European Journal of Management and Marketing Studies
ISSN: 2501 - 9988
ISSN-L: 2501 - 9988
Available on-line at: http://www.oapub.org/soc
10.5281/zenodo.208233
Volume 1│Issue 2│2016
DISCUSSING THE EFFECTIVE FACTORS ON
MAINTENANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Bahare Shahriarii
Department of Management, Payame Noor University (PNU), Iran
Abstract:
In this research, the author has elaborated on detection of effective factors on
maintenance and retention of human resources. Since human resources are the most
resources for obtaining competitive advantage, it is essential to pay attention to
different dimensions of human resources management. One of these dimensions is
retention of human resources. Factors such as providing correct and valid information
at the time of recruitment, assigning tasks based on competence, existence of a clear
career, having a suitable evaluation system and effective reward systems are effective in
terms of retention and maintenance of human resources.
Keywords: human resources management, maintenance and retention, human
resources
Introduction
One of the most important tasks of every organization’s human resource management
is retention or maintenance of human resources. In this regard, desertion rate is
considered as a major index for evaluation of performance of HRM (human resource
management). If its value was in a normal range, then management’s performance in
terms of retention of personnel would be considered as desirable. However, there is
also another side to this coin and that side is related to the reason why the personnel
have decided to continue their career. Undoubtedly, the management of an
organization is sensitive to the reason why the personnel have decided to stay in the
organization. In case there was a desirable combination of reasons for the former, then
the management board could continue its job at ease. On the other hand, human
resources are considered as competitive advantages only when the organization
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Bahare Shahriari –
DISCUSSING THE EFFECTIVE FACTORS ON MAINTENANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCES
possesses elite human resources in order to be able to learn and to realize the acquired
knowledge faster than competitors (Armstrong, 2003).
Also in terms of debates related to lack of work force, probably the efforts have
been oriented towards focusing on labor supply rather than labor demand. Therefore,
in many organizations which have problems, one of the most economic strategies for
overcoming lack of workforce is to maintain the existing elite work force (Armstrong,
2002).
Since retention and maintenance measures are compliments for other processes
related to HRM, even if the processes of recruitment, selection, assignment and
optimization are performed well enough, without maintenance the results of
management would not be significant (Dewas, 2009). One of the indexes of having
advantage and superiority over other organizations is possession of committed and
capable human resources (HR). Human resources with organizational attachment who
are loyal and compatible with the objectives of the organization can be considered as
major factors in terms of organizational efficiency (Hofmann, 2009). Factors such as
providing valid information at the time of recruitment, assigning tasks based on
competencies, existence of a clear career and having effective evaluation and reward
systems are effective in terms of maintenance and retention of human resources. It must
be taken into account that organizations have significant annual expenses for
maintenance and retention of their personnel and this is while every organization can
not only maintain its current personnel, but also absorb new ones through adoption of
suitable approaches.
In a previous study performed by Doaei and ”orjali Lou titled as discussing the
relationship between perceived organizational support and organizational commitment and
desertion intention . Their research was performed in
and contained a research
sample including 120 employees of a governmental organization. Consequently their
results indicated that there is a positive relation between perceived organizational
support and organizational commitment. In addition, a negative relation held between
the former and desertion intention. In addition, their results showed that there exists a
significant positive relation between perceived organizational support and all three
dimensions of organizational commitment. In this regard, the lowest correlation was
detected for perceived organizational support and continuous commitment. On the
other hand, there exists a negative relation between entire three dimensions of
organizational commitment and in this regard, highest negative correlation was
detected for desertion intention.
Mustafa Zadeh and “mman Zadeh performed a research titled as discussing
effective factors on retention of personnel in
and on a research sample including 5 9
individuals. They showed that three categories of factors titled as motivational factors,
organization’s internal environment and organization’s external environment are the
most important factor clusters on organizational sustainability. Their results indicated
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that job satisfaction, external factors and internal factors have the highest respective
effects on retention of personnel. On the other hand, the relation between job
satisfaction and effects of external factors on employee retention is a reverse relation. In
other words, there are many people who are not satisfied by their jobs but remain in
their job as a result of external factors. This cannot be desirable for management of an
organization.
Jahangiri et al.
9 carried out a research titled as detection and prioritization of
factors effective on retention of expert employees . The general purpose of this study was to
detect and prioritize effective factors on maintenance and retention of expert personnel.
Results of their study manifested that retention factors are respectively prioritized in
seven elements including content and nature of the job; job satisfaction and security;
management and leadership; clearness of objectives and expectations; collaboration
atmosphere and work, salary and rewards.
Ghorbani and Rezaei Rad
performed a research titled as managerial role of
police chiefs in terms of retention of police employees . The main objective of this study was
to detect and present different managerial roles of police chiefs and manner of
effectiveness of performance of these roles on retention and maintenance of police
employees. The theoretical framework of the study was based on Mintzberg’s theory
and included three main theories. Obtained results indicated that police chiefs require
efficient and sufficient education regarding managerial roles and that they should pay
attention to the role of decision making in retention of employees.
