Introduction to HRM: Voluntary Turnover and Retention Strategies

This report delves into the critical issue of voluntary turnover within Human Resources Management (HRM). It begins by defining voluntary turnover and highlighting its impact on organizations, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a stable workforce. The report then explores the various reasons behind voluntary turnover, including job-skill mismatches, organizational stagnation, and poor management practices. It further examines the problems associated with high turnover rates, such as increased expenditure, difficulties in managing and developing new employees, damage to brand image, and reduced performance. To mitigate these challenges, the report proposes several strategies for employee retention, including recruiting the right team, offering competitive compensation and benefits, showing appreciation and providing motivation, creating opportunities for growth, and fostering a positive working environment. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for organizations to proactively address turnover to ensure long-term success and achieve their goals.

Running Head: INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT 1
The problems of Voluntary turnover and the strategies organizations should take to
maintain their employees.
Introduction
A work relationship should maintain mutual agreement and interests to the parties involved at all
times. These healthy interactions between the stakeholders ensure for a long term association in a
place of work with less problems. However, sometimes an employee might decide to terminate
his or her association with a certain organization for different reasons, which is called voluntary
turnover. There are different reasons that could motivate an employee to voluntarily turnover,
including dissatisfaction at work or better chances outside. In the event that an employee has left
his duties out of good will, then it leaves the organization with some impact (Tanova 2008).
Employee turnover is a trend that has resulted in negative impacts to the organization affected.
An organization ends up facing increased expenditure, difficult in handling and developing new
employees, a negative brand image and overall reduced performance.
The success of an organization fully depends on its employees to deliver great services in
consideration to their skills and experiences. Companies with focused and contented workers
perform better because they give employees are able to give their best at work. Success comes
when all the parties are getting what they need to motivate them towards achieving the goals of
an organization (Crossley 2007). An organization usually needs to improve its employee
strategies and programs to the extent that they can maintain their most valuable workers. Some
of the ways to ensure long term working relationships with employees is to recruit the right team,

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT 2
putting more consideration into the benefits and considerations of employees, offer rewards for
good work done, create new opportunities for growth and offer a positive working environment.

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Reasons for voluntary turnover
i. Mismatch of skills and job
People do not always get the jobs they had wished for in their dreams and career development.
When such like a situation occurs, people might find themselves in need for career change and
hence end up quitting their jobs and terminating their contracts before maturity. Some of the
main reasons that might lead to such like actions include a mismatch between the job
requirements and the skills and experiences of an employee (Zimmerman 2009.). An individual
might have the required skills and knowledge in the sales and marketing sector but then acquire a
position in the information technology department. He or she might be trained on the new job
and get the basics but his or her skills lies somewhere else. Only an employee trained in a certain
sector can deal with complex situations when they occur in the process of operation (Sturges
2005.). It is therefore challenging and stressful for one to hold the wrong position which might
later on lead to turnover. In case a job that covers that employee specialty, they will not hesitate
to quite their current job and enter into their field.
ii. Organization’s progress
Stagnant growth of a company might lead to some employees opting to go look for opportunities
elsewhere in the name of new opportunities and openings. The major purpose of the human
resource department is to ensure that the company can improve its current state and advance. If
an organization stays in the same position for years, then the employees usually feel less
motivated. They want to see ne project coming up, new clients, new opportunities and exposure
for them. If there are no such developments, then it is easier for them to opt for other options that
give them a better chance to do more. Organizational instability also closely relates in this case

