Methods to control attrition and retain employees in an organization.

Attrition is the rate of shrinkage in the size or a gradual, natural reduction in membership or personnel, as through retirement, resignation, or death. It is Normal and uncontrollable reduction of a work force because of retirement, death, sickness, and relocation. It is one method of reducing the size of a work force without management taking any overt actions. The drawback to reduction by attrition is that reductions are often unpredictable and can leave gaps in an organization.Attrition causes huge loss to the company, not only in terms of manpower but also in monetary terms. The cost of attrition would be explained in details later in this report. Moreover, this report will also cover the reasons why the employees leave a company. Attrition is a universal phenomenon and no industry is devoid of it, but the degree 10 fluctuates from industry to industry and at different levels. Attrition is a reduction in the number of employees. Attrition arises with employees leave the company for one of the three reasons:

1. Death of employee2. Retirement3. Better opportunity in some other company.

Attrition Rate

The term 'attrition rate' can be defined as "A reduction in the number of employees through retirement,

resignation or death." It denotes the percentage change in the labour force of an organization. High

percentage of labour turnover is not desirable for the organization because new workers are engaged in place

of the workers who left the organization.

Why Attrition Happens :

Attrition happens in two ways, one is because of employer and other is because of employee 1. Higher pay2. Work timings3. Career Growth4. Higher education

1. Workplace / Environmental Influences:

Working hours and toughness of work will play major role in employee satisfaction. Employee will see for other opportunities if working hours won’t suitable to spend for his personal life and family.2. Training:

Besides the induction and project training, not much investment has been done to evolve a "continuous training program" for the agents. Motivational training is still to evolve in this industry3. Vague Vision & Values:

4. Senior management must articulate a clear and compelling vision for the organization in order for it to succeed. People join and stay with companies where they feel their job is important to organizations growth.

5. Lack of Positive Direction:

Poorly prepared management can potentially communicate an undesirable message of apathy and frustration to employees, which can be detrimental the growth of the organization.6. Limited or Lack-Luster Training:

Employees want to continually upgrade their skills and expect that employers will facilitate. In fact, research shows that employees are three times more likely to leave a company that does not provide job-related training.

7. Hiring that Misfires:While hiring people have to check whether candidate fits for organizational culture and job environment. Because best suited employee can be stick to organization for longer time.

8. Women in Workforce:

Most of women leave work after marriage or because of social pressure in working hours or working place. It is true in most cases in BPO industry because of work timings.9. Inadequate Managers:

The companies should have the foresight to invest in management teams that can grow faster than the production staff. A lot of firms are losing people because their managers are too thinly staffed who are always fighting fires rather than doing proactive work.10. Employee Database Leakage:

Normally database leakage will happen because of the HR staff or database administrators or any other employee when he joins another organization or through outsourced human resource vendors. It will lead to attrition.

11. Overwork & Burnout:

Unrealistic expectations are de-motivators, not incentives. Irregular hours and meal-times, lack of rest resulting in physical strain, high-stress environments, etc., cause employees to burn out and re-evaluate their willingness to work in places like call centers.

HR managers have work on these aspects to get reduction in Attrition.

Why do Employees Leave the Organization?

There are a number of reasons for employees leaving the organization. Well, the most obvious reason for

employees leaving any organization is higher pay. The main problem here is that employees are moved from

one location to another location along with their family. But this problem is taken care of by a salary hike

which may be around 20%-35% per annum.

Another factor is work timings. In some organizations, work timings are such that they are making

employees leave the organization.

Another factor is career growth. In many organizations, only 20% of employees are able to go to senior

levels. This means that the remaining 80% of employees look for other organization where they can get

opportunities for growth.

One more reason for leaving the organization is higher education. These days, in many organizations,

employees are joining at very young age because of lucrative salaries being offered. But with time, they

apply for higher education and try to move on to other organizations or sectors to occupy top management

positions.

The percentage of women workers is also responsible for higher attrition rate. These days, the percentage

of women workers is around 30%. Generally, women workers leave the organization after marriage to take

up their house-hold duties, irregular work hours

80% of employee turnover can also be attributed to the mistakes during hiring process (Harvard Business

Review).

Other factors include accident making the worker permanently incapable of doing work, dislike for the job

or place, unsatisfactory work conditions leading to strained work relationships with the employer; lack of

security of employment et al also contribute for higher attrition rate.

