Introduction
An instrument that all entrepreneurs need to get right before setting out is a document called the ‘Business Plan’.
Developing a business plan is not as difficult as some people take it to be. You can personally draft your business plan without involving a consultant. All it takes to develop a personal business plan for your business is for you to have an understanding of all the elements that a business plan should contain. This article is written to provide a guide on how to write your business plan.
What’s a business plan?
A business plan is a document that contains detailed information about the business that an entrepreneur is trying to set up to render a service and/or produce a tangible product that people will be willing to pay for. A business plan describes the venture that you will create to exploit a concept. It's a tool for understanding how your business is put together. The process will help you learn how to manage your own company more effectively while you become an expert in your industry and business. It creates a framework for you to start and grow your business.
Business Plan Outline
The outline of a business plan varies from business to business and from individual to individual. Therefore, there is no specific or mandated format to follow in preparing a business plan. But there are some basic features that all business plans must have.
Ideal Business Plan Outline
There are many different Business Plan formats. The layout may vary depending on the type of the business, the purpose of the plan and the readership. The following format can be amended to meet the needs of your business.
i) Executive Summary: The executive summary demonstrates your knowledge of the business opportunity and proves that any investment in the venture will yield a good return.
ii) Company/Opportunity Summary
a. Company history
b. Description of business opportunity
iii) Product, Service and/or Technology Overview
a. Description of product, service and/or technology
b. Description of the innovation
c. Value proposition and customer needs
d. Description of intellectual property position
iv) Market Opportunity
a. Market analysis – description of the market, industry and specific opportunity
b. Description of the target market and customers
c. Competitive landscape – description of competitors vis-à-vis the competitive advantages of your
product, service and/or technology offering.
v) Company Management
a. Description of the management and its associates skills, talents and experiences
b. Human resource plan – description of key hires.
c. Resumes of founders and existing or proposed shareholders (if applicable)
vi) Development Plan
a. Description of product development milestones and associated timeframes
b. Description of sales and marketing strategy, including revenue model.
vii) Financial Plan
a. Projected cash flow statement
b. Use of funds
c. Investment needs, short-term and long term financing requirements.
Conclusion
The Business Plan will help you anticipate barriers to success in your chosen business and prepare you well ahead to turn all these barriers around as strengths and opportunities.
References
Stephen Lawrence and Frank Moyes (2004) .Writing a Successful Business Plan,
Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado at Boulder.
New Brunswick Innovation Foundation Business Plan Outline.
OCRI Entrepreneurship Centre (2002). Writing an Effective Business Plan. Ottawa, Canada.NBIF Business Plan OutlineNBIF Business Plan Outline
About the Author
Ajiboro Ayodeji is a Chartered HR practitioner based in Lagos, Nigeria. His areas of interest are Human Resource, Training, and Entrepreneurship Development. Tel: 2348027807452. Email: hutrenconsulting@gmail.com.
________________________________________
The use of this material is free provided copyright is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the www.hutrenentrepreneur.blogspot.com. This material may not be sold, or published in any form. Disclaimer: Reliance on information, material, advice, other links and recommended resources, received from Ajiboro Ayodeji, ACIPM, shall be at your sole risk, and Hutren Consulting assumes no responsibility for any errors, omissions, or damages arising. Users are encouraged to confirm information received with other sources. Please retain this notice on all copies.
© Hutren Consulting 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
ESSENTIAL QUALITIES FOR HIGH FLYING ENTREPRENEURS
INTRODUCTION
Are you an entrepreneur? The Webster's New World Dictionary defines an entrepreneur as "one who organizes and manages a business and undertakes the risk for the sake of profit.” Do you have what it takes to introduce a new product and a new method of production? Can you open a new market, conquer a new source of raw materials, and reorganize an industry in a new way? If those features define who you are, then, you’re an entrepreneur.
Do you know how important you are to the world? The next paragraph tells you how important you are to your nation and to the whole wide world, as an entrepreneur.