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT 4
as everyone wants to feel safe with their source of income and career path (Lee 2004. ). If an
organization shows some signs of failure like unable to pay debts and make good profits, then
employees will look for jobs in a more secure environment.
iii. Management
Poor management is also one of the reasons that lead to instability in the human resource
department. If the leadership of the organization is less focused on the needs of its employees,
then it is difficult to keep them on track (Nelson 2012). A worker feels comfortable and satisfied
if the management system emphasizes on activities that develop his or her ability to produce
better. Some of the issues lacking in the organization might be less focus on employee
motivation activities. An organization might get stuck focusing on external issues like the market
and end up neglecting their employee management programs. At this moment, employees starts
feeling neglected and may consider options offered to them in other organizations or field as
well. The workload might just be too much for an employee to handle making them move so as
to balance their lives with work. Sometimes companies are faced with crises in such a way that
they have limited time and a lot of duties to perform (Miller 2006). In this situation, they end up
overloading their current workers because of escaping hiring costs. Since there may not be
allowances in addition to the work, then some employees might feel overworked and decide to
leave. These reasons and many others encourage employees quit their jobs in search for better
and more fulfilling opportunities.

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT 5
Problems of Voluntary turnover
Employees are an important stakeholder when it comes to the success or failure of a certain
organization. They sudden departure might therefore leave the firm on the face of very
challenging situations.
i. Increased expenditure
Any business organization has set regulations that govern the process of their operations
especially when dealing with workers. In the cases of employee turnover, then the company is
left at a bad state of financial spending. Any employee is entitled to a certain amount of
compensation when their contract is terminated before due time for whatever reason (Hewlett
2008). So the first thing that the company should do is to obey the terms and conditions of their
contracts and compensate for their outgoing worker. Then now they have to recruit a new
replacement to occupy the vacant position as it is usually hard to have an already existing
employee to cover for the position. They might do so for sometime but if it is a technical area
that requires specialized skills, then a new replacement must be hired. There is a lot of
expenditure including advertising for the job and conducting interviews, examinations and
probations for the new staff member (Tanova 2008. ). Once they have selected the candidate,
they then spend more funds training them of their new job duties and requirements. The whole
process until an organization attains a new qualified individual for the vacant position involves a
lot of expenditure.
ii. Dealing with new employees
Most of the times, a new employee can never compare with the precious one in terms of the way
they conduct their duties in their specialty. The employee who occupied the position earlier had

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT 6
the full overview of the environment of work and could understand things better. When they
leave, they then carry the knowledge and the experience with them leaving the company
deprived. New employees are therefore hard to deal with as they know less about the focus and
deeper details of the organization. It is only fair if they are given time to adapt to their new work
environment so as to perform better (Miller 2006). During this waiting period, the organization
experiences reduced growth rates in terms of their particular department that holds a new
professional. The impact depends on the kind of department that is affected as others like
finance; marketing and many more might have the greatest impact. With new personnel, it is
hard to establish and determine their level of loyalty to work for the interest of the company (Lee
2004.). The best way to know whether an individual is loyal is by observing their behavior over a
prolonged period of time to understand their stand. Most new employees might be unable to lead
the organization towards the right direction and therefore require supervision all the time which
is money and time consuming.
iii. Employee development
It is important for every organization to set plans that focus on developing the skills, experience
and personal development of their workers. Most companies invest a lot of time in these
programs to ensure that their employees feel much motivated in readiness to the performance of
their specified duties (Bendapudi 2002. ). In such like circumstances, voluntary turnover
translates to a waste of resources on the employees who have left their jobs (Hewlett 2008). The
skills they had acquired during their time at the company is all wasted as they go to work for
another organization. The new employee on the other hand is not experienced in the business
environment and therefore needs just as much exposure like the rest of the employees. In a
situation when they are recent graduates, it becomes even harder to initiate some programs as

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT 7
they have been used to the theoretical world of the job rather than the practical side. Most of the
times an organization might prefer to postpone the activities to save resources and give an
individual time to learn from the rest.
iv. Negative brand image
Depending on the reasons for the voluntary turnover, the company’s reputation might be
negatively affected which reduces its position in the market. If the employees leave because of
poor management or instability, They could spread rumors to the public about the weaknesses of
the organization they were working for. Once an organization has been concerned with
significant internal problems, all sorts of research and investigation starts to knock on the door.
Lending financial institutions and government cooperation’s benefiting from the firm’s
operations will start investigating on the issue to find out the truth (Tanova 2008. ). During this
time, the other competitive firms use the issue to get better in the market by investing in negative
campaigns. Investors, creditors, suppliers and even consumers might start to withdraw from the
firm due to the claims of instability (Maertz Jr 2004). A weak brand name destroys the
company’s future plans and the ability to stay on top of the competition in the market. Voluntary
turnover might therefore have the most negative impact on an organization’s progress.