Role of HR Department

Attrition Rate is good for the organization as long as the rate is at normal level. This will help the

organization to get new blood into the organization and for the organization to develop. But it becomes a

problem when the attrition rate is abnormal. Therefore, HR Department has the most crucial role to play in

any organization. At the time of conducting interviews, the HR personnel try to bring right candidate to the

right job. Similar is true even when the attrition rate is abnormal, so they have a very crucial role to play.

Following are some of the tips to reduce attrition rate: -

Hiring individuals who are truly fit to succeed in the position for hire will dramatically increase the

chances of that employee being satisfied with his or her work, and remaining with the company for an

extended period of time. Employees should not only be selected on the basis of communication skills and

educational qualifications.

Communication of employee's roles, job description and the responsibilities within the organization, new

policies will help to retain employees.

Participative Decision Making - It is incredibly important to include employees in the decision making

process, especially when decisions are related to employees. This can help to generate new ideas and

perspectives that top management might never have thought of.

Sharing of Knowledge with Others - Allow the members to share their knowledge with others. This helps

in retention of information. This also lets a team member know that he is a valuable member of the

organization. Similarly, facilitating knowledge sharing through an employee mentoring program can be

equally beneficial.

Shorten the Feedback Loop - This helps the employees to know the feedback to their work within a short

period. This also helps to keep performance levels high and reinforce positive behavior among employees.

Pay Package - Any employee wants to be appropriately paid and fairly for the work he or she does. For

this, conduct a research to find out the pay package in other similar type of organizations at regional as well

as at national levels.

Balance Work & Personal Life - No doubt family is exceptionally important to employees. When work

begins to put pressure on one family, no pay package will keep an employee in the organization. Therefore,

there should be a balance between work and personal life. Small gestures like allowing an employee to take

an extended lunch once a week to watch his son's cricket game will result in loyalty and helps to retain the

employee.

Organizational Culture - Try to select the candidates who believe in the organization culture and adopt with

ease to organization culture.

Exit Interview with the employees who are leaving the organization will help the organization to find out

the reasons why the employees are leaving the organization. This will also help to find out any drawbacks in

the organization.

Another method to reduce attrition rate is that they should find out why employees are leaving the

organization from the employees who are working for the past so many years.

Motivational Training - It is sure that motivational training helps to retain the employees. One of the

crucial aspects to motivate employees is to ensure that they have ample growth opportunities which can be

provided through training.

Multi-Tasking - One of the ways to retain the employees in the organization is try to get people with

different qualities like smart, adaptable, and capable of multi-tasking.

Referrals - Another technique is to try to get the employees hired through referrals. This makes them stick

with the organization.

No Favoritism - One of the surest ways to create animosity and resentment in an organization is to allow

favoritism and preferential treatment towards an employee. Be sure to treat all employees equally and avoid

favoritism at all costs.

80% of employee turnover can also be attributed to the mistakes during hiring process (Harvard Business

Review).

Other factors include accident making the worker permanently incapable of doing work, dislike for the job

or place, unsatisfactory work conditions leading to strained work relationships with the employer; lack of

security of employment et al also contribute for higher attrition rate.

While these HR interventions & initiatives certainly work in pockets, there are some limitations in their approach:

1. Business Imperative: The current attrition management outlook assumes that the absolute attrition percentages are of utmost importance. Logically however, the Clients would be more worried about the organization’s ability to meet the SLAs (Service Level Agreement) consistently, and not the absolute attrition percentagelevels.

2. Cost–Benefit: The cost–benefit of these HR initiatives are very difficult to calculate at the design stage. (Usually the cost calculations do not capture the disproportionate amount of time the senior management spends in creating, validating, implementing & troubleshooting these initiatives – specially in terms of the opportunity cost due to time spent away from the business opportunity)

3. Effectiveness & Impact: The effectiveness of an initiative is very difficult to predict, and the actual impact is usually out of whack with the originally estimated level. The choice of initiatives is usually someone’s preference / gut feel – instead of a very rigorous business decision. (Since some of these initiatives work, there is a sort of organizational legitimacy granted to this “deciding by gut feel” when it comes to HR interventions related decision-making.

4. Monitoring & Control: These initiatives / interventions tend to get out of control quite quickly, and it takes a Herculean effort for the organizational leadership to rein it in. The organizational leadership also does not have very clear decision-making data to choose between similar / overlapping interventions or to stop ineffective interventions. The ‘in-process’ monitoring of these initiatives / interventions is quite difficult given the biases of the implementers & their varying levels of buy-in.

