 Retaining talents
I discussed the concept of commitment in my last post. I described what it means and the factors that contribute to commitment. I finished the post by recommending how to grow affective commitment. This week's post will look at the other two forms of commitment, continuance and normative commitment. As a reminder, continuance commitment employee stays because the cost associated with leaving the organisation is high, and employees with normative commitment are tied to the organisation by obligation. You may read the definition above and wonder how these two types of commitments support the organisation in retaining the hearts and minds of these employees. Perhaps they do, maybe they don't. Ultimately, we would like them to stay with the organisation, and if that is the case, any commitment that meets the needs of both the employees and the organisation will do. Continuance commitment develops when the employee is aware of the cost of leaving the organisation. This cost awareness can be based on the employee's perception of the external labour market, the perception of the marketability of their current skills, return on investment in the organisation that may be lost upon leaving, e.g., job security, retirement package, the status of the role, the age and tenure of the employee also impacts their continuance level. Did you ever wonder why some organisations are belt and braces with their reward package or why employee stock ownership plans became popular? This is because they are tapping into the continuance commitment of their employees. These organisations ensure the grass is greener on their lawn in the proverbial house called organisation or business. A practical idea to consider is to make the cost of leaving high so that the employees are reluctant to leave. Staff with normative commitment stay because they believe it is the right and moral thing to do. This is developed in the early socialisation process of the employees. It could be developed through an investment that seems difficult for the employee to reciprocate. This type of commitment forms when the organisation deeply invests in their employee. For example, paying an accreditation or training that is highly sought after can create an obligation to want to pay back the organisation. It can also be developed through the psychological contract; for many employees, the psychological contract is primarily the deal they have with their direct line manager. It is largely the employees' sense of fairness and trust and their belief that the employer is honouring the ''deal'' between them. This ''deal'' would usually involve the manager's support for the employee's motivations (see my previous post on motivation). Cultural norms also play a role in normative commitment, and there are some societies in which loyalty to one's employer is deemed important, for example, in collectivist cultures. As an employer, strengthening continuance commitment ensures your value proposition enables the perceived cost of loss and perceived need to reciprocate for normative commitment. The key to the first action lies with the organisation, whilst the second lies with the line manager. Not all employers can have a Google-like reward package, so how about assessing the value of all that you currently provide and offering an opportunity for staff to pick and mix what they would like? This gives your employees agency in deciding what would make a difference to them rather than box standard offerings that not all access or use. Line managers are the key to strengthening normative commitment. Do they understand the ''deal'' between their staff and them, and how are they building and maintaining the terms of that deal? How are the line managers socialising new employees, and what is their strategy to continue to socialise their employees? What does your onboarding process look like? Does it provide them with information to understand their role and be competent to do their job? Do staff who have been with the organisation understand those unspoken rules/information for progression? There is also a small case for diversity here. I briefly mentioned that cultural norms play a role in normative commitment. Research has shown that this is the case in collectivist societies. I am not advocating recruiting those from this background solely for their normative commitment. However, the more diverse your team is, the more you get different types of commitments, and your understanding of commitment could inform your retention strategy. I will stop here for now and pick up my final post on commitment next week with the changing face of commitment in a hybrid world.
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 In my last post, I talked about how we ensure that our new employee last through the honeymoon phase, where their engagement and motivation is high, so the next aspiration is to retain them. The ability to retain employees and ensure productivity at the same time is no mean feat, and congratulations if you do it well. The following post series will discuss key retention elements starting with organisational commitment.
Organisational commitment was made popular by the work of Meyer and Allen in their book: Commitment in the Workplace: Theory, research, and Application. It is an excellent book if you want to delve deeper into this work. Their work inspired this post. I will describe what organisation commitment means, how to develop the various types of organisational commitment and the current outlook of organisational commitment in a hybrid world. Organisational commitment can be seen as the psychological attachment to an organisation. Meyer and Allen identified three components of organisational commitment: affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. This post will focus on affective commitment, and subsequent posts will focus on other forms of commitment, but first, I will describe briefly what each key concept means. A staff with a robust affective commitment has a strong belief and acceptance of organisational goals, will exert extra effort, and will want to remain with the organisation. Continuance commitment employee stay because the cost associated with leaving the organisation is high, and employees with normative commitment are tied to the organisation by obligation. Meyer and Allen conclude that employees with affective commitment will be motivated to contribute meaningfully to an organisation and are very valuable. Organisational commitment gained its popularity primarily from research which shows that it reduces turnover and increases performance. Committed staff are said to have high participation and are productive. It is argued that this leads to low levels of absenteeism, tardiness, voluntary turnover, and high levels of operating efficiency. Factors that affect affective commitment include organisational characteristics, the person characteristics and the work experience. Organisation characteristics, such as the concept of organisational justice in the form of the policies and procedures of the organisation, whether they are fairly applied consistently. Is the pay policy equitable, how are organisational decisions made, are they devolved, or is it hierarchical? Do you communicate changes made, and how does it communicate organisational changes. Personal characteristics such as tenure may increase affective commitment; the longer an employee is with you, the more they grow attached to the organisation. The employee's age also matters as that tends to tally with the different phases of life of an adult, which matters to retention. Research also supports that growing older affects one affective commitment levels. Generational differences play a role in affective commitment. The individual value of the employees also contributes to their affective commitment levels. Employees with a high need for achievement and strong work ethics tend to have stronger affective commitment. The personality of an employee plays a role when it interacts with the organisational characteristics. I recommended the big five in one of my previous posts, so I will use one of those traits as an example of how personality traits and organisational characteristics can influence affective commitments. For example, if an employee is high on agreeableness (this is characterised by being interested in people and takes time out for others), then working in an organisation that emphasises teamwork would develop the affective commitment of that employee. Another example is a person high on conscientiousness (this is characterised by a high attention to detail) may not necessarily flourish in a start-up setting where the work is fast-paced to achieve a minimum viable product. Job challenge, degree of autonomy, the ability of the employee to use a variety of their skills, the scope of the employee’s role and the relationship between the employee and their line manager impact the employee's work experience. The employee's perception of fairness of the line manager also affects the commitment level of the employee. What does it mean to those staff we want to retain? Our interventions need to review the organisational characteristics, the person characteristics and the work experience. Regardless of the organisation, a key difference would be improving organisational justice in addition to other elements discussed here. The perception of organisational justice and fairness is as important as the actual display of organisational justice. We must be not only fair but also seen/perceived as fair. We cannot change our employee’s disposition, but we can influence their interaction with the organisational characteristics. This is assuming that you have chosen the correct selection battery, which ensures that you have the right personality traits for the role as per your selection process. We can also mediate their experience of the role, but something that can make a real difference is the relationship between the line manager and the staff. This is key in mediating the experience of the role. To grow the employee affective commitment, the work environment must support the employees holistically. The organisation should create an environment that makes employees feel that their contributions are important, that they are treated fairly and are supported. My next posts will look at other types of organisational commitment. |
AuthorJust me, 
a HR professional listening, learning and working towards an enhanced people experience at work
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