People Retention - Developing a Turnaround Stratergy

1. TERMS OF REFERENCE

This assignment is a requirement for the assessment of the People Management Module of the USB MDP course.

2. INDUCTION & BACKGROUND

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As the new head of department, I have taken over at a time where key people are leaving the company. I have been tasked to develop a turnaround strategy to deal with this serious problem. I will be evaluating this assignment with reference to a very real world example in the company I current work for. We have a product development division which develops hardware and software. Due to various events last year including restructuring, retrenchments and changing market needs, the employee morale has been very low since last year in this division and we have in fact lost several key employees.

In the section below I have described the key areas I would tackle to deal with the problem.

3. DISCUSSION

3.1 Understand the problem

One of the first steps I would take in dealing with the problem of people retention is to have meetings with all the key employees and try to get as much information as possible from them to understand what they enjoy about the company and what things make them unhappy and possibly are reasons for them to consider other options.

Review the exit interview notes for key employees that have left to obtain as much information as possible on why they left. This will provide key inputs into the turnaround strategy

3.2 Communication

Effective communication will form a key pillar of the turnaround strategy as I believe communication is a key problem in many companies. Employees are often left in the dark as management make decisions and carry on about their business without much thought that ensuring that your employees understand exactly where the company is at and where it is going is critical to getting their buy-in to help grow and sustain the company going forward. Some of the key communication strategies will include the following

1. Regularly communicate the company Vision, Mission & Strategy in a way that it can be easily understood by the department employees. Far too many companies have such lofty and unclear vision and mission statements that many employees cannot connect with and understand them. The company’s current strategies based on the vision and mission should also be reiterated regularly to the employees

2. Hold monthly meetings with the whole department to update them on where the business is at, new developments and areas where the company has improved. We will also discuss weaknesses of the company and department and ask for employee