5. Implementation: The success of most of these HR interventions is driven by the passion of the implementers, specially the first level managers. This does create a possibility of a less effective initiative being continued without knowing clearly that there was a better one available, and would have had a higher organizational impact, given the quality of involvement of the first level managers.

6. Focus: These initiatives / interventions are usually backward looking. They are typically driven by the data from exit interviews of the preceding month / quarter. Also given the fact that the reasons ‘why people leave’ are known to be different from ‘why people stay’, organizations might be aiming the interventions at the ‘wrong’population, if not also a significantly smaller one! Reliability of exit interview data is another issue, as call-back validation is typically not a standard practice. One really does not know how many employees actually joined the organization next door instead of that MBA they said they wanted to join.

7. Linkage & Alignment: These HR interventions usually do not provide any linkages to other HR & business processes in the organization & hence to that extent do not add value. Their alignment to the overall HR framework is therefore tenuous at best, if not completely out of sync.

COST OF ATTRITION

There are a number of costs which are incurred by a BPO when they hire any new employee. These costs can be in terms of monetary or can be in terms of time wasted or any other intangible things. Some of these costs can be as stated below: -

I. Recruitment Costs:

1. The cost of advertisements; agency costs; employee referral costs; internet posting costs.2. The cost of the internal recruiter's time to understand the position requirements, develop and implement a sourcing strategy, review candidates backgrounds, prepare for interviews, conduct interviews, prepare candidate assessments, conduct reference checks, make the employment offer and notify unsuccessful candidates. This can range from a minimum of 30 hours to over 100 hours per position.3. Calculate the cost of the various candidate pre-employment tests to help assess candidates' skills, abilities, aptitude, attitude, values and behaviours.

II. Training Costs

1. The cost of orientation in terms of the new person's salary and the cost of the person who conducts the orientation. Also include the cost of orientation materials.2. The cost of departmental training as the actual development and delivery cost plus the cost of the salary of the new employee.3. The cost of the person(s) who conduct the training.4. The cost of various training materials needed including company or product manuals, computer or other technology equipment used in the delivery of training.

III. Lost Productivity Costs

As the new employee is learning the new job, the company policies and practices, etc. they are not fully productive. Use the following guidelines to calculate the cost of this lost productivity:1. Upon completion of whatever training is provided, the employee is contributing at a 25% productivity level for the first 2 – 4 weeks. The cost therefore is 75% of the new employee’s fullsalary during that time period.2. During weeks 5 - 12, the employee is contributing at a 50% productivity level. The cost is therefore 50% of full salary during that time period.3. During weeks 13 - 20, the employee is contributing at a 75% productivity level. The cost is therefore 25% of full salary during that time period.4. Calculate the cost of mistakes the new employee makes during this elongated indoctrination period.

IV. New Hire Costs

1. The cost of bring the new person on board including the cost to put the person on the payroll, establish computer and security passwords and identification cards, telephone hookups, cost ofestablishing email accounts, or leasing other equipment such as cell phones, automobiles.2. The cost of a manager's time spent developing trust and building confidence in the new employee's work.

V. Lost Sales Costs

1. Calculate the revenue per employee by dividing total company revenue by the average number of employees in a given year. Whether an employee contributes directly or indirectly to the generation of revenue, their purpose is to provide some defined set of responsibilities that are necessary to the generation of revenue. Calculate the lost revenue by multiplying the number of weeks the position is vacant by the average weekly revenue per employee.

Thus we can say that if a person leaves a job company has to suffer losses as it involves many costs.

TWENTY RETENTION TOOLS FOR CURBING ATTRITIONIn today's scenario ATTRITION has become the most dangerous alarm to all HR employees’ ears and Organization is facing troubles to fight it out. Suggested Retention Tools for curbing attrition to a great extent are submitted herewith. These need not be brainstormed and implementation strategy should be worked out immediately.

1. OFFER COMPENSATION – ATTRACTIVE AND COMPETITIVE:Fair compensation alone does not guarantee employee loyalty, but offering below-marketsalaries makes it much more likely that employees will look for greener pastures. Use of Industry Surveys and other data tools to stay informed on wage trends. To benefit both company and employees, tie increased one time performance pay to meeting specific goals aligned with business objectives. Collect data from exit interviews to document trends from your departing employees, and then use this data to make a business case for increasing salaries across the board. Go for Employee Engagement Surveys / ESS, to find out what perks, benefits and forms ofcompensation other than money will help keep them motivated. Let employees decide their own compensation package / reimbursements once the quantum is fixed. Pay Exception is a procedure at FedEx, which allows managers to recommend and give exceptional pay increases to their highly performing employees when it is not covered by normal policy. Extensive performance measuring scheme and incentive policies by Sasken Communications, Awards and recognition like "Best project" , "contribution", "mentorship" by Aztec Software and Formal Individual / group recognition at departmental / organization levels by Intel Technologies India Pvt Ltd are few outstanding examples.