The question of why some nations are rich and others are poor has been at the center of economic debate for over two centuries. While the post-WWII Keynesian dominated discussion of economic development focused on and emphasized the importance of such factors as foreign aid and government planning, it is now widely agreed that the entrepreneur is the prime driver of economic progress (Kasper & Streit, 1998: 1-23; Leff, 1979).
The above paragraph shows the importance of entrepreneurs to all nations of the world. Entrepreneurs are job creators, new products developers, new production process initiators, and they are also market leaders. To be where you are supposed to be as an entrepreneur you must possess some worthwhile qualities.
QUALITIES OF HIGH FLYING ENTREPRENEURS
The rare qualities possess by high flying entrepreneurs are listed below.
a) Initiative: Ability to do things before being told, forced or by events.
b) Assertiveness: Firmness and ability to tell others what they need to do directly.
c) Excellent interpersonal relationship: Make contact s easily and get along very well with people.
d) Obsess with high quality: Always demand for top quality product, service and raw materials.
e) Opportunity savvy: They seize unusual opportunities all the time and also capitalize on new opportunities.
f) Risk taking: Confidence in breaking new grounds and investing in unfamiliar terrains.
g) Innovation: Skillful at introducing new ideas.
h) Efficiency oriented: They concentrate on getting the right things done, first time with minimum cost and highest possible quality.
i) Uniqueness: They are unique in all respects. They initiate ideas that others follow or adapt.
j) Create and utilize networks: They make the best use of existing networks and create new networks when need be.
k) Manage growth: They are not always carried away by current or past successes but are rather skillful at managing growth and success well.
l) Motivate organizational members: They have a clear understanding of people’s needs and use same to drive them for optimal performance at work.
m) Vision: Entrepreneurs are visionaries who dream dreams, think ahead and initiate positive changes to take advantage of opportunities.
n) Leadership: They are pacesetters in their line of business and industry. They give directions that others are to follow.
o) Expansion orientation: Entrepreneurs always concentrate on expanding their business scope beyond the present level. They are addicted to continuous growth and expansion of their business.
CONCLUSION
The starting point towards excelling as an entrepreneur is to possess the required qualities. Therefore, as an entrepreneur, you must develop all the identified qualities so as to be able to set the pace for others and thus become a high flying entrepreneur.
References:
Kasper, W. and Streit, M.E (1998). Institutional Economics: Social Order and
Public Policy. United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Leff, N.A (1979) Entrepreneurship and Economic Development: The Problem
Revisited. Journal of Economic Literature 17, 46--64.
Weaver, K., M, and Solomon, G.T (2003) “Are We Teaching Entrepreneurship to Small Businesses and Small Business to Entrepreneurs?” Proceedings: 48th Conference of the International Council for Small Business Belfast, Northern Ireland.
About the Author
Ajiboro Ayodeji is a Chartered HR practitioner based in Lagos, Nigeria. His areas of interest are Human Resource, Training, and Entrepreneurship Advisory Services. Tel: 2348027807452. Email: hutrenconsulting@gmail.com.
© Hutren Consulting 2011
________________________________________
The use of this material is free provided copyright is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the www.hutrenentrepreneur.blogspot.com. This material may not be sold, or published in any form. Disclaimer: Reliance on information, material, advice, other links and recommended resources, received from Ajiboro Ayodeji, ACIPM, shall be at your sole risk, and Hutren Consulting assumes no responsibility for any errors, omissions, or damages arising. Users are encouraged to confirm information received with other sources. Please retain this notice on all copies.
© Hutren Consulting 2011
Are you an entrepreneur? The Webster's New World Dictionary defines an entrepreneur as "one who organizes and manages a business and undertakes the risk for the sake of profit.” Do you have what it takes to introduce a new product and a new method of production? Can you open a new market, conquer a new source of raw materials, and reorganize an industry in a new way? If those features define who you are, then, you’re an entrepreneur.
Do you know how important you are to the world? The next paragraph tells you how important you are to your nation and to the whole wide world, as an entrepreneur.
The question of why some nations are rich and others are poor has been at the center of economic debate for over two centuries. While the post-WWII Keynesian dominated discussion of economic development focused on and emphasized the importance of such factors as foreign aid and government planning, it is now widely agreed that the entrepreneur is the prime driver of economic progress (Kasper & Streit, 1998: 1-23; Leff, 1979).
