Christian Narine                                                                                                 October 14th, 2020

BUS311 1900                                                                                             Professor Brielle Buckler

Unit 7: Managing Careers & Retention

Assignment – A Case of Disengagement – Harper Jones, a 26 year old Marketing Coordinator.

After reading the case study, putting myself in Harpers shoes and reviewing the Article- Eight Effective Retention Strategies, I can identify the following strategies & techniques that might work in Harpers situation-

Harper has been employed with Marketable, Inc for the past 4years. She has been in the

same role since graduating from college at 22. Harper’s case is described after her prior boss Jose left six months ago. Harper describes a sense of feeling under valued in the organization, despite taking on the additional work to help cover some of Jose’s responsibilities, in addition, the unwillingness of the organization to fill his position in a reasonable amount of time and not recognizing her contributions, causes her to feel that she’s not treated fairly and is possibly the most impactful and demotivating part of her job. It is important for managers to remember that employees contribute a significant percentage of their daily lives & energy to achieving company goals, so it’s essential that they feel respected and valued. Applying Strategy #1-Make it a priority to help employees feel valued and Strategy# 8- Understand why employees stay, would be a beneficial technique for her manager David in Harpers situation.

Furthermore, after Harpers prior boss Jose left six months ago, she felt that she lost an effective communication style of her prior manager and now does not have a clear grasp of her job and duties. Applying strategy #2-Establish clear-cut expectations and policies and Strategy, and # 4 – Create a culture of open communication, would work in this situation for Harper and her new manager David.

Using an excerpt from my Unit 6 – Assignment- Learning & Development + Performance & Appraisal – Manager feedback is an essential part of the employee’s performance review on how they can continually improve. Without this information, employees have little knowledge of how well they are doing their jobs and how they might improve their work. Managers communicate with employees to ensure they have a clear understanding of their job duties, company policies, and provide employees with regular feedback so they know how they’re being evaluated.

Harper describes having to take on additional work to help cover some of Jose’s responsibilities as well as her struggle to maintain a structured work/life balance, becoming less productive at work and potentially leading to burnout. Applying Strategy #6- Don’t Overburden Employees and applying reason number 5 from chapter7 – Reasons for Voluntary turnover– #5 Workload: If some employees feel their workloads are too heavy, resulting in employees being spread thin and lacking satisfaction from their jobs, resulting in lack of work-life balance can lead to voluntary turnover.

The case describes that Harper also began to realize that her current manager David, has little time to help her prioritize her work or focus on her development since he manages the whole team. David appears oblivious to his team member Harper’s workload and stress. This management deficiency can eventually lead to another voluntary turnover reason described in chapter7- Reasons for Voluntary turnover– #7 Management: Many employees cite management as their reason for leaving, lack of or poor communication by managers, and unrealistic expectations of managers. Resulting in psychological withdrawal by becoming less productive and less organizational commitment. Management Training in this case would be an important retention strategy for David. Training of managers to be better communicators, motivators and creating an in-house mentoring program are retention strategies that will help to motivate employees to stay within the organization. Applying Strategy #1-Invest in employees professional Development would have helped in Harpers situation.

By Harper deciding to contemplate leaving, from the unit 7 Lecture, one of the main downsides of Harper leaving is that she is more valuable than a new candidate, she has extreme institutional knowledge. Losing team members can be costly to an organization from advertising, interviewing and interruptions to workflow can be unsettling for their team members. The direct turnover and indirect turnover costs to consider can include the following:

• Direct Costs: Recruitment costs, Advertising costs for new position, Orientation and training of new employee, Severance costs, Testing costs, Time to interview new replacements and Time to recruit and train new hires
• Indirect Costs: Lost institutional knowledge, Loss of productivity while new employee is brought up to speed, Cost associated with lack of motivation prior to leaving and [if applicable] Cost associated with loss of trade secrets.

If I were in Harpers shoes, I would try to schedule time with the HR Manager, as they help shape employee morale, including their goal to retain the best employees and reduce turnover in the organization. The HR Manager can interview Harper to help determine Harper’s level of satisfaction and understand her motivational theories. Then they can work together and begin to apply the specific retention strategies.

Fortunately, there are a lot the HR Manager can do to make sure that they retain Harper on the team when they meet with Harper’s supervisor David. The strategy of the “5 Rs” of workplace relationships – responsibility, respect, revenue sharing, reward, and relaxation time – can help maintain a happy, engaged, loyal, and productive workforce.

Work Cited

University of Minnesota. 7.1 Human Resource Management

https://open.lib.umn.edu/humanresourcemanagement/chapter/7-1-the-costs-of-turnover/ . Accessed Oct 14, 2020

Scalco, Dan. 8 Effective Employee Retention Strategies

https://www.zippia.com/employer/8-effective-employee-retention-strategies/ Accessed Oct 14, 2020