Recruiting right people to the right job is one of the most important responsibilities of an HR Manager. Even after performing this responsibility well, he cannot sit back and relax.  He has another challenge that is to retain the good talent that was hired by him.

Factors that motivate employees to continue in a job include job satisfaction, career development, recognition of good work, having understanding managers and so on. While “good pay” is also one of them, it does not fall under the main motivators that delight the employee. Thus, by having a good employee performance management culture and policy in place, an HR manager can ensure that the employee’s expectations from the company are met. This would in turn bring down the attrition rate and also ensure long term loyalty of the employees to their organization.

Therefore, the basic foundation, as we understand, is to define good employee performance management policies that reduce attrition rate in an organization.

Here are the main factors that would help lower employee attrition rate.

1) Define the right set of competencies for different job roles. An ability to customize this for individuals would be an added advantage.

2) Set standardized goals for the job roles, with an ability to customize for each individual. Also, employees goals would have to align with the organization goals.

3) Convey the job expectations to the employee clearly, well in advance.

4) Allow objective appraisals as much as possible. This can be achieved by:

1. Timing the feedback closer to the incident. (Interim feedback)
2. Getting feedback from multi-raters.
3. Social recognition to identify good performance.
4. Reward the good performers.

5) Define an annual appraisal process which is simple. Activities should be kept to the minimum and the important ones, like rating and career development meeting should be given importance. Approval mechanism should be simple and clear.  Simplicity is the key for effective use.

6) The end result of appraisals should be aimed for career development of an employee.  Ability to define career development plans and tracking to closure would be good.

Once these policies are base-lined, organizations can look into automating them with clear, customizable performance management software, to reduce the amount of manual efforts.

Therefore, having better employee performance management policies will not only minimize the employee attrition, but also enhances their efficiency helping the organization touch the heights of success.

By Kavitha Kalyanasundaram