The above paragraph shows the importance of entrepreneurs to all nations of the world. Entrepreneurs are job creators, new products developers, new production process initiators, and they are also market leaders. To be where you are supposed to be as an entrepreneur you must possess some worthwhile qualities.
QUALITIES OF HIGH FLYING ENTREPRENEURS
The rare qualities possess by high flying entrepreneurs are listed below.
a) Initiative: Ability to do things before being told, forced or by events.
b) Assertiveness: Firmness and ability to tell others what they need to do directly.
c) Excellent interpersonal relationship: Make contact s easily and get along very well with people.
d) Obsess with high quality: Always demand for top quality product, service and raw materials.
e) Opportunity savvy: They seize unusual opportunities all the time and also capitalize on new opportunities.
f) Risk taking: Confidence in breaking new grounds and investing in unfamiliar terrains.
g) Innovation: Skillful at introducing new ideas.
h) Efficiency oriented: They concentrate on getting the right things done, first time with minimum cost and highest possible quality.
i) Uniqueness: They are unique in all respects. They initiate ideas that others follow or adapt.
j) Create and utilize networks: They make the best use of existing networks and create new networks when need be.
k) Manage growth: They are not always carried away by current or past successes but are rather skillful at managing growth and success well.
l) Motivate organizational members: They have a clear understanding of people’s needs and use same to drive them for optimal performance at work.
m) Vision: Entrepreneurs are visionaries who dream dreams, think ahead and initiate positive changes to take advantage of opportunities.
n) Leadership: They are pacesetters in their line of business and industry. They give directions that others are to follow.
o) Expansion orientation: Entrepreneurs always concentrate on expanding their business scope beyond the present level. They are addicted to continuous growth and expansion of their business.
CONCLUSION
The starting point towards excelling as an entrepreneur is to possess the required qualities. Therefore, as an entrepreneur, you must develop all the identified qualities so as to be able to set the pace for others and thus become a high flying entrepreneur.
References:
Kasper, W. and Streit, M.E (1998). Institutional Economics: Social Order and
Public Policy. United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Leff, N.A (1979) Entrepreneurship and Economic Development: The Problem
Revisited. Journal of Economic Literature 17, 46--64.
Weaver, K., M, and Solomon, G.T (2003) “Are We Teaching Entrepreneurship to Small Businesses and Small Business to Entrepreneurs?” Proceedings: 48th Conference of the International Council for Small Business Belfast, Northern Ireland.
About the Author
Ajiboro Ayodeji is a Chartered HR practitioner based in Lagos, Nigeria. His areas of interest are Human Resource, Training, and Entrepreneurship Advisory Services. Tel: 2348027807452. Email: hutrenconsulting@gmail.com.
© Hutren Consulting 2011
________________________________________
The use of this material is free provided copyright is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the www.hutrenentrepreneur.blogspot.com. This material may not be sold, or published in any form. Disclaimer: Reliance on information, material, advice, other links and recommended resources, received from Ajiboro Ayodeji, ACIPM, shall be at your sole risk, and Hutren Consulting assumes no responsibility for any errors, omissions, or damages arising. Users are encouraged to confirm information received with other sources. Please retain this notice on all copies.
© Hutren Consulting 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
ETHICAL BUSINESS CONSIDERATIONS FOR ENTREPRENEURS
INTRODUCTION
Managing businesses in the 21st century has gone beyond mere profit maximisation. The need to be ethical in all business dealings as entrepreneurs can no longer be ignored. Entrepreneurs that ignore ethical considerations in business are doing so at their own peril. This article is all about exposing entrepreneurs to the basic things they are expected to know about ethics in business management.
MEANING OF ETHICS
Ethics is a field that studies human behaviour in relationship with others on the basis of wrongness or rightness of manifested behavior. Anything that is ethical is adjudged to be fair to all the parties involved. Entrepreneurs must always consider the level of transparency, the effect and how fair their actions are to those to be affected by such actions in all their business decisions before embarking upon such a decision. Transparency, effect and fairness are core issues for ethical consideration in business.
