Learning Theory Often, Learning Theories Term Paper

(Wheeler; Richey; Tokkman; Sablynski, 2006)

In order to accomplish an outstanding job of supervising external relationship, companies must be ready for undertaking an outstanding job of carrying out internal relationships. This endeavor initiates with the recruitment, selection and retaining the appropriate staff. Whereas companies try hard to stand up to the knowledge, skills and aptitude -- KSAs of the prospective workforce to the urgencies of the job, majority of them does not have the time or the wherewithal to execute detailed recruitment and selection systems. This is particularly the case in which comparatively increased turnover levels authorize that hiring and selection processes be speedy and feasible. In order to live up to this challenge, managers sometimes concentrate on a collection of simply expressive personal attributes such as experience, length of service, age or education that can be evaluated during interview or going through the details of a job application. (Hartline; Witt, 2003)

The importance of employee retention cannot be understood better by any company than Paypal as its business consists of real time on-demand business. Hence employee retention contributes a great deal in the development and performance of an employee. Therefore companies like Paypal must address in carefully planning the orientation process and execute the same to make sure that employee is aware about the company and its profile, policies, the business objectives and the contribution which the employee makes in assisting the company to achieve its goals. It is important for Paypal that its human resource manager, in charge of employees is required to follow-up the orientation program for some time till employees are fully aware of their responsibilities and every appropriate aspects of the business. This process renders the new hires a sense of welcoming and assists them in understanding the things that are expected of them and the manner in which to help the company in the optimum manner. (Gass, 2007)

Various tips for good employee orientation which can be useful for a company like Paypal are (i) ensuring that the employees feel welcomed and are accustomed with their responsibilities. (ii) Assigning a mentor to guide them in case of doubts and ensuring that the mentor allocated has the time to guide them. (iii) Making the employees has a feeling of inclusiveness and they are introduced to their team members and colleagues. (iv) Ensuring that the mentor is completely ready to train and guide them, making certain that they are given everything that is needed for them to carry out their duties well, like computers, email ids and passwords for access. (v) it has to be made sure that the orientation goes on for the first months while joining at the minimum (vi) the atmosphere at the orientation has to be enjoyable, interesting and must have some achievement. They must be filled up completely with redundant information and it should not miss out on important information. (vii) the performance of the new recruits has to be monitored on a regular basis ensuring that they are performing the duties that has been assigned to them in the proper manner. (viii) Sound employee orientation will guarantee that the employee feel motivated and have a feeling that they belong to a part of the team and hence will make an endeavor to perform their best to help business attain its goals. Employee development is important for satisfaction of customer, retention, and the further development of the company. (Gass, 2007)

However sometimes, it is felt that the size of company does not matter and anybody managing people or involved in the job description process is able to build a job description that has a life transcending merely filling the position. Paypal can make understand that a good job description can be utilized across the total life of the job, not merely describing the same, but also demonstrating how to be successful in the same. Over the years it has been witnessed that HR functions is greatly de-linked from the main business to be thought of as having a great value. In organization of the likes of Paypal, the HR staff can sometimes get as preoccupied in the function as the police or in tactical operations, that they are diverted from their most important responsibility which is propelling the business ahead. Therefore Paypal has to bear in mind that the HR is a very important function and the challenge lies in choosing the appropriate people for the jobs and giving employees guidance for success. (Murphy; Burgio-Murphy, 2006)

Further, in case of a company like Paypal, it has to pay attention to application of Intellectual Capital -- IC being an organization of the 21st century where information is the lifeblood of the business. The value of intellectual capital as a primary organizational resource is great as it directly impacts performance. As it manages intangibles, IC can be defined as all non-financial and non-physical resources which are wholly or partly regulated by the organization which is responsible for the value creation of the organization of the likes of Paypal. The company Paypal is an ideal organization where IC can be classified into three categories. These are (i) relational: This covers all the relationship which Paypal has like customers, consumers, intermediaries, representatives, suppliers, associates, owners