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT 8
Strategies to maintain Employees
As discussed earlier, there are great challenges that might come with voluntary turnover of
employees and therefore companies should ensure that they do all the things possible to keep
maintain a long term relationship with their workers. Some of the ways include:
i. Recruiting the right team
The best strategy of maintaining employees is by hiring the right kind of personnel to ensure or
job satisfaction. The recruiting process should be thorough in such a way that they match the
skills of the applicant with their knowledge, experience interest and the job on offer. It should
also be crucial to relate all of the information obtained to ensure that they will be versatile with
the organization’s culture.
ii. Compensations and employee benefit
The management should include the important aspects of offering the compensations to their
workers according to the recent laws to improve their competitive advantage. It is easier for an
employee to move to another organization due to the benefits offered. Some of these includes
health and education benefits to the workers and their families according to the registered benefit
plans (Holtom 2005).
iii. Appreciation and employee motivation
Most individuals are motivated to stay in a company giving their best knowledge and skills if
they are appreciated for the good work done. A profit making business should keep track of all
their departments to ensure that they all perform well. They can establish the ones with the
highest influence on the company’s success and reward the individuals involved. In this way,

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT 9
they will be motivated to produce better and those in other departments will be willing to work
hard so as to receive praise and appreciation (Nelson 2012). Most employees get tired of
tirelessly working hard, bringing success to a business and yet get treated just like everyone else.
They therefore require recognition and appreciation to keep them focused on the main goal of the
organization (Hewlett 2008). Through rewards, an organization is able to maintain the loyalty of
their workers and encourage them to keep working.
iv. New opportunities and growth
Any firm should be focused on growing and expanding its territories to ensure that they open
new business opportunities for their operations. Employees they open new business opportunities
for their operations. Employees like new exposures that give them more experience with their
jobs and the markets as well. If an organization meets new partners and comes up with new
ideas, then it gives their employees a chance to interact with new people inside and outside their
areas of specification (Baruch 2006) Employees leave mostly because they are looking for
exposure and therefore if a company can provide all that, they are more likely to stay. The
company should give their workers a chance to practice their newly acquired skills in different
fields to advance their ability to explore.
v. Offer positive work environment
The stability and comfort of an employee comes with the type of environment provided to them
in their places of work. The environment includes the physical aspects like space, natural view,
social and diversity interactions and emotional aspects (Maertz Jr 2004). To ensure for
appropriate working, any organization should invest highly to provide their workers with the best
environment that enables them perform best. Spacious and well ventilated offices or studios are

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT 10
important in ensuring that the employees can enjoy privacy and effective working area. (Collins
2003). They are motivated by the ability to work without having to squeeze their operations in
smaller suffocated spaces. The social interaction between the employer and management with
the employees also opts to be healthy to ensure for proper working relations. The managers
should try their best to recognize diversity so as to accommodate people from all cultures,
religions and political divides (Hewlett 2008). They should also work towards developing the
emotional intelligence of the workers to ensure that they have stable emotional affiliations to
work better. All these ways can help maintain the employees for a long term working
relationship.
Conclusion
Voluntary turnover is a significant event in any organization that requires proper strategies to
address. There are many reasons that might force an individual worker to leave their job
including lack or motivation, stability and appreciation. The problems that come as a result are
increased costs of acquiring new workers and developing them into being efficient and loyal to
the organization. However the organization can deal with voluntary turnover by appreciating the
employees and giving them a chance to grow in a healthy environment. If an organization is
following the employment laws and putting their workers first, then it is possible to maintain a
long term relationship with employees.

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT 11
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