In the current competitive job market, worker retention is one of the most pressing concerns organizations face, and Fresh Price Accounting Inc. is not an exception. By 2005, voluntary employee turnover was projected to rise by nearly 30 percent. Consequently, it is essential than ever before for businesses of all sizes to create a strong employee retention plan (Rakhra, 2018). Therefore, this paper aims to outline the factors that influence employee turnover in a firm, with Fresh Price Accounting being the center of focus.
Theory of Motivation
The disadvantages of Fresh Price Inc. in human resource management, which is displayed in high turnover, can be explained by Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory. According to this theory, workers are motivated by two groups of factors: motivation and hygiene. Motivation factors generate job satisfaction and lower employee turnover, and among them, such as responsibility, recognition, achievement, an opportunity for growth, and work itself (Alshmemri et al., 2017). Hygiene factors include working conditions, company politics and organization, interpersonal relationships, salaries, and supervisors, poor quality of which causes job dissatisfaction (Alshmemri et al., 2017). Although Fresh Price Inc.’s employees did not point to all of these factors as problematic, research shows that many of the company’s weaknesses fall into one category or the other.
Motivational Factors
Recognition
Not receiving recognition is one factor that influences employee motivation. However, Fresh Price Company can mitigate the issue by improving their staff appreciation policies to genuinely and sincerely show acknowledgments for great jobs. The HR managers can practice peer-to-peer recognition, thus ensuring the employees are shown appreciation from their counterparts (Rakhra, 2018). Such an approach will make them feel valued for their hard work, thus motivated to continue their business. Therefore, employee motivation plays a significant role in curbing staff turnover, and Human Resource (HR) managers at Fresh Price should implement strategies that will prioritize employee motivation.
Achievement and Possibility of Growth
Sixty-two percent of Fresh Price Company’s current workforce exit the business in less than half a year and cited inadequately being trained for the roles they were employed. Employees always want to develop professionally and opportunities to advance their professions. Fresh Price’s stakeholders and employees should invest in their personnel to enhance employee retention. Investing in career development through training will promote the retention of a significant number of employees. For instance, the organization should introduce a mentoring initiative and encourage its team to attend various relevant conferences (Malek et al., 2018).
The business should also keep its doors open for any innovative idea created by an employee at the end of training. Similarly, the shareholders and directors should support staffs’ professional objectives by conducting career conversations during one-on-one meetings. Finally, the firm’s administrators should play an active role in the workforce professional development to demonstrate they are invested in the personnel’s success (Malek et al., 2018). The career development and training strategy will boost the capability of the employees and attract new workers.
Hygiene factors
Company policies and administration
The company has several policies that affect employees’ working conditions and force them to retain. Firstly, 87 percent of the workers identified in a questionnaire that they felt they feared taking extended leaves to attend to an illness or taking care of a sick family member since they would lose their jobs. According to the research, Fresh Price Company policies do not consider the leave privileges essential to the workforce. Leave privileges should be updated further to allow staff to take some time off work to recover from the pressure associated with the duties and tasks and attend to the sick relation, and also bond with their families (Santhanam et al., 2017).
Consequently, Fresh Price Inc. can mitigate the issue by restructuring its HR policies aligned to employee benefits and privileges to accommodate the leaves terms for every worker. The managers can achieve this by introducing thirty days leave period for the senior administrators and 28 days leave period for the other workers (Santhanam et al., 2017). The approach will give the person time to bond with their families and recover and regain their strength whenever they are sick.
Secondly, from the research conducted on the influence of employee turnover at Fresh Price Inc., it was identified that four employees were terminated shortly after suffering disability or revealing pregnancy. Worker injuries and accidents are unpreventable as accidents happen during daily human interactions and livelihood. Therefore, Fresh Price Inc.’s HR managers and shareholders should implement policies that will accommodate workers who have incurred accidents that have left them disabled. Such personnel should be assigned duties that are not strenuous to them and can be efficiently completed. The election of the disabled worker to the board of directors will also ensure there is a representation of the disabled person in the company (Santhanam et al., 2017).