CONCERN FOR STAKEHOLDERS
Entrepreneurs and the organisations they represent are not out of this world. They relate with several individuals, organisations, interest groups and the state. All these groups have a stake in all businesses operating in their domain. Three questions that are of great concern to all entrepreneurs in relation to ethical business operations are?
a) Am I confidence to make my decisions known to people to be affected by them?
b) Have I considered the harmful effects of my decision and the way out?
c) Would my decisions be considered fair by everyone affected by it?
MAJOR STAKEHOLDERS
The following group being stakeholders in the business world must be considered by entrepreneurs in their day-to-day decision making.
a) Shareholders
b) Trustees
c) Guarantors
d) Investors
e) Partners
f) Approving bodies
g) Regulatory authorities
h) Advisors and consultants (yes, these people have something at stake too)
i) Employees - staff, managers, directors, non-executive directors
j) Customers
k) Suppliers
l) The local community
m) The general public
n) International communities
o) humankind
BENEFITS
Competitive advantage
Entrepreneurs that are adjudged fair to all concerns in their business dealings are always in the good book of the general public and therefore enjoy better patronage over their competitors.
Employer of choice
In this era of war of talents, employees are kin about working for any organisation with sound reputation. Sound ethical business practices add value to business organisations and also make it easier for them to attract and retain quality, competent and committed workers.
Attracting Investment
To attract investors and venture capitalists, an entrepreneur and his organisation must have reputation for fair and ethical business practices. This gives them a very solid reputation before investors and bankers.
Motivation and Morale boost
The integrity and reputation of the business is a source of morale booster to all the employees. They tend to feel happy working in an organisation that the society holds in high esteem.
Reputation
In this era when high and mighty businesses of yesterday are falling due to scandals. It takes ethical business operations to remain firm in a business environment saturated with high ranking firms. To maintain a good public image in your domain and globally, never trade your ethical business practices for anything else as an entrepreneur. It takes years to build a business; only a scandal is enough to destroy it.
Legal and regulatory Considerations
Businesses are being sanctioned now more than ever before for lack of accountability and transparency in their business dealings. The operating license of a business or an entrepreneur could be withdrawn for involvement in any unethical business practices.
Conclusion
The core of ethical business operation is to conduct your business as an entrepreneur in a manner that minimizes or avoid social conflicts. Negative business impacts on the society such as child labour, workers exploitation, social and environmental damage must be avoided.
REFERENCES:
Alan Chapman (2010). Ethical Decision Making and leadership. www.businessball.com
Fajana Sola (2002). Human Resource Management: An Introduction. Labofin and Company, Lagos.
About the author
Ajiboro Ayodeji is a Chartered HR Practitioner based in Lagos, Nigeria. Tel: 2348027807452. Email: hutrenconsulting@gmail.com.
©Hutren Consulting 2011
________________________________________
The use of this material is free provided copyright is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the www.hutrenentrepreneur.blogspot.com. This material may not be sold, or published in any form. Disclaimer: Reliance on information, material, advice, other links and recomhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifmended resources, received from Ajiboro Ayodeji, ACIPM, shall be at your sole risk, and Hutren Consulting assumes no responsibility for any errors, omissions, or damages arising. Users are encouraged to confirm information received with other sources. Please retain this notice on all copies.
© Hutren Consulting 2011
Managing businesses in the 21st century has gone beyond mere profit maximisation. The need to be ethical in all business dealings as entrepreneurs can no longer be ignored. Entrepreneurs that ignore ethical considerations in business are doing so at their own peril. This article is all about exposing entrepreneurs to the basic things they are expected to know about ethics in business management.
MEANING OF ETHICS
Ethics is a field that studies human behaviour in relationship with others on the basis of wrongness or rightness of manifested behavior. Anything that is ethical is adjudged to be fair to all the parties involved. Entrepreneurs must always consider the level of transparency, the effect and how fair their actions are to those to be affected by such actions in all their business decisions before embarking upon such a decision. Transparency, effect and fairness are core issues for ethical consideration in business.