In the following, you can study a summary of ideas of different authors about
effective elements on retention of employees.
Goldsmith: identification of competent employees, paying attention to competent
employees, gratitude, providing the contexts for progression, optimization of reward
systems, providing employees with cultural freedom and providing entrepreneurship
opportunities.
Lee: making opportunities for growth and development, making the jobs more
challenging, making the jobs meaningful through career enrichment, presence of great
characters in the organization, making teams, having a good boss and gratitude for
those who work well.
Hey study group: career progression, learning and development, making the
jobs more challenging, meaningfulness of the job, formation of varieties and different
work combinations, presence of popular characters, making teams, having good bosses,
gratitude for good deeds, freedom and self-control, flexibility during work time,
advantages and fair salaries.
Kapli: suitable salaries, suitable job design, compatibility between the job and
employee, persuasion of employees towards establishment of social relations,
placement of employees in suitable geographical conditions, having suitable
recruitment processes and alliance with competitors.
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In a research performed by Deloi et al
, titled as Human resources
management in governmental section of Iran elaborated on HRM with respect to social
contexts prevailing in Iran and have been discussed the weaknesses of human resources
in Iran’s governmental section. Their results included
Recruitment
Rewarding
Education and
Development
Performance
Evaluation
Large Number of
Employees And
Lack of Management
2. High Job Security
3. Recruitment
Fluctuation
4. Selection Based on
Behavior
5. Importance of
Education
6. Having Abstract
Criterions for
Recruitment And
Promotion
7. Low Sociability
Mechanism
1. Constant Salary
Systems
2. Payment of Rewards
With no Specific
Structure
3. Hierarchical Salaries
4. Importance of
Education
5. Low Participation of
Employees In
Specification of Salaries
6. Numerous Subsidies
1. Inexpert Work Force
2. Balanced Educational
Program
3. Education Regarding
Quality of Life
4. Unplanned
Educational Programs
5. Low Participation of
Employees In Designing
Educational Programs
1. Lack of Proportion
Between Performance
and Reward
2. Unstructured
Evaluation
3. Abstract Evaluation
4. Evaluation Based On
Behavior Rather Than
Results
5. Low Participation
6. Top to Bottom
Attitude
1.
Statement of Problem
Nowadays, HRM is considered as a major conflict for managers of every organization.
In fact, elements such as complexity of organizations, technological changes and
continuously changing global conditions amplify the need for paying attention to this
subject. Two people may enter an organization at the same time and under similar
situations. However, one of them may desert his or her job and the other may not. In
the first case, the situation should be analyzed considering desertion issue and in the
second case effective factors on the employee’s retention must be analyzed and
studied. On this basis, retention of employees can be related to consideration for the
process of maintenance of human resources by the management of organization. This
process is a rational and intellectual choice which takes place during one’s employment
in an organization (Bazaz Jazayeri, 2011).
The point that should be taken into account is that not all types and manners of
retention of human resources are suitable. This is because a person or employee cannot
be beneficial for an organization under every circumstance. This is mostly because
performance of a weak person not only raises costs, but also diminishes the spirits of coworkers as well. In other words, existence of such employees may result in extreme
conflicts or even chaos (Morehead and Griffin, 2012).
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One of the most important factors of superiority of an organization over another is its
human resources. These people tend to maintain values and their participation in
organization as well. They also act beyond their written tasks and are considered as
major factors in terms of organizational effectiveness. Having such human resources
leads to improvement of performance, reduction of absence rates and desertion as well
(Mobley, 2011).
The issue of desertion intention is nowadays considered by many managers and
researchers. On this basis, organizations should adopt strategies which are helpful in
terms of early detection of intention for desertion before acting it. This issue has
negative effects on motivation of the employee and also has negative effects on other
employees as well. Their absence forces other employees to take their duties and this
means more expenses and time (Arizi, 2009).
After recruitment and education, the management of an organization is left with
yet another more difficult task which is retention and maintenance of the recruited
work force. For this purpose, expert of the field of management have mentioned three
HRM planning processes including recruitment, education and retention. Among these,
the highest importance has been given to retention process. If an organization was able
to successfully accomplish recruitment and education phases but failed in retention
process, then it most probably will be unsuccessful in terms of realization of its goals. In
other words if the entire recruitment, education and other personnel related measures
are done perfectly but retention is failed, then outcomes of management would not be
significant. This is why managers and organizations try to recruit and maintain expert
and elite work forces. On this basis, the system of HRM can be considered as a tripod
with its legs being the aforementioned processes of recruitment, education and
retention. In fact, the HRM system will only be effective when all these dimensions are
in a proportionately suitable status. Basically, an organization which has successfully
accomplished recruitment and education phases can only be successful when it is able
to prevent its employees from desertion and persuade them towards sustaining their
career (Bolleri and Sharon, 2001).