The approach will further motivate disabled workers and make them feel appreciated by their employers. Similarly, pregnant workers should be offered a three-month mandatory leave to allow them time to deliver and nurse their babies. On the contrary, the male counterparts should be offered one month’s leave to attend to their pregnant partners. Therefore, Fresh Price Inc. needs to implement policies that ensure they provide appropriate and non-discriminatory conditions for disabled and pregnant workers.
Interpersonal Relations
According to the research conducted on Fresh Price Accounting Inc., 91 percent of the organization encompassed white men. Persons that represent a distinct ethnicity, sex, foreign language, and immigrants felt unwelcomed and misjudged. Diversity and inclusivity play a central role in any organization’s success, and Fresh Price is not an exception. When the employers are inclined to ethnic biases, it is only a matter of time before other workers get angry and exit the company (Zimmerman et al., 2019).
These inequities can further go to playing favorites, especially when unconscious biases are practiced. When left unaddressed, these biases can influence other favoritism and discrimination of foreign employees currently experienced in the Fresh Price Company.
However, the company managers and stakeholders should prioritize treating all their staff the same and avoiding playing favorites. The administrators should assess their current policies to ensure they are equitable and consider their behaviors as negatively professed by the foreign workers. For instance, since Fresh Price Accounting Inc. lacks remote working, its HR directors can allow one or two of their personnel to work from home while expecting the others to report to the office (Zimmerman et al., 2019).
The approach is a surefire method to attract the anger of the employees. Such will enable the perpetrators of discrimination to understand their foreign counterparts’ feelings whenever judged, secluded from work, and unfair discrimination. Consequently, a more suitable approach is to allow all workers to work one day from home and give them a choice to use this right or work in the office. Thus, promoting diversity and equal treatment of all workers in all work practices and policies is essential to reduce staff turnover.
Working Conditions
The lack of policies regarding the disabled, pregnant women, lactating mothers, and young parents also causes disadvantages in workers’ working conditions. The organization should upgrade its facilities to house disabled employees in the future (Santhanam et al., 2017). For instance, the managers should propose ramps to allow the affected staff to roll their wheelchairs in and out of the office quickly. Besides, they should introduce elevators in their offices to facilitate easy movement of the disabled employees through the various departments. The company stakeholders should further introduce feeding booths for the lactating workers to attend to their infants once they report back to their responsibilities (Santhanam et al., 2017).
These steps ensure the workers’ comfort and motivate them to work instead of staying home due to a lack of appropriate working conditions. Moreover, all workers’ comfortable working conditions encourage them to work in the office and devote more time to work.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Fresh Price Inc.’s management should influence supplementary programs to understand why the workers quit the company and detect the factors that attract and retain them. Job satisfaction is the central determinant of turnover intention. Therefore, if the above sound approaches are implemented, there is a possibility that the business will continue to exist in a vibrant surrounding by considering their workforce as a vital resource. Several business experts perceive that staffs are the staying power of a company; hence Fresh Price should take the initiative to implement workers’ motivation processes, thereby improving their overall performance through offering quality services. Therefore, the topic of employee turnover is a vital business concern and should be investigated further to identify ways of mitigating its impacts on the corporation’s performance.
References
Alshmemri, M, Shahwan-Akl, L., & Maude, L. (2017). Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory. Life Science Journal, 14(5), 12-16.
Malek, K., Kline, S. F., & DiPietro, R. (2018). The impact of manager training on employee turnover intentions. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, 1(3), 203-219. Web.
Rakhra, H. K. (2018). Study on factors influencing employee retention in companies. International Journal of Public Sector Performance Management, 4(1), 57–79. Web.
Santhanam, N., Kamalanabhan, T. J., Dyaram, L., & Ziegler, H. (2017). Impact of human resource management practices on employee turnover intentions. Journal of Indian Business Research, 9(3), 212-228. Web.
Zimmerman, R. D., Swider, B. W., & Boswell, W. R. (2019). Synthesizing content models of employee turnover. Human Resource Management, 58(1), 99–114.