JOB SATISFACTION AND EMPLOYEE RETENTION

Employee retention is the primary importance of an organization because organizations invest significant resources in training, developing, tangible and intangible compensation and taking the time to build organizational citizenship and buy-in to goals and objectives (Kazi & Zadeh, 2011). Job Satisfaction plays a major role in employee retention.

Hoppock (1935) states that job satisfaction is any combination of psychological, physiological and environmental circumstances, which cause a person truthfully, satisfied with his/her job.  Locke (1976) defined job satisfaction as” a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experience.”  Feldman and Arnold (1983) have defined job satisfaction as,” Job satisfaction will be defined as the amount of overall positive affect (or feelings) that individuals have towards their jobs”.  Davis et al., (1985) stated that job satisfaction is a combination of positive and negative feelings that workers have towards their work. 

When studying above statements by different people it is understood that in order for an employee to continue to stay with the same organization job satisfaction is very important, if the person doesn’t like the job that he/she does or not happy with the working environment or any other, he/she will tempt to leave the organization.

When a person joins a business organization, he/she brings with him/her needs, desires and experiences which he/she expects from the job. Job satisfaction represents the extent to which expectations matches with the real awards. Job satisfaction is closely linked to that individual's behaviour in the work place.

Importance of job satisfaction to retain experts and efficient in an organization

• Employee satisfaction is of utmost importance for employees to remain happy and also deliver their level best. Satisfied employees are the ones who are extremely loyal towards their organization and stick to it even in the worst scenario.
• The first benefit of employee satisfaction is that individuals hardly think of leaving their current jobs. 
•  Employee satisfaction is essential to ensure higher revenues for the organization. 
• Satisfied employees tend to adjust more and handle pressure with ease as compared to frustrated ones.

Now we will see some of the factors that effects Employee/Job Satisfaction

•        Working condition
•        Career/Opportunity Advancement
•        Workload and stress level
•        Respect from co-workers
•        Relationship with the supervisors
•        Financial Rewards

Job satisfaction affects retention of employees. As when any component of job satisfaction is troubled it will directly affect the employee turnover. Focusing on employee satisfaction can positively impact the organization as it increases employee productivity, performance, quality of work, profits, commitment to the organization and reduces turnover and absenteeism and increases retention.

Therefore to retain efficient and experts of an organization the organization must focus on the job satisfaction of employees.  

References:

Davis, K. and Nestrom, J.W. (1985). Human Behaviour at work: Organizational Behaviour. 7th Edition, McGraw Hill, New York, p.109.

Feldman, D.C., & Arnold, H.J., (1983). Managing Industrial and Group Behaviour in Organizations McGraw-Hill, New York, p. 192.

Hoppock, R. (1935). Job Satisfaction, Harper and Brothers, New York, p. 47.

Kazi, G., & Zadeh, Z. (2011). The Contributions of Individual Variables: Job Satisfaction and Job Turnover. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business. Retrieved from http://journal-archieves8.webs.com/984-991.pdf

Locke, E.A.,(1976) The Nature and Cause of Job Satisfaction, In M. Dunnette(Ed.), Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology( Rand McNally, Chicago, 1976) p.1300.

FACTORS AFFECTING ER - REWARDS AND RECOGNITION

“Watson Wyatt” a global consulting firm, conducted a survey in USA, in the year 2002 among 12750 employees at all levels of job and in all major industry sectors to know about their attitudes toward their workplace and their employers. It was found in the survey that recognition is important for workers and they want to listen that their work followed recognized and appreciated.

Rewards and recognition is something above their salary, it’s an extra appreciation for the work done.

Agarwal (1998) gave an explanation to the term reward as something that the organization offers to the employees in response of the work as well as performance and something which is desired by the employees. 

It’s not just the high achievers who deserve recognition, but anyone who goes above and beyond the call of duty. Reward good examples, and a culture can be created where everyone wants to be a good example. This is also a culture that retains people. 

Manager should seek out opportunities to recognize and appreciate employees informally may be during lunch or tea or etc. These are moments employees remember (Tiwari, Saxena, 2012).

Silbert (2005) forwarded the view that reward is important because it has an enduring impression on employees which, in turn, gives the employees an impression that they are valued in the organization.  

Employees who feel valued generally reciprocate by offering their loyalty to the company. A system of continuous reward and recognition culture should be built whether monitory or non-monitory. A feeling to appreciation motivates the employees to perform better and in a happier manner. The happier the employees, the happier the customers. This result into employee growth which makes the employee to continue in the organisation.  The system of a fair reward system builds a sense of equity among the employees which motivates them to stay longer in an organisation (Devi 2009).