2. BENEFITS NEED TO BE QUANTIFIED AND QUALITATIVE.Although benefits are not a key reason why employees stick with a company, the benefitsyou offer can't be markedly worse than those offered by your competitors and like mindedindustries. Group Medi-claim Insurance Scheme and Personal Health Care (Regular medical checkups) Corporate Credit Cards and Discount Coupons Cellular Phone / Laptop and other latest technology on-board Interest free loans for higher educations Performance based quarterly incentives Flexi-time and Flexible Salary Benefits Wedding Day and Birthday Gift NTPC Limited has social security systems for their employees with high level of commitments and a unique culture of celebrating all their achievements.

3. TRAIN YOUR FRONT-LINE, MANAGERS AND ADMINISTRATORS.It can't be said repeatedly that people stay or leave because of their bosses and not thecompanies. Make sure your managers aren't driving technologists away. Harp upon thecompetencies and substantially invest in human capital irrespective of ROI.Improve managers’ leadership, communication and interpersonal skills through coaching,

training and feedback. Rate these key skills in their evaluations, and tie compensation toperformance.Create a safe environment and process for employees to bring up concerns with theirmanagers.In Whirlpool Appliances, there are highly selective leadership developmentmentor programs. Managers selected to participate as mentors go through a rigorousselection process and are then monitored closely to ensure that only managers whoconsistently produce results remain in the program.

4. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES NEEDS TO BE DOVETAILED.Make sure your employees know what is expected of them every day, every month andevery year, what types of decisions they are allowed to make on their own, and to whomthey are supposed to report.Provide clear vision, brawny and consistent communication, teamwork and respect forhuman capital’ efforts. Share the company vision/mission clearly and regularly.Collaborate, communicate and listen. Contented employees achieve amazing things. EliLilly & Co.(India) Pvt. Ltd has a Red Book on Code of Business Conduct which providesstandards for conducting business consistent with the company's legal obligations, globalpolicies and core values. Employees are taken through the Corporate values, vision andmission and Red Book. There is a structured training program on the Red Book and theemployees are required to sign the Responsibility Statement of the Red Book to certify thatthey agree to comply with the principles and values.

5. ENHANCEMENT, ADVANCEMENT AND PROGRESSION OPPORTUNITIES.To foster employee loyalty, implement a career ladder and make sure employees knowwhat they must do to earn and go in for progression. A clear professional development plangives employees an incentive to stick around. Do away with you Performance ManagementSystem if it has turned to NOVA (Non Value Added Activity) and go in for instantperformance rewards. Think! Think out of the box! Assess employee’s performance against the focus area’s set in their performance agreement for the appraisal year and improves their proficiency. Provide an opportunity to the employees to express their views or to seek furtherclarification on their performance. Identify potential of employees and to develop them for future roles. Reward them appropriately. Generate data for career planning and succession planning.Computer Sciences Corporation India (P) Ltd in the sabbatical policy, not only does theCompany pays for the fees of higher qualifications being acquired by any employee, anybreak in service for acquiring higher qualifications is treated as work experience for thepurpose of determining seniority within the Organisation, and there is an assured job for theemployees after completion of his/her course

6. OFFER RETENTION BONUS:Employee longevity typically is rewarded with an annual raise and mandatory vacation

time after three, five or ten years. But why not offer other seniority-based rewards such as apaid membership in the employee's professional association after one year, a paidmembership to a local gymnasium and clubs after two years, and full reimbursement for thecost of the employee's formal dress.Build a high degree of recognition value into every reward you offer. Reduce entitlementsand link as many rewards as possible to performance.Troubleshoot your reward system to make sure that what it is rewarding is what you reallywant to happen.Give employees a choice of rewards.Increase the longevity of your rewardsIntel Technologies has cash bonus plans and performance based bonuses for employees.

