By Vicky Jain, Founder & CEO, uKnowva, an HRMS startup
In today’s competitive market, retention and hiring are the keys to promoting organisational growth. While some turnover allows businesses to infuse fresh, new talent within the organisation and bring new perspectives, the problem arises when attrition becomes increasingly prevalent.
Replacing old employees is a costly affair – costs can range anywhere from 16 per cent to 213 per cent of an employees’ salary. Organisations in the US pay up to 1 trillion dollars in turnover expenses annually. Also, attrition results in lost knowledge and roadblocks to productivity along with reduced employee morale and motivation. To deal with the challenges of retention, HR functions are now accelerating the use of human resource management systems (HRMS) to streamline every activity related to HR management and help decrease employee turnover.
HRMS can Help Deal with the Challenges of Retention
There are several reasons why employees leave a company. While many organisations focus on initiatives to retain talent but sadly, the majority of the efforts don’t align with the problems at hand. Here are some of the common challenges to retaining talent and ways HRMS can make a difference:
Lack of Recognition
Recognising employees for their achievements or contributions is one of the most crucial elements of employee retention and engagement. A study conducted by Bersin & Associates revealed that organisations that scored amongst the top 20% for building a ‘recognition-rich company culture’ witnessed 31% lower voluntary turnover rates. But with so much already on the plate, it becomes difficult for HRs to constantly monitor and recognise employee performance. With HRMS, this becomes a breeze as it can assign goals, track progress and also assist in setting future goals for the employees. HRMS enables supervisors and managers to reward the performance of team members in a structured and timely way. It also allows peers to appreciate one another’s work and acknowledge any help or support that they may have received.
Unsatisfactory Employee Engagement
As per different studies related to HR management, it has been observed that 88 per cent of attrition occurring at organisations is due to a disengaged or demotivated workforce. HRMS can provide real-time performance evaluations along with surveys, peer feedback and employee satisfaction surveys that can actually make sure that employees feel engaged and valued. HRMS allow HR leaders to acknowledge the smallest of things, like the onboarding experience of an employee, providing persistent feedback on their job and showing appreciation when the job is done well.
Lack of Learning and Development Opportunities
Global Talent Monitor’s report in 2Q18 on workforce activity shows that the scarcity of future career development options remains a key driver of employee attrition. If employees feel that the organisation is not interested in investing in a future with them, they would be happy to leave and search for newer opportunities. Learning and development happen to be a systematic process that enhances employee knowledge, skills and competency, leading to better performance in a work setting. Integrating HRMS with an existing learning management system (LMS) can enrich the knowledge and skills of employees and accelerate toward a common goal for company growth. Integrating HRMS with an LMS can help foster and harness employee skills to meet organizational needs. When integrated with an HRMS, LMS can collect, report, and assist HRs to visualize and through effective and fast training analytics of the same to make data-driven decisions for the HR department. Another interesting area observed in a few HRMS learning management applications is competency management which means tracking the competencies attached to a person or position. Employees can always benefit from better training and development, and it is perceived as a catalyst for growth.
Monitoring Toxic Employees
Toxic co-workers are available in almost every office setting. They are the employees who are a bit critical and often engage in gossiping and undermining other co-workers. However, analytics and data management provided by HRMS help in proper employee behaviour and mood monitoring. This can help identify nuisance creators and help employees stay together.
Final Say
Companies that desperately seek to reduce employee turnover can benefit a lot with the right application of HRMS. Employee turnover happens to be the biggest reason why numerous organisations are presently bearing losses month after month. HRMS can easily manage staff turnover as it streamlines the entire life cycle of employees which helps to maintain satisfaction in employees at all stages.