Strategies for retention of competence work force
As Smith says, organization managers can no longer pay for fluctuations of human
resource market and it is time to pay attention to humane assets of organizations as
attention is paid to financial assets. The following strategies are proposed by Smith:
1. Detection of employees who need to be sustained
2. Competent employees must know that you tend to sustain them
3. Gratitude
4. Providing progression opportunity
5. Reviewing reward systems
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6. Cultural tolerance
Major factors for retention of employees
In terms of retention of employees, our most essential goal must be to sustain and
maintain those employees who are valuable to the organization according to the
following two criterions:
1. Performance
2. The ability to replace
These manifest an individual’s overall efficiency which is evaluated through
evaluations based on performance and objective indexes such as amount of production,
amount of sale or number of services provided by the individual. In normal conditions,
organizations prefer to lose employees with weak performance and sustain those
employees who possess a better performance. The ability to replace is dominantly due
to environmental features and is related to the organization’s ability in terms of refilling
a post with a person with required experience and expertise. In this regard, posts which
are hard to be refilled are usually of two types:
1. Posts in which having special knowledge regarding certain aspects of the
organization is both essential and hard to obtain
2. Posts that require a set of special abilities and skills which are relatively rare in
labor market
The following provides definitions for the keywords of this research and
elaborates on effective elements on maintenance and retention.
a.
Human resources: it is the most important asset of an organization and
successful and efficient management of them is the key to the success of organization.
Making a correct and efficient use of human resources for obtaining predetermined
goals and objectives of an organization is termed as human resource management
(HRM). Functions of human resources include planning for human resources, job
analysis, recruitment, selection, education and development, performance management,
rewarding and discipline. The concept of human resources addresses the fact that
employees are rare resources and can have added-value for their organizations.
Therefore, the highest goal of HRM is to help the organization with its performance in
order to obtain the aforementioned added-value (Gholipour, 2013).
b.
Human resource management: it is defined as identification, election,
recruitment and education of human resources for obtaining organizational goals
(Sadat, 2006). Different dimensions of HRM are adjusted in terms of a system. In this
system, the input is the value of resources and facilities and the information and
technologies which are different from organization to organization. In addition, in a
human resource system, the output includes supplication of human resources,
satisfaction of employees and also supplication of social goals. These goals are realized
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through short term and long term performance of activities such as recruitment,
education, retention and application of labor force. In this regard, there are also certain
environmental factors engaged with the aforementioned system which include
governmental rules and regulations, environmental reactions, organizational rules, etc.
(Mirsepasi, 2011).
c.
Maintenance and retention: it is the process of designing safety and health
measures and supplication of welfare services (Seyed Javadin, 2006). Maintenance is
defined as prevention from desertion and sustaining people within an organization. In
fact, organizations need to adopt necessary precautions (Mirsepasi, 1996). Maintenance
is a process in which the management of an organization tries to promote the sense of
sustaining the career among employees through making use of elements including
effective reward systems, education, promotion based on competence and providing
suitable welfare facilities and services and etc. maintenance is in other words, defined
as providing employees with suitable conditions so that they would not desire to be
transferred to another organization (Khosh Neshin, 1998).
Abdulahi et al. (2010) have stated that there are two definitions provided for
maintenance in HRM related texts. These include:
1. preventing employees from deserting the organization;
2. supplication of mental and physical health.
”y retention of employees, it isn’t only referred to the physical aspects. Rather it
is also referred to active presence of employees within the organization and being
consistent with organization’s strategic policies. In other words, it is related to
engagement of employees with their job and affairs and issues related to it (Farhangi
and Samadi, 2010).
Effective factors on maintenance and retention of manpower
1. Having a clear career: clearness of conditions for obtaining different posts,
variability of jobs during service and the possibility to obtain them
2. Providing valid and related information at the time of recruitment. In other
words, individuals must be made aware of successes of the organization and
valid information regarding tasks and responsibilities must be provided for
them.
3. Having an effective reward system: payment of salaries according to
performance and competence, providing employees with financial facilities,
providing welfare facilities
4. Having an effective evaluation system: clearness of evaluation indices. Clearness
of managers’ expectations from employees, obligation of managers for recording
the performance and behavior of employees, giving feedbacks to employees and
talking with them.
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5. Assigning tasks based on competence: paying attention to education, experiences
and skills of employees and holding in-service educational courses.
Conclusions
In the section of review of literature, we have pointed to some relevant previous studies
along with their results. Each of these studies has elaborated on certain factors and
variables effective on maintenance or retention. Results of previous researches manifest
that in most organizations in Iran we are faced with major problems regarding
maintenance of manpower, especially expert and skilled manpower. It is also
noteworthy to mention that previous studies regarding this issue are inadequate in
number and providing a suitable model for HRM requires more investigation and
study in terms of the subject matter. On the other hand, it can be stated that managers
have not paid much attention to studies performed in this subject. Therefore, with
respect to results yielded from previously performed studies, in the present study the
author has tried to make a more precise analysis of effective elements on maintenance
and retention of human resources. In addition, these factors have been prioritized
according to conditions of each organization. These efforts have been made towards
promotion and optimization of manpower maintenance systems and reduction of costs
yielded by desertion of post in order to make organizations able to diagnose their
condition in terms of maintenance of manpower and take necessary actions for
management and optimization of their activities in terms of retention of manpower.
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