Employee Retention Challenges and Solutions: HR Management Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of human resource management practices at Rescue and Care for Wildlife, an organization dedicated to the care and rehabilitation of injured or abandoned wild animals. The study focuses on the challenges of workforce diversity, including communication gaps stemming from language barriers and cultural disrespect, which lead to employee demotivation and poor retention. The report presents findings from a survey of 50 employees, revealing issues such as discrimination and a lack of communication between senior leaders and the general workforce. It reviews literature on workforce management and diversity, and recommends prioritizing communication, fostering diverse work groups, and developing clear HR policies to address these challenges. The report concludes with limitations and suggestions for further research.

Managing Human Resources
Rescue and Care for
Wildlife

Executive Summary
 The research has been performed on the human resource
management at Rescue and Care for Wildlife. The major purpose
of the report is to address the workforce challenges in the
organization and develop a suitable solution to help organization in
meeting its business goals and objectives. A review of literature has
been performed in the study and it includes multiple journal
articles on diversity and workforce management. The study also
includes a primary data analysis and to perform the analysis,
quantitative data has been collected by performing a survey among
the employees of the organization. The sample size used in the
study includes 50 employees of the organization

 • Findings: Due to lack of communication, employees are
demotivated about their roles and responsibilities. Senior leaders of
the organizations are not involved in the general level of activities.
Employees demand a set of norms and policies, which should be
developed to address the diversity issues
 • Recommendation: i) Prioritize communication, ii)
Encourage workers to work in a diverse group

Table of Content
 Introduction 4
 Problem Space 4
 Literature Review 5
 Findings 8
 Discussion - 12
 Recommendation 13
 Limitation - 14
 Conclusions 14
 References 15

Introduction
 It is identified that human resource management is the term along
with the practice of designing and describing formal systems
devised for the management of people within an organization.
Managing human resource in a workplace remains as significant
element of leadership which provides a particular way of
generating desired organizational outcome. When it comes to
managing workforce, the role of human resource is vast with the
inclusion of managing and developing a motivated workforce.

 The purpose of the report is to develop a proper understanding and
strategies of managing workforce at Rescue and Care for Wildlife,
which deals with the care and rehabilitation of wild animals that are
injured or abandoned by the parents. However, the report particularly
focuses on the management of employees who provide the care
services against the ongoing workforce challenges in the organization.
The challenges include the negative impact of workplace diversity
leading to poor volunteer ship and strained relationship between the
workers leading to poor employee retention. The report is prepared
with many sections including review of existing papers, problem
space, findings and discussion and recommendation.

Problem Space
 The major problem that Rescue and Care for Wildlife faces is that
workforce lacks diversity. Employees come from different cultural
background facing language barriers, which is further leading to gap
of communication. There is a significant gap of communication
between leaders and employees due to the language barriers.
Moreover, due to poor diversity management, discrimination based
on level, age and professional abilities between the workers occurs
in the workplace. Consequently, the organization experiences poor
output and lack of productivity. Therefore, the organization needs to
address these challenges along with a sustainable solution. The
following research question is developed to resolve the stated issues

Research Questions
 1. What is the impact of poor diversity
management in the workplace on organizational
performance?
 2. What strategies can Rescue and Care for
Wildlife apply to develop an effective team to meet the
organizational objectives?

Literature Review
 A study performed by Goetsch and Davis (2014), on workforce
management reveals the fact that poor work relationship may appear as a
challenge to workforce diversity. According to the author, employees’
behavior can generate a significant impact on the overall performance of
the business. On the other side, Pfeffer (2014) performed a study and
mentioned that talent shortfall might have serious implications for business
outcome. Moreover, the author has also mentioned the fact that poor
workforce planning cause the business struggle hard to resolve the internal
challenges. Findings of the study say that workforce planning is eventually
about ensuring that business has the talent required to deliver on the
business goals. On the other side, Connell, Nankervis and Burgess (2015)
performed a research and found that business needs to understand the
workforce planning is essential to secure both appropriate talent and
appropriate amount of it, to achieve the business goals.

