Improving Organizational Retention Essay

As an independent consultant hired to improve retention issues at JC’s Casino concerning dealers and housekeeping I will look at this as two separate entities. The casino owner needs the quickest fix possible and I must look at the area first causing the most issues with the customers. Though there is a fast turnover of dealers there are enough employees to cover this area for the time being. The first issue is the housekeeping staff because it is causing customers to have to wait on their rooms until six in the evening. This can cause loss of revenue by customers moving to other casino hotels where they can check in at a reasonable time and this in turn could cause loss of revenue at the gambling tables. The first person I will meet with is the HR director, Tom Sneed, to see how the company process of hiring is done and if there is a job analysis directive with requirements and training procedures in place. Tom Sneed said applicants are sent through the local unemployment office, and apply through newspaper ads. The job application is a standard application with previous jobs, history, and education. The applications are passed to Andrew Keen for approval or disapproval. There is a job analysis in place for requirements from bending and lifting, to chemicals used in the cleaning process, and training videos. Each floor has carts set up to cover all the required products for each room; this is checked by the director of housekeeping each day and refilled as needed. All products are on carts, including boxes of gloves for protection for the housekeepers. As the director of housekeeping, Andrew Keen is responsible for staffing, scheduling the employees, keeping the housekeeping budget in check, keeping up with new policies, and initiating the new policies (Education Portal, 2012). As there has been a tremendous staffing issue with absenteeism and high turnovers, we need to see where the shortcomings are in this department. Keen does not think there are any issues within the company for the position, but that it is just hard to find good help. The hotel consists of 15 floors with 20 rooms on each floor except the top floor, which has eight suites. Each floor has two housekeepers per floor with each employee required to clean up to 10 rooms a day on his or her shifts if the hotel is full. The top floor employees are required to clean up to four suites a day on their shift. I introduce myself to the employees who are working and ask for a list of those who are not in for the day. I call all the employees off for the day to come in and request the employees who are at work to stay after for a meeting when they are done with their shift. I am setting up food trays and drinks from the kitchen plus paying them for the time at the meeting. I start out the meeting by explaining who I am, letting them know that any comments made to me about their dissatisfaction in the job is confidential. They will fill out a questionnaire on why they think there is such a huge turnover of employees in housekeeping, what they see as a way to fix it, and any dissatisfaction with the job. I let them know that the questionnaires are for my eyes only and I will assemble a list of issues myself, which I will take to the director of housekeeping and possibly on up the ladder to the owner. Occupational Stressors and Job Satisfaction The immediate items I notice from the questionnaires are extreme dissatisfaction with their supervisor Keehn. The list includes everything from watering down the cleaning supplies so much it does not clean or sanitize properly, to shortages on sheets and towels to scheduling issues. The employees believe that Keehn is trying to keep under budget to make him-self look good. Scheduling issues are not enough hours and refusing to work with anyone on scheduling needs. The 22 employees who were at the meeting said they get into trouble by Keehn if he sees them talking to each other or trying to help someone else get his or her rooms done. Job control stressors can be lack of control over your work, lack of recognition for work done, harassment, lack of respect from supervisors, and isolation from fellow employees to name a few (CWA, 2009). Each of these factors is all stressors with the housekeeping staff. Over all there is very little job satisfaction with the company because of all the negative issues. Those who are here would leave if they found another job with better scheduling and a better supervisor. Several of the employees suggested Rhonda Jordan should be the director of housekeeping. She has been here longer than anyone, knows the ins and outs of the company, always has a kind word, and has good communication skills. Many of the employees go to her for help instead of Keehn. I go back to HR with Tom Sneed and discuss with him the issue of the dealers quitting and look over the exit interviews on those who bothered to do one before they left. Mr. Sneed said that some of the dealers in the step-sons Joe’s pit have walked out during their breaks because of his attitude. He has a tendency to belittle the dealers and make the customers angrier instead of defusing a bad situation. His paperwork is haphazard and the accounting office is always calling him in to explain his paperwork to them. Two Work Motivation Theories The issues with the housekeepers and the dealers both stem from issues with their immediate supervisors. Using the goal-setting theory and reinforcement theory I am in hopes that the casino president will put into effect immediately the outline I have to present to him. The foremost and most important fix needs to be the housekeeping staff so that customers can check in at the normal industry standard time of three in the afternoon instead of six. After talking to Keehn and his denials of the accusations by his underlings and not taking any responsibility for any part of the housekeeping staff leaving, I will suggest that Andrew Keehn be fired and the position offered to Rhonda Jordan, who is an intelligent, warm, and job-oriented person. The employees all look up to her and respect her. Rhonda and I discussed in detail ways to keep the employees they do have and ways to hire and keep new employees. Goal setting will be to replace Keehn with Ms. Jordan, to make sure all cleaning products are up to standard market mixes, to have each cart filled for what each person needs and ready each morning, and to even out scheduling with fairness to each employee. New procedures need to be set in place, employee teamwork will be applauded, and all employees will help each other every day until all can go home at the same time, basically no employee left behind. To further enhance the housekeeping staff to come to work on their scheduled times we will offer a reinforcement of a free meal for a family of four in the hotel restaurant for every 30 days of scheduling each person does not call in and arrives at work on time. Until enough staff is hired all staff employees on the payroll will get an incentive of paid hours off for each room past 10 they clean during a workday. We want the employees here to feel as if they are important to the company by reinforcing the hard work they do. After talking to Joe, the pit boss, he knows that he is not cut out for the job he is in. He has admitted the stress of all the paperwork and the constant spotlight put on him by the customers and dealers is just not for him. He has agreed to go to his stepfather and tell him that he is not satisfied with the position and wants to move to head of security because the head of security is retiring in 30 days. For the employees under Joe who have stayed through his supervising an incentive check of 100 hundred dollars for each month they have been here will be given to them as a thank you and reinforcement to them as employees that they are valued. A new supervisor will be found and put into the position with the abilities to get the job done with good and appropriate communication skills. As a further reinforcement to let employees know they are valued, an employee suggestion box will be hung by the time clock. Counterproductive Employee Behavior The employee behavior is walking out on-the-job, calling in to work, and general turnover of employees which cost time and money to retrain new employees. The outline above will help with employee behavior by putting new supervisors in the positions needed that can act professional, fairly, and treat the employees with respect. Giving the employees incentives will also help with keeping the employees here until all positions and staff are put into place. Conclusion Common job facets include pay, supervision, job conditions, and communication to name a few (Spector, 2012). With this as a prelim, JC’s Casino hopes to fix the issues that are making the employees leave the job by getting better supervisors who are open to ideas from the employees, who show respect to the employees and are not short on praise when employees do a good job. Taking away some of the stressors of the job should help with job retention.