1. Copyrights © 2010 KNR Management Consulting (P) Ltd.
Effective Retention Policy – The baseline of Attrition control
Written By: Kushagr Agarwal, Principal Consultant – KNR Management Consulting, New Delhi
The HR’s have been bothered by the retention issues and specifically the current trend of hopping over has become a mess
now. It largely depends on the fact that what motivates your associates. Trying finding out that and also what is the core
reason of their leaving the company. Probably after that you can design retention strategy effectively.
Retention policy has to be framed by taking many factors into consideration; Understanding the fact all organizations need
fresh and new brains to a certain extend. So the retention strategies need to be planned & executed in such a way where
the attrition can be set at an optimum level. Optimizing the attrition will reduce HR concerns and will give fair opportunity
for the juniors to grow horizontally & vertically. Very few companies have done it, it will be advisable to have a Welcome
Back program for employees so that we will be able to monitor, assess and formulate retention practices more effectively.
My idea is take a sample group of associates and run through a survey / psychometric test / feedback about supervisors &
initiate conducting Exit Interviews and maintain a strong analysis on the same. Basis of such reports, formulate something
unique. Although there are no quick-fix & no magic formulas but a persistent effort can create remedial solutions. Firstly
format the Exit interview to provide you the basic cracks to work on (I have experienced that some of the organizations
never take it seriously & blame it on HR & its practices), secondly design the HR Survey and analyze it with the feedbacks
given in the exit interviews and then you will come to certain conclusions on what your associates are expecting from
organization. Most of the exit interview's I've taken reveal a deeper need for recognition by the immediate managers.
It is actually all about Employee Engagement and how are they engaged with the organization? For engaging them,
organizations should have fair-play policies like a fun clubs, learning clubs along with calculated performance recognition
policies. Supporting associates with further Education programmes (MBA, Diploma, Technical studies on company costs)
has proved quite beneficial for many companies although it can be immensely expensive for SME’s. Good communication
pattern also helps to drive engagement like periodical feedback on performances. These all has to be driven by people but
HR has to support and put all things in right directions. We have a habit of conducting quite a few engagement activities
and we have a good response from our employees, however the responses I receive from the departing employees is that
these activities are impersonal. Even b-day cakes / cards are not considered personal if everyone else is getting the same.
We've introduced an early warning system which ensures managers have a one on one meeting with their reportees at
least once a month to talk about things other than work. The improved bonding helps employees feel recognized, aligned
with the org goals and helps the manager understand where the employee is from an attrition point of view.
In an active market, you have to expect a reasonable degree of turnover - some employees you cannot retain, no matter
what and others may just be average performers and more easily replaced. If your turnover rate exceeds, say, 10% do an
analysis to determine if it is across the board or confirmed to certain units and/or job classifications. Employee opinion
surveys administered by 3rd party firms followed by focus groups can be extremely effective in understanding and merging
the concerns of employees and management. Out of this the information can be obtained which can guide you in
determining what company policies, if any, to add or modify
All we need is to develop a positive correlation amongst these factors namely, Performance, Rewards & Development.