CONCERN FOR STAKEHOLDERS
Entrepreneurs and the organisations they represent are not out of this world. They relate with several individuals, organisations, interest groups and the state. All these groups have a stake in all businesses operating in their domain. Three questions that are of great concern to all entrepreneurs in relation to ethical business operations are?
a) Am I confidence to make my decisions known to people to be affected by them?
b) Have I considered the harmful effects of my decision and the way out?
c) Would my decisions be considered fair by everyone affected by it?
MAJOR STAKEHOLDERS
The following group being stakeholders in the business world must be considered by entrepreneurs in their day-to-day decision making.
a) Shareholders
b) Trustees
c) Guarantors
d) Investors
e) Partners
f) Approving bodies
g) Regulatory authorities
h) Advisors and consultants (yes, these people have something at stake too)
i) Employees - staff, managers, directors, non-executive directors
j) Customers
k) Suppliers
l) The local community
m) The general public
n) International communities
o) humankind
BENEFITS
Competitive advantage
Entrepreneurs that are adjudged fair to all concerns in their business dealings are always in the good book of the general public and therefore enjoy better patronage over their competitors.
Employer of choice
In this era of war of talents, employees are kin about working for any organisation with sound reputation. Sound ethical business practices add value to business organisations and also make it easier for them to attract and retain quality, competent and committed workers.
Attracting Investment
To attract investors and venture capitalists, an entrepreneur and his organisation must have reputation for fair and ethical business practices. This gives them a very solid reputation before investors and bankers.
Motivation and Morale boost
The integrity and reputation of the business is a source of morale booster to all the employees. They tend to feel happy working in an organisation that the society holds in high esteem.
Reputation
In this era when high and mighty businesses of yesterday are falling due to scandals. It takes ethical business operations to remain firm in a business environment saturated with high ranking firms. To maintain a good public image in your domain and globally, never trade your ethical business practices for anything else as an entrepreneur. It takes years to build a business; only a scandal is enough to destroy it.
Legal and regulatory Considerations
Businesses are being sanctioned now more than ever before for lack of accountability and transparency in their business dealings. The operating license of a business or an entrepreneur could be withdrawn for involvement in any unethical business practices.
Conclusion
The core of ethical business operation is to conduct your business as an entrepreneur in a manner that minimizes or avoid social conflicts. Negative business impacts on the society such as child labour, workers exploitation, social and environmental damage must be avoided.
REFERENCES:
Alan Chapman (2010). Ethical Decision Making and leadership. www.businessball.com
Fajana Sola (2002). Human Resource Management: An Introduction. Labofin and Company, Lagos.
About the author
Ajiboro Ayodeji is a Chartered HR Practitioner based in Lagos, Nigeria. Tel: 2348027807452. Email: hutrenconsulting@gmail.com.
©Hutren Consulting 2011
________________________________________
The use of this material is free provided copyright is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the www.hutrenentrepreneur.blogspot.com. This material may not be sold, or published in any form. Disclaimer: Reliance on information, material, advice, other links and recomhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifmended resources, received from Ajiboro Ayodeji, ACIPM, shall be at your sole risk, and Hutren Consulting assumes no responsibility for any errors, omissions, or damages arising. Users are encouraged to confirm information received with other sources. Please retain this notice on all copies.
© Hutren Consulting 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
EMPLOYEE RETENTION STRATEGY
Introduction
One of the most important drivers of productivity and sustainable economic growth in developed economies is the quality and stability of its workforce (Chiboiwa et al., 2010). The failure to maintain a reasonably stable workforce through an effective employee retention strategy will result in a very high employee turnover, low productivity and poor company image.
The ability of any organisation to perform optimally varies directly with the knowledge, skills and attitudes of its employees or manpower. It’s a well known fact that 80% of the outputs in majority of business organisations are the outcome of the efforts of about 20% of all employees. These 20% are referred to as the high flyers. The present and future success of any organisation therefore depends on its ability to retain a reasonable proportion of its high flyers over a long period of time.
