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Analysis the situation and provide feedback on you would have done to resolve the issue at hand:
Outdoor Solutions is a provider of lawn care, snow removal, and exterior home services with a history of steady growth and an excellent reputation for reliable service. A recent upturn in home construction has increased demand for services, but Rob Dow, the owner is having trouble meeting the demand. Dow expressed his frustration to his Friday morning networking group over coffee and asked other business owners how they managed to keep fully staffed with qualified workers. “Getting and keeping good employees is so hard. Out of ten applicants. I’m luck to get two that have adequate math skills and can pass a background check. Chances are one of them will quit in six months. I was hoping to expand, but at this rate I’ll be lucky to maintain our current customers.” Several commiserated, sharing their hiring and turnover problems. Dow turned to Metinka Bower, owner of a local office staffing company and asked if she had the same problem, or if she had a magic pill that turned applicants into awesome workers. She replied, “No, no magic pill, but there are a few things you can do to increase the odds.” When pressed for a solution, she explained that it depends on the situation and volunteered to stop by Outdoor Solutions later in the day after visiting a nearby client. Her discussion with Dow revealed that until last year, he had relied on employee referrals and newspaper ads for recruiting. He told her “I try to have a friendly, casual atmosphere. We treat workers fairly and try to promote from within, that’s why employee referrals have always worked.” Dow went on to explain that when those sources weren’t adequate, he put ads on Craigslist. He also explained that pay and benefits are competitive with other providers of similar services in the area. He was reluctant to raise the starting wage due to the extensive training necessary for new hires, including handing of chemicals, safety, defensive driving, and customer services. “They get a great education here, but after six months, it seems like half of them leave because they think they can start their own service and make more money.” Bower asked if she could speak to a few employees. Dow introduced her to Better Jordan, who was responsible for safety and training and left to take a call. Jordan agreed that the math and communication skills of applicants have steadily declined. “Rob’s inability to stay filly staffed is causing all sorts of other problems. Some of our experienced workers are starting to leave because they’re getting tired of waiting for the promotions Rob promised would occur when we expand. They’re also tired of all the overtime they’re putting in. Rob says that its’ a family friendly workplace, but it really isn’t because they’re working so late.” She went on to confide, “I probably shouldn’t tell you this. Rob doesn’t even know, but one of the guys put a photo of himself chained to his mower on Instagram and all the employees saw it. I hear there are other things posted that don’t make the company look very good either. For example, when the local paper included us in an article on how to start a great lawn, there were a couple of anonymous comments on their website about the long hours and boring work at Outdoor Solutions.”
Expert Answer
The first thing that needs to be done here is the need assessment of the employees. We have to find the expectations of the employees from the employer in different periods of their life cycle (initial training period, first six months, after one year, and for more than one year). Once the needs have been identified, the total compensation (Total Reward) has to be made in line with the needs. For example, for fresh employees, work environment and culture will be more important, so give the best work environment to them. For employees worked for more than one or two years, the wages part of the total reward will be important, so focus on that. For senior employees, Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose of work will perhaps be more important.
There are two problems – recruitment and retention. When it comes to recruitment, the form should try to find employees from a diverse pool of sources instead of relying on employee referrals and newspaper ads only. For example, recruitment can be made using different channels – social media, job boards, walk-ins, internet-based job sites, college campus, social institution and so forth. This will make sure that talented employees are found in adequate numbers and the job of selecting a few of them does not become too hard. As long as retention is concerned, the case states that the main reason for attrition is that the employees leave their jobs after they are trained and they start their own venture.
This can be prevented using two methods – first, a legal clause may be included in the employment contract with a Restrictive Covenant that prevents employees to compete with their employers after leaving the job for some years. Second, the rewards of the employee may be adjusted to compensate the risk. When they want to leave the company and start their own business, they would obviously bear more risk than being employed. That risk is compensated by the return. The employer should try to compensate the employees in a manner that the present reward is more than the risk associated. This has been explained using the following illustration –