 Furthermore, Knol, Janssen and Sol (2014) mentioned that before
an organization is able to efficiently manage employee performance,
it must have to unveil whether its employees are experiencing
difficulties that discourage them from performing effectively.
However, leaders or the managers find it difficult to notice internal
workplace issues when there is a significant gap of communication
arising from other workplace related factors. Therefore, according
to the author of this study, to remain competitive and successful in a
market place experiencing demographic changes, organization must
have to build and implement a diversity management strategy that
help to attract and retain the best talent.

Diversity Management practices
 Sabharwal (2014) performed a study on diversity management and suggested the
following approaches.
 Involving the entire top management team
 When applying a diversity program, senior leaders of the business should be involved in
the initiatives. Wrench (2016) arguably mentioned that visionary speeches have limited
impact on the workforce; thereby, the CEO and other business leaders should be visible
to the workplace, training programs and Q&A sessions on diversity.
 Adaption of the organizational structure
 According to Leon, Gjuvsland and Boxenbaum (2016), organizational structure should
support the diversity effort and this can be achieved by generating a diversity
department with the appointment of a Chief Officer and if the organizational structure
supports the diversity offers, it is more likely to be considered seriously across the
organization.

 Communication regarding the initiatives on continuous basis
 The management of the organization needs to communicate about
why diversity is necessary for the success of employees and the
business (Barak 2016). The communication needs to be wide with
the inclusion of different channels like social media, newsletters,
intranet, meetings, posters and seminars.

Methods
The study included primary data analysis techniques to analyze the issue of
diversity and poor workforce management. Therefore, the research principle
includes a positivism research philosophy as positivism research philosophy
gives importance to numerical findings such as number and digits which
help to generate an unbiased and accurate outcome. The study includes
quantitative data collection method; thereby, to collect quantitative data, a
survey has been performed among the employees of Rescue and Care for
Wildlife. The quantitative data collection method has been chosen as the
study requires surveying the general level of employees who face the
workplace issues. General level of employees does not have much
knowledge about the internal organizational policies; therefore, they can
respond to close ended questions but they particularly highlight the issues
that the face and identification of the issues is one of the significant
requirements of the study.

Sampling size and Frame
 Sampling frame and Sample size:
 For performing the survey, the respondents have been selected
from the target population. Target population involves the
employees of Rescue and Care for Wildlife. Hence the sampling
frame is 53 employees who contribute to the quantitative data
collection. The sampling size includes 50 employees, who took
part in the survey.

Research Setting and Instruments
 As the study includes a primary analysis, engagement of
employees of the organization was the significant requirements.
Thus, to contact the employees, operational bodies of the
organization have been approached initially and then taking the
consent of the organization, employees have been provided with a
consent form which they had to fill up and send back to the
research authority. A quantitative questionnaire has been developed
which includes 4 close ended questions. The questionnaire has
been distributed among the employees through their personal
email.

Ethical consideration
 Any study with primary data analysis has to deal with the ethical
issues such as copyright, privacy and confidentiality. Thus, to
avoid such issues, appropriate consent has been taken before
involving the employees in data collection. Before, involving
employees in the process, a consent form has been given to the
employees, which they have gone through and signed accordingly.
The researcher makes sure that no respondent has been forced to
take part in the study and respondent has the right to withdraw their
participation at any moment.

Findings
Options No. of Responses Percentage Total Respondents
Discrimination in the
workforce
11 22% 50
Communication gap
between leaders and
workers
21 42% 50
Cultural disrespect 7 14% 50
Fragile human
resource policies
9 18% 50
Neutral 2 4% 50

Discrimination in the
workforce
22%
Communication gap
between leaders and
workers
42%
Cultural disrespect
14%
18%
Neutral
4%
Employees facing workforce challenges

2. How far do you agree that senior leaders at
Rescue and Care for Wildlife communicate with the
general level of employees on a regular basis?
Options No. of
Responses
Percentag
e
Total
Responde
nts
Agree 10 20% 50
Strongly
Agree
7 14% 50
Disagree 19 38% 50
Strongly
disagree
13 26% 50
Neutral 1 2% 50
20%
14%
38%
26%
2%
Employees’ opinions on
senior leaders’
communication
Agree Strongly Agree Disagree
Strongly disagree Neutral

3. How far do you agree that effective communication can
address the challenge of diversity management?
Options No. of
Responses
Percentage Total
Responden
ts
Agree 17 34% 50
Strongly
Agree
19 38% 50
Disagree 9 18% 50
Strongly
disagree
5 10% 50
Neutral 0 0% 50
34%
38%
18%
10%
Role of communication in
diversity management
Agree Strongly Agree Disagree
Strongly disagree Neutral