Employee Retention Defined
Retention is a voluntary move by an organisation to create an environment which engages employees for a long term (Chaminade, 2007). The main purpose of retention is to prevent the loss of competent employees from leaving the organisation as this could have adverse effect on productivity and profitability (Samuel and Chipunza, 2009). A well designed and purposeful executed employee retention strategy will result in a very low employee turnover.
The way a business organisation reward, treat, develop and motivate its workforce will determine whether these employees will stay with the organisation well enough or not. All organisational activities geared towards the employees should be designed towards encouraging them to remain committed to the organisation and its long term goals and objectives.
Employee Retention Strategies
There are so many strategies that organisations can utilize to retain good and committed employees for as long as desired. Some of these time tested strategies are identified below.
1. Competitive reward system: Reward means what employees receive in exchange for their contributions to the organisation. This reward could be in form of salary, promotions, benefits and incentives. When the reward are perceived by the employees as fair, just and equitable in comparison with what obtains in other similar organisations, they are motivated to stay with the organisation for a reasonable period of time. To retain quality talents the reward system must be competitive.
2. Becoming an employer of choice: An employer of choice is one for whom people want to work (Armstrong, 2003). To become an employer of choice you have to develop the reputation of your company as a company that meets the need of all its stakeholders through excellent result. This is achievable through quality goods and services, ethical behaviour, excellent employment conditions, opportunities for career growth and development, job security, learning opportunities and highly competitive pay and benefits.
3. Improved work-life balance: An employer that will retain talent is the one that recognise the fact that employees also have a life of their own outside work. Such an organisation tends to structure its activities in such a way that does not affect employee’s personal time for their family, leisure, personal growth and development. This strategy has the potential for improving employees’ work-life balance. To retain good employees at work, their needs outside work must be met through quality work-life balance.
4. Develop internal social ties: There should be excellent social interaction and ties among employees. Company policies should encourage internal social relationship among employees by encouraging interpersonal relationship that goes beyond work among employees. Employees should be encouraged to get personal with one another. Superiors should also be encouraged to be concerned about the personal life and welfare of their subordinates and vice versa. Loyalty to companies may be disappearing but loyalty to colleagues is not (Cappelli, 2000).
5. Learning opportunities: Special priority should be given to the provision of learning opportunities aimed at developing the skills, knowledge and capabilities of employees at work. There should also be room for career growth and advancement within the organisation so as to encourage employees’ retention. Employees can only stay with an organisation that provides them with opportunities for learning, growth and development.
Conclusion
Investment in employee retention is good but the reality about employee retention strategy is that ‘the market’ and not ‘the company’ will ultimately determine the movement of employees. No matter how sophisticated an organisation’s retention strategy is, it may still be unable to prevent its employees from attractive opportunities and aggressive recruiters in the market place. Therefore the employers long term retention strategy should focus on influencing who leaves and when.
References:
Armstrong, M (2003): A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, 9th edn, Kogan Page, London.
Bevan S, Barber, I and Robinson, D (1997) Keeping the best: A practical guide to retaining key employees, Institute of Employment Studies, Brighton.
Capelli, P (2000): A market-driven approach to retaining talent, Harvard Business Review, Jan-Feb, pp 103-111.
Chaminade B (2007). A retention checklist: how do you rate?
Malvern W. Chiboiwa, Michael O. Samuel and Crispen Chipunza (2010): An examination of employee retention strategy in a private organisation in Zimbabwe, African Journal of Business Management Vol. 4(10), pp. 2103-2109, 18 August, 2010.
Samuel MO, Chipunza C (2009). Employee retention & turnover: using motivational variables as a panacea, Afr. J. Bus. Manage. 3(8): 410-415.
About the author
Ajiboro Ayodeji is a Chartered HR Practitioner based in Lagos, Nigeria. Tel: 2348027807452. Email: jibdej@gmail.com.
One of the most important drivers of productivity and sustainable economic growth in developed economies is the quality and stability of its workforce (Chiboiwa et al., 2010). The failure to maintain a reasonably stable workforce through an effective employee retention strategy will result in a very high employee turnover, low productivity and poor company image.
