Who's responsible for employees retention

Mikel Goldman raises the question on "Who's responsible to employee retention anyway?

Is it the recruiter? Is it HR? Is it the manager? Is it a combination of all three? HE argues that at most companies, no one is responsible. He says that “It's true that many strong HR departments do things like measure employee retention, provide guidelines for performance evaluations, implement training programs and plan the company picnic. That's a good start,but it's not enough. People don't quit companies, they quit managers.

Corporate-wide retention programs implemented by the HR department are nice, but they don't solve the problem.

The problem needs to be solved at the Manager-Employee level. Managers need to be given guidance, training, tools and support but, at the end of the day; they need to be accountable for retention issues on their team. If managers are given the support and they still have retention problems, they need to be warned, and then fired quickly if they can't get the problem under control. So, do we need retain-ers? No. We need programs to recruit, hire, develop and support strong managers. He challenges you to look at your own management recruiting and training programs. If they haven't been significantly updated in the last 3-4 years, you've got some work to do.

I think his assertion that HR needs to do much more than organizing corporate wide retention policy is quiet valid .Some additional points which I feel HR must do it terms of improving upon its stake in employee retention ;

1) Be the first point of contact for any issues, grievance and concerns of employees .If it is not possible in a large set up then the line manager has to take the role of ensuring that employees are free to voice their concerns.

2) Provide the employees with adequate forums to ask questions and seek clarifications on policy and other work related issues.

3) Educate the managers about the resource pool availability and prevalent market situations.

4) Work more on changing employee’s perception about the employer and the career path which the organization has to offer.

5) Ensure that communication flow in the system is flawless and that every individual is made part of decision making process.

6) That each manager has a future plan for his team members and a career path to offer .