7. RETENTION STRATEGIES IMPLEMENTATION NEEDS TO HAVE A PROCESSOWNER:Measure your turnover rate and identify a process owner responsible for containing it. Ifcustomer returns, in-house rejections and non-confirming products can have a processowner as a countermeasure why not a process owner for implementation of retentionstrategies? Think better, think bigger, think brighter, think broader, think bolder, thinkpositive and set higher audacious goals.The ability of the employee to speak his or her mind freely within the organization isanother key factor in employee retention. If so, employees offer ideas, feel free to criticizeand commit to continuous improvement. If not, they bite their tongues or find themselvesconstantly "in trouble" - until they leave.

8. GO IN FOR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT PRACTICES:You won't know what's wrong... or what's right … unless you practice. To check the pulseof your organization, conduct employee satisfaction surveys on a regular basis. Go in for itsanalysis and implementation.One idea:Ask employees what they want more of and what they want less of – Capture Voice ofEmployeesValue addition in terms of ASKPT (Attitude, Skills, Knowledge, Practices, and Trust) hasto be the end product.Stay Interviews and its implementation, call back your employees and ensure ombudsmenconcept.From the very beginning, Mindtree Consulting has been active in its social responsibilities.Infact, MindTree has identified social responsibility as one of its core values and therefore,regularly encourages it in the organization. It has adopted an old age home and a home forchildren of Sri Lankan refugees in Bangalore. Every third Saturday, MindTree Minds visitthese places and spend half a day with the inmates there

9. TEAMWORK AND CROSS FUNCTIONAL TEAMS:It takes effort to build an effective team, but the result is greater productivity, better use ofresources, improved customer service and increased morale. Give great emphasis on crossfunctional approach as it endorses acceptance and accountability.Make sure everyone understands the department's purpose, mission or goal.Encourage discussion, participation and the sharing of ideas.Rotate leadership responsibilities depending on your employees' abilities and the needs ofthe team.Involve employees in decisions; ask them to help make decisions through consensus andcollaboration.Encourage team members to show appreciation to their colleagues for superiorperformance or achievement.Sapient Corporation has a practice known as “Team Storming”. When a team (project teamor an internal team) has worked very hard, teams from across the office get together andstorm the team with a 'goodies' basket to recognize the team and lift their morale.

10. PAPERLESS ORGANIZATION:If your high performers and technologists spend nearly as much time filling out paperwork,it's time for a change. Convert paperwork to an electronic format; and hire non- techadministrative staff to take over as much of the paperwork burden as is allowed under legalor regulatory restrictions Intranet facility Centralized servers for data storage.

11. FUN IS MUST.Celebrate successes and recognize when milestones are reached. Buffet lunches, birthdayparties, employee picnics and creative contests will help remind people why anorganization is a great place to work.The companies organizes cultural program as and when possible but most of the times,once in a quarter, in which all the employees are given an opportunity to display theirtalents in dramatics, singing, acting, dancing and sports programs such as Cricket, football,etc Fun elements at work like Parties, bashes, outings, picnics at Aztec Software & TechnologyServices Ltd and De-motivation to work on holidays by Phillips India are few goodIllustrations

12. MISSION STATEMENT FOR EACH FUNCTIONAL AREA.Everyone wants to feel that they are working toward a meaningful, worthwhile goal. Workwith your human capital to develop a departmental mission statement aligned withcompany’s vision, Make sure employees understand how their contribution is important.A place where people work with a smile on their faces and dreams in their eyesA place where your views can be freely voiced and are received with an open mindA place where you know whenever you need help, there is a family of 2000 memberswaiting to help you out

13. ASSIGNMENTS FOR JOB ENRICHMENT:Identify your employees' talents and then encourage them to stretch their abilities into newareas. You have to have a great mentor or mentors. A variety of challenging assignmentshelps keep the organization stimulating. Lay emphasis on stretch Key Result Areas.Employees today want more than just a job. They want to contribute to the big picture andhelp the company sustain it through the tough times. Provide challenging and meaningfulwork assignments that stimulate them.When employees feel bored, their motivation declines and they lose focus on how theirwork fits into the big picture.Delegate meaningful work whenever possible so employees can learn something new andfeel challenged. Additionally, provide regular development and learning opportunities.Johnson & Johnson conducts a Strategic Roadmap Meeting which is a large-scaleinteractive process (LSIP) of communicating with employees and getting their buy-in onthe strategic goals set by the company. This is a theme based motivational event.