Reference;

Agarwal, N.C. (1998). “Reward Systems: Emerging Trends and Issues”. CanadianPsychology, 39(1), 60-70.

Pankaj Tiwari, Karunesh Saxena. 2012. "Human resource management practices: a comprehensive review".

Rama Devi, V. 2009. “Employee engagement is a two way street": Human Resource management International digest., Vol. 17 NO. 2, pp. 3-4.

Silbert, L.T. (2005). The effect of Tangible Rewards on Perceived Organizational Support. Management Sciences.

Tomlinson, A. (2002). High Technology workers want Respect. Survey Canadian Human Resources Reporter, vol. 15, issue 3, and p.2.

FACTORS AFFECTING ER - TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

While compensation is an important part of employee retention, one must not focus only on monitory benefits, talent transformation or training and development is one of the key factors that an employee need in order to do his/her work uninterrupted.

Nowadays in the competitive world, the work load of an employee gets higher and higher with variety of new types of work added to their job responsibilities. Certain position’s job responsibilities even though it is the same, there may be different process, procedures or ways of doing such in different companies.

Sometimes when employees are not trained properly on their job they will get problems in performing the job, which will make them fall into unwanted tension and stress ends up in leaving the company.

What we spoke above was the initial training' related to perform their job, but there is another kind of training which is transferring the skills or additional skills that the employees might need to be a performer or an expert in his/her job. Messmer (2000) found that one of the important factors in employee retention is investment   on employee training and career development. Organizations must realize that competitive advantage could be attained by employees’ skills, therefore giving necessary training to develop their skills is important.

Scott Brum (2007) highlighted that when the employees are introduced to more training, they show higher level of commitment as compared to others. Different employees want different things, so offering the same benefits package and working conditions to all will inevitably create dissatisfaction. This is a turnover risk. Eva Kyndt et al (2009) revealed that training has a potential to change the turnover thoughts and is an important factor that helps in originating the intentions of turnover.

Garg & Rastogi (2006) , explained that in today’s competitive environment feedback is very essential for organizations from employees and the more knowledge the employee learn, the more he or she will perform and meet the global challenges of the market place.

The smoothens of the workflow of employees leads to job satisfaction reduce employee turnover, therefore in addition to the monitory benefit one must focus on the other factors such as training and development to retain the efficient and experts of an organization.

Reference;

Brum, S., 2007. What impact does training have on employee commitment and employee turnover. Schmidt Labor Research Center Seminar Research Series, 8 (3), 84-96.

Garg, P. & Rastongi, R. (2006). New model of job design motivation employees Performance. Journal of Management Development.

Kelley, L. et al., 2007. Emerald Article: An exploration of the relationship between learning organizations and the retention of knowledge workers. The Learning Organization, 14(3), 204-221.

Messmer, M. (2000). Orientations programs can be key to employee retention. In Strategic Finance. 81 (8):12-15. 

FACTORS AFFECTING ER - CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Employee who is an Efficient and expert in his job will always look for a growth in his/her career, they will always look for opportunity to learn and develop, and there are various opportunities of employee’s career development. It might be through the investment in training of employees, giving other opportunities at work based on the aspiration of the employees etc. Identification of high potential employees and thereby giving them right opportunities to grow, involvement in decision making, proving a platform to access their ideas with an independence to implement help employees to develop their career within an organisation (Hay 2002).

Most of the retention strategies are focused on providing financial benefits rather than career opportunities. Career opportunities have the strongest impact on employee commitment while the impact of financial rewards is less. A transparent career path helps an employee to stay longer in an organisation (Gaurav Bagga 2013)The loyalty of the employee enhances when right career development opportunities are rendered to the employees which results in employee retention (Meganck, 2009). When an employee doesn’t see a clear career path/development he/she will certainly start looking for other job opportunities in the market where they can have their next step in their career. Since there are high job opportunities in the marketing finding another job for a talented employee will not be a challenge.

When organizations do not have clear career development or career growth to their talented employees, it will affect the organization by losing their efficient and experts to their competitors, therefore organizations must create clear career development for the employees working for them to grow in the career and life which makes them to retain with the organization and achieve the organizational objectives.

Reference:

Ans De Vos and Annelies Meganck, 2009. "What HR managers do versus what employees value": Personnel Review Vol. 38 No. 1, pp. 45-60.

Gaurav Bagga. 2013. "How to keep the talent you have got". Human resource management international digest, Vol. 21 NO. 1, pp. 3-4.

Michael Hay, 2002. Strategies for survival in war of talent": Career development International 7/1.