Staffing And Retention

Staffing and Retention Paper

Staffing and Retention Strategies Paper

Recruiting the right employees and keeping the right employees matters when it involves strategies for staffing and retention in three industries: Applebee's casual dining, Macy's upscale retail, and Microsoft workforce management high tech. These industries find the best possible people who can fit within the culture and contribute within the organization are a challenge and an opportunity.

The Applebee's family recruits enriched by diversity cultures and offer a place in the neighborhood for everyone. Applebee's has become a worldwide leader in the restaurant industry because of the quality of our people, both in the restaurants and in the Restaurant Support Centers. We work as a team and become involved in the community to help others. Each associate sets their own career path and works with their supervisor to realize their goals and advance their career. The staff competencies that Applebee's look for when recruiting employees are young, energetic people who want to make a career out of this casual dining industry. Other alternative staffing strategies recommended to maximize return on investment is that Applebee's offers managers a career program that allows them to grow and develop through the other franchises stores. The turnover rate of employees at Applebee's would be considered not acceptable because the system at Applebee's does not reward managers for keeping turnover low; it rewards managers for keeping turnover low among top-performing employees (Dalton, 2005). Applebee's divides its employees into three groups: top 20 percent, middle 60 percent and bottom 20 percent. In the employee groups that it focuses on keeping, Applebee's has achieved impressive results (Dalton, 2005). In 2003, the company retained 96 percent of restaurant general managers in the top two groups (that is, the top -20 percent and middle 60 percent performers). At more junior levels, Applebee's held on to 90 percent of lower-level managers and 80 percent of the hourly employees in the desired categories (Dalton, 2005). The strategy that Applebee's use to retain employees is having the retention program. With retention efforts focused on the top 80 percent of employees, many of the bottom 20 percent group will leave and be replaced by a group of new hires. Since some of these new hires may turn out to be top performers, an employee who was on the bottom rung of the middle 60 percent group might suddenly find himself in the lower 20 percent bracket unless he improves his performance. In this way, each bracket should become more competitive as time goes on (Dalton, 2005). Focusing on retention on top performers and measuring success are recommended strategies to reduce undesirable turnovers. Applebee's developed its own Web-based software program called ApplePM (for "people management") that lets everyone from top executives like Prutsman and Kaucic to individual store managers identify their best employees and determine how well managers are doing at retaining those star players (Dalton, 2005).

Macy's recruits employees who remain flexible and open-minded, valuing others for who they are, and allowing fellow associates to contribute fully to the company's success. These employees must believe that taking good care of the customer, then training, developing and incenting them to be their personal best. The staff competencies that Macy's looks for through their employees are training and developing into the workforce so that they can be readily promoted in the organization. Other staffing alternatives that are recommended to maximize return on investment are the training curriculum is designed to make new hires experienced in areas such as systems, retail math, advertising, merchandise planning and buying, and sales management (Breuer, 2005). Also, believing in continuing education to ensure that the associates remain current with today's retail business practices. Next, making sure that employees feel that company-sponsored training programs are the number one factor in workplace satisfaction (Breuer, 2005). That is why Macy's offers their employees training that empowers you with the skills and tools you need to grow and develop the business. The turnover rate of Macy's employees is acceptable because there are not enough skilled salespersons. This is the reason for the turnover in this industry. Macy's human resources department is focusing on the best retention strategy to hire the person in the first place. The direct cost of turnover in Macy's stores are advertising, training, interviewing, testing, new employee orientation, and indirect costs are change making errors,