14. TRANSPARENCY IN COMMUNICATION.Employees are more loyal to a company when they believe management or those at thehelm of affairs keep them informed about key issuesCommunication is the first step toward creating the kind of environment that people careabout, and if they care, they just may stay, keep your people in the loop about what'shappening with the company.At any time, all of your employees should have a pretty good idea of how business hasbeen carried out.They should be aware of what issues the company is attempting to address.Everyone from new recruit to CEO is treated as same in Nokia. Everyone flies the businessclass and everyone stays in luxury hotels.

15. ENCOURAGE HIGHER LEARNING.Create opportunities for your key performers and technologists to grow and learn.Encourage every employee to learn at least one new thing every week, and you'll create awork force that is excited, motivated and committed.To keep morale high, coach and facilitate every day.The “I tell/you do” method of management simply does not work for motivating andretaining people. Instead, become a coach to your people and encourage them to try thingstheir own way.Allow for mistakes to happen, as mistakes are often our greatest learning opportunities.Most people are grateful for constructive feedback. It shows that you’re paying attention totheir progressFedEx has Personality Development Systems, amount of 3000 $ annually as educationreimbursement and an Online training library with 600 courses.

16. FLEXIBILITY AND PRAGMATISM:

Employees will be loyal to organizations that make their lives more convenient by offeringon-site childcare centers, on-site hair styling and dry cleaning, flexible work hours, parttimepositions, job-sharing or involving spouses in CSR activities and promote ownershipculture.Employees of school-age children might appreciate the option to work nine months a yearand have the summers off to be with their children.

17. DEVELOP AN EFFECTIVE INDUCTION PROGRAM.Implement a formal orientation program that's at least three weeks long and includes athorough overview of every area of your department and an introduction to otherdepartments.Infosys has a 23 days Induction Program with ISB BangaloreSona Group has tied up with MDI Gurgaon for one month Induction Program

18. WORKPLACE AMBIENCE.No one wants to work with equipment that's old or constantly breaking down. Provideemployees with the highest quality supplies you can afford.Cheap, leaky pens may seem like a small thing, but they can add to employees' overallstress level.A career-oriented, valued employee must experience growth opportunities within yourorganization.

19. NEVER, NEVER, EVER THREATEN AN EMPLOYEE'S JOB OR INCOME.Even if you know layoffs loom if you fail to meet targets, it is a mistake to foreshadow thisinformation with employees. It makes them nervous; no matter how you explain theinformation, even if you're absolutely correct, your employees will update their resumesDemonstrate a vibrant workplace that retains and promotes talents and at the same timeencourages development of non-performers to perform better and dissuade pink slips.

20. VALUE YOUR EMPLOYEES.Recognize outstanding achievements promptly and publicly, but also take time to commendon the many small contributions your staff makes every day to the organization's vision,mission and growth.DO NOT FORGET — THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE YOU LOOKGOOD!A commonplace complaint we hear during an exit interview is that the employee never feltsenior managers knew he existed.Take time to meet with new employees to learn about their talents, abilities and skills. Meetwith each employee periodically.

RETAINING THE EMPLOYEES

Employees today are different. They are not the ones who don’t have good opportunities in hand. As soon as they feel dissatisfied with the current employer or the job, they switch over to the next job. In prominent Indian metros, there is no dearth of opportunities for the best in the business, oreven for the second or the third best. Importance of retaining employees remains the same irrespective of the size of the organization, its nature of business or the country of operation. Theonly difference lies in realizing the fact that frequent employee attrition means there is something, which needs immediate attention and cure. Employee Retention involves taking measures to encourage employees to remain in the organization for the maximum period of time. It involves being sensitive to people's needs and demonstrating the various strategies in the five families detailed in Roger Herman's classic book on employee retention, Keeping Good People.

Compensation: It is said that money isn't a motivator, but it is an effective de-motivator. The employees always have high expectations regarding their compensation packages. So an attractive compensation package plays a critical role in retaining the employees.

Growth: No one joins an organization to just do the same work till the end of his career. If an employee does not see growth in his own organization, there are high chances that he might opt for leaving the organization. So such strategies must be framed where an employeecan see his bright future in the company.

Relationship: The management is sometimes not able to provide an employee a supportive work culture and environment in terms of personal or professional relationships. The organization culture should be such that encourages healthy relationship between all the employees.

Support: Sometimes not getting the right kind of support and cooperation also leads an employee to be frustrated and provokes him to leave the organization. This should be taken care of by providing healthy work relationships.

Environmental: An organization needs to have an environment where individuals learn and get support from colleagues and seniors along with the healthy mixture of authority and responsibility.Based on the above five points, a retention strategy can be framed after understanding the reasons for attrition in a particular organization.