.
• Management doesnt give the rank and file a sense
  of ownership.

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Truth 5 Reasons Good People Leave - Management

• Management constantly reorganizes and shuffles
  things around.
• Management doesnt clarify goals or decisions.
• Management shows favoritism for some employees
  over others.

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Truth 5 Reasons Good People Leave - Management

• Management relocates offices to another site
  forcing employees to resituate their commute.

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Truth 5 The Top Ten Reasons Good People Leave

• Management promotes someone who lacks training or
  necessary experience to a supervisory position.
• Management creates a structure that has internal
  departments competing against each other instead
  of cooperating.

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Truth 6 Reducing Turnover Takes Commitment

• When senior management is not
• committed, organizational policies,
• practices, and culture can undermine
• retention efforts.

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What Causes Attrition?

• Hire the right people for the right job.
• XXXXXXXX

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What are the differences between the public and
private sectors?
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Interviewing
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Learning to Stop Attrition

• Climate and Satisfaction Surveys offer direct
  feedback from current employees.
• Exit Interviews offer insight of employees that
  have made the decision to leave.

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The Art of the Exit Interview

• In-depth questions reveal trouble spots.
• Avoid top of mind answers by following up.
• Ask if there is anything that might be done to
  help a good employee stay.

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Offering Confidentiality

• People leaving a job may not want to risk burning
  bridges.

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Interviews vs. Surveys

• People are less likely to give candid answers in
  person than in an anonymous environment like a
  survey.

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Asking the Right Questions

• Establishing Expectations
• What brought you to this agency?
• What drew you to this position?
• What were your expectations from this job?

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Asking the Right Questions

• Evaluating Management
• Did you get the support you needed from your
  management?
• What, if anything, could management have done to
  prevent your leaving?

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Asking the Right Questions

• Job Satisfaction

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Asking the Right Questions

• Job Satisfaction
• What is your primary reason for leaving?
• What are you satisfied with?
• What are you dissatisfied with?
• Compensation

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Asking the Right Questions

• Open-ended Questions
• Choice (multiple vs. single answer)
• Matrix Questions

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Asking the Right Questions

• Demographics
• Age
• Sex
• Position
• Time-in-Service
• Education
• Next Step in the Career Plan

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Acting on Answers

• Employers need to act on interview and survey
  results if they are to be effective.
• If employees perceive that answers do not lead to
  action, they will give up on the process. (Why go
  through the trouble to interview or survey if
  youre not going to do anything with the results?)

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Burnout In The Workplace

• Sandy Chan
• Public Administration 700
• December 7, 2006

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Agenda

• Definition of Burnout
• Background
• Myths
• Why Is Burnout Important?
• Causes
• Signs
• Implications

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Burnout

• Emotional exhaustion, apathy and reduced
• personal accomplishment resulting from prolonged
• stress, overwork or intense activity

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Background

• Burnout coined in 1980 by Herbert J.
  Freudenberger
• Academic roots in human services
• Nursing/Medicine Education Eligibility Work
• Law Enforcement Social work
• Academia and private employers are paying more
  attention to it as globalization and technology
  are changing the workplace.

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Background

• Globalization
• Outsourcing, mergers, layoffs Same/more work to
  do by fewer people
• A service-based economy rather than a
  manufacturing-based one more work based on
  building relationships with others
• Technology
• E-mail, instant messaging, mobile communication
  devices allow for a much more demanding and
  fast-paced workplace

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Myths

• It is a problem and the responsibility of the
  individual, not the workplace
• Problems outside of work are interfering with job
  performance
• An attitude problem always complaining but not
  taking responsibility for ones own actions
• A sign of weakness, instability or misfit for the
  job

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Myths

• An inevitable--but manageable--part of working
  life
• Personal problems call for personal solutions
  get rest, get help or get out
• Theres not much an organization can do to solve
  it
• But these assumptions fail to take the problem
  into context

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Why Is Burnout Important?

• Burnout is costly to individuals and the
  workplace
• Reduced productivity due to poor morale
• Employee sickness
• Employee backlash in the form of sabotage or
  theft
• Potential loss of best employees those who care
  the most tend to burn out first

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Why Is Burnout Important

• Workers compensation, law suits
• The spending of time and money for recruiting
  training
• Public relations problems lost business
• The future of the company/organization and society

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Wayne State University School of Medicine, 2004
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Causes

• Work overload
• Lack of control over work
• Insufficient Reward
• Breakdown of Community
• Absence of Fairness
• Conflicting Values

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Signs

• Anxiety
• Sleeplessness
• Sickness
• Irritability toward colleagues and family
• Cynicism
• Depersonalization
• Thoughts of leaving the job

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Implications

• Not an individual problem its a workplace
  problem
• Employees want work that is challenging and
  rewarding, but when the environment is conducive
  to burnout, employees will be able to put less
  and less energy into their work.
• Show appreciation for work done and reward
  accomplishments
• Allow employees flexibility and autonomy over
  their work

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Implications

• Ask for employee input about changes or
  disturbances before implementing them
• Mentality should be An ounce of prevention is a
  pound of cure instead of If it aint broke,
  dont fix it.
• Resolution will have to constantly evolve as the
  workplace evolves, so effective communication is
  key.

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Planning for the FutureSuccession Planning

• Michael Cornwell
• PA 700
• Fall 2006

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Succession Planning

• The King is dead. Long live the King!
• Human resource management strategy aimed at
  mitigating organizational loss incurred by
  retirements and other forms of separation through
  HR forecasting.
• Identifying and grooming candidates for key
  positions through career path development,
  coaching, and mentoring.
• Also refers to large number of separations
  through mass retirement.

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Demographics

• Baby Boomer 1946 - 1964
• 29.4 of eligible workforce
• Generation X 1965 - 1975
• 14.2 of eligible workforce
• Generation Y 1976 - 1999
• less than 6.7 of eligible workforce
• 2005 Bureau of Labor Statistics

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Demographics
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Please insert Retirement

• Pencil joke here

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Retirement

• Social Security full retirement age ranges from
  65 to 67, depending on year of birth.
• Public Safety occupations often allow retirement
  at an earlier age.
• Example Police and firefighters in SF can retire
  at age 50.
• Baby Boomers currently ages 42 to 60.
• U.S. life expectancy
• Male - 75.02 years
• Female - 80.82 years
• CIA World Fact Book, 2006

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Impact on Public Sector

• Immediate impact on Public Safety occupations
  (Police, firefighters), because of earlier
  retirement ages.
• Healthcare costs continue to rise. Massive
  retirements will place strain on pension plans-
  which typically provide better healthcare
  benefits than those found in the private sector.
• Public health professions may experience
  significant increases in caseload size as Baby
  Boomers health declines.

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Coping with Labor Shortages

• Women in the workforce
• Immigration
• Re-thinking immigrant labor
• Delayed retirement
• Incentives to remain in workforce longer
• Reduced pension/benefits packages