The ability of any organisation to perform optimally varies directly with the knowledge, skills and attitudes of its employees or manpower. It’s a well known fact that 80% of the outputs in majority of business organisations are the outcome of the efforts of about 20% of all employees. These 20% are referred to as the high flyers. The present and future success of any organisation therefore depends on its ability to retain a reasonable proportion of its high flyers over a long period of time.
Employee Retention Defined
Retention is a voluntary move by an organisation to create an environment which engages employees for a long term (Chaminade, 2007). The main purpose of retention is to prevent the loss of competent employees from leaving the organisation as this could have adverse effect on productivity and profitability (Samuel and Chipunza, 2009). A well designed and purposeful executed employee retention strategy will result in a very low employee turnover.
The way a business organisation reward, treat, develop and motivate its workforce will determine whether these employees will stay with the organisation well enough or not. All organisational activities geared towards the employees should be designed towards encouraging them to remain committed to the organisation and its long term goals and objectives.
Employee Retention Strategies
There are so many strategies that organisations can utilize to retain good and committed employees for as long as desired. Some of these time tested strategies are identified below.
1. Competitive reward system: Reward means what employees receive in exchange for their contributions to the organisation. This reward could be in form of salary, promotions, benefits and incentives. When the reward are perceived by the employees as fair, just and equitable in comparison with what obtains in other similar organisations, they are motivated to stay with the organisation for a reasonable period of time. To retain quality talents the reward system must be competitive.
2. Becoming an employer of choice: An employer of choice is one for whom people want to work (Armstrong, 2003). To become an employer of choice you have to develop the reputation of your company as a company that meets the need of all its stakeholders through excellent result. This is achievable through quality goods and services, ethical behaviour, excellent employment conditions, opportunities for career growth and development, job security, learning opportunities and highly competitive pay and benefits.
3. Improved work-life balance: An employer that will retain talent is the one that recognise the fact that employees also have a life of their own outside work. Such an organisation tends to structure its activities in such a way that does not affect employee’s personal time for their family, leisure, personal growth and development. This strategy has the potential for improving employees’ work-life balance. To retain good employees at work, their needs outside work must be met through quality work-life balance.
4. Develop internal social ties: There should be excellent social interaction and ties among employees. Company policies should encourage internal social relationship among employees by encouraging interpersonal relationship that goes beyond work among employees. Employees should be encouraged to get personal with one another. Superiors should also be encouraged to be concerned about the personal life and welfare of their subordinates and vice versa. Loyalty to companies may be disappearing but loyalty to colleagues is not (Cappelli, 2000).
5. Learning opportunities: Special priority should be given to the provision of learning opportunities aimed at developing the skills, knowledge and capabilities of employees at work. There should also be room for career growth and advancement within the organisation so as to encourage employees’ retention. Employees can only stay with an organisation that provides them with opportunities for learning, growth and development.
Conclusion
Investment in employee retention is good but the reality about employee retention strategy is that ‘the market’ and not ‘the company’ will ultimately determine the movement of employees. No matter how sophisticated an organisation’s retention strategy is, it may still be unable to prevent its employees from attractive opportunities and aggressive recruiters in the market place. Therefore the employers long term retention strategy should focus on influencing who leaves and when.
References:
Armstrong, M (2003): A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, 9th edn, Kogan Page, London.
Bevan S, Barber, I and Robinson, D (1997) Keeping the best: A practical guide to retaining key employees, Institute of Employment Studies, Brighton.
Capelli, P (2000): A market-driven approach to retaining talent, Harvard Business Review, Jan-Feb, pp 103-111.
Chaminade B (2007). A retention checklist: how do you rate?
Malvern W. Chiboiwa, Michael O. Samuel and Crispen Chipunza (2010): An examination of employee retention strategy in a private organisation in Zimbabwe, African Journal of Business Management Vol. 4(10), pp. 2103-2109, 18 August, 2010.
Samuel MO, Chipunza C (2009). Employee retention & turnover: using motivational variables as a panacea, Afr. J. Bus. Manage. 3(8): 410-415.
About the author
Ajiboro Ayodeji is a Chartered HR Practitioner based in Lagos, Nigeria. Tel: 2348027807452. Email: jibdej@gmail.com.
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