4. How far do you agree that HR management of
the organization should separately develop a diversity
management policy to address the cultural barriers?
Options No. of
Response
s
Percentag
e
Total
Responde
nts
Agree 19 38% 50
Strongly
Agree
15 30% 50
Disagree 9 18% 50
Strongly
disagree
7 14% 50
Neutral 0% 0% 50
38%
30%
18%
14%
HR’s role in managing
diversity in the workplace
Agree Strongly Agree Disagree
Strongly disagree Neutral

Discussion
 The above presented discussion helps to observe that performance
of employees in Rescue and Care for Wildlife have been affected
by several factors. According to the primary data findings, almost
22% of the respondents have mentioned that there is an increasing
discrimination in the workforce on the basis of age and
professional abilities, while almost 42% of the respondents have
mentioned that communication gap is the major factor that affects
employee performance. It was also found in the literature that poor
work relationship may appear as a challenge to workforce diversity
and the findings of the literature also indicate that poor workforce
planning cause the business struggle hard to address their business
challenges.

When it comes to communication as the way out to diversity in
the workplace, almost 34% of the respondents agree with the
context, while almost 18% of the respondents disagree to the
same. A study in the literature, performed by Grivastava and
Kleiner (2015) mentions the fact that management of the
organization needs to communicate regarding why diversity is
essential for the success of employees and business. Employees
may be demotivated when they observe that their senior leaders
not involved in the learning activities or any sort of workplace
activity. Employees at Rescue and Care for Wildlife do not find
their senior leaders in managing and learning activities; thereby,
almost 38% of the respondents disagree to the fact that their
senior leaders communicate with the general level of employees.

Recommendation
Prioritize communication
 In order to manage a diverse workplace, business needs to make
sure that they effectively communicate with the employees. A different
set of policies, procedures and other significant norms should be
developed to overcome the language difficulties and cultural barriers.
 Encourage workers to work in a diverse group
 Certainly diverse work teams could allow workers to
know and value each other on an individual basis and can help
to isolate preconceived notions as well as cultural
misunderstandings.

Limitation
 The present study is limited to quantitative data analysis; however,
an inclusion of qualitative data analysis would have helped to
know the managerial perspectives towards the existing workplace
issues of Rescue and Care for Wildlife. Besides, primary analysis,
the study lacks a secondary analysis but inclusion of a secondary
analysis would have generated a more intensive perspective
towards diversity management.

Conclusions
 The research includes a primary data analysis of diversity and
workforce management considering the issues identified in Rescue
and Care for Wildlife- an organization which provides care
services to ills and abandoned animals. The study uses quantitative
data collection method; thereby, a survey has been performed
among the workers to investigate the issues and employees’
opinions towards the management practices. Findings of the study
reveal that there is a significant communication gap between the
supervisors and workers. The study recommends prioritizing
communication and encouraging employee to work in diverse
group

References
 Barak, M.E.M., 2016. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications.
 Connell, J., Nankervis, A. and Burgess, J., 2015. The challenges of an ageing workforce: an introduction to the
workforce management issues. Labour & Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work, 25(4),
pp.257-264.
 Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
pearson.
 Grivastava, S. and Kleiner, B., 2015. Managing Cultural Diversity In The Workplace. Journal of International
Diversity, 2015(1).
 Knol, A., Janssen, M. and Sol, H., 2014. A taxonomy of management challenges for developing shared services
arrangements. European Management Journal, 32(1), pp.91-103.
 Leon, C.E., Gjuvsland, M. and Boxenbaum, E., 2016. Diversity Management in Denmark: Evolutions from 2002 to
2009. In Diversity in the Workplace (pp. 121-138). Routledge.
 Pfeffer, J., 2014. Business and the spirit: Management practices that sustain values. In Handbook of workplace
spirituality and organizational performance (pp. 43-59). Routledge.
 Sabharwal, M., 2014. Is diversity management sufficient? Organizational inclusion to further performance. Public
Personnel Management, 43(2), pp.197-217.
 Wrench, J., 2016. Diversity management and discrimination: Immigrants and ethnic minorities in the EU. Routledge.