Most bosses will say they have good employee retainment policy
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for dropping by!
But how true is that? I can say that most bosses do not have proper self awareness or perhaps, they choose to be oblivious. They are not aware that their companies, in actual fact, do not have the proper employee retainment policy. Some don’t even have ANY form of retainment policy. And some, worse, they have employee ‘let go’ policy.
One of my friends is a consultant for company A. He has resigned 1 month ago but he is very close with Client B. Last week, he and his boss went to the Client B office to have a meeting and also to announce his resignation. The client suddenly asked the boss whether his company has any proper employee retainment policy. The boss replied by saying that the company has a very good employee retainment policy and the turnover rate is very low. My friend kept quiet. But the client suddenly turned to face my friend and asked “Why do you want to leave then?”
My friend was stunned and speechless. My friend is also one of top people in that company.
The fact is, the boss is (or was) in a state of denial. According to my friend, more and more people are leaving and yet, the boss insists that the company’s retainment policy is one of the best in the industry. Maybe he will only realize the actual situation when his entire company becomes empty.
Fortunately for me, my direct boss is not like that. She knows the situation pretty well, and so is my HR. Boss, are you reading this? hahhaa.
In my opinion, bosses should be aware of the situation his company is in – not just the business & sales side, but also the internal side. Are his employees happy or at least content? Or are most of them preparing to leave? If they are preparing to leave, why do they want to leave? The bosses might not be able to fix all problems, but if he really cares, he can at least solve 50-70% of them. That is still better than nothing.
Well, lucky you. It’s great that you have a great boss. So keep working there. Hahah!!!
Hahaah.. I read it.
The funny thing is, I used to have a boss who mentioned that “The company retention policy is, to pay them enough. If we pay people enough $$$, they will stay.” (-_-)”
Some of the worse companies with the worse understanding of HR are IT companies (minus the big companies). The bosses there were techies with little or poor understanding of OB (Organizational Behaviour) or HR (Human Resources) principles. For them HR = enough knowledge of Labour Law to protect themselves from being sued by the employee…..
Angie Tans last blog post..Trying Out The Lawn by Marmalade @ KLCC
@ seaqueen
Of course
@ Angie
Both most companies mix both together, the bad 2 – low pay + lousy condition. 
Pay is one way to keep them in the company but it won’t be long since people will always ask for more. But without a good pay, people will still leave even if the condition is good, just not that soon.
I think a lot of companies are like that. Even if the company has a good HR and Finance, its useless if the boss is an idiot.
When I first read this post I thought you meant entertainment policy.
When facing a client, do businesspeople really want to say anything bad. Its called saving face. Parents do it all the time when they get embarrasssing questions about their kids.
Companies will only retain when the staff is beneficial to their cause. Thats why retention policies are always conditional. Good companies have programs to manage staff upwards, sideways or out. The normal ones manage their workforce like a fish market.
@ Damien
Saving face by saying something fake vs saying something honest and losing face — this one will depend on situation. For my friend’s case, the boss should be honest and says he is trying to improvise it…since that resigned guy is there. =_=
But it’s true that companies only retain useful people.
My friend is a good and useful people for sure. 
But the boss didn’t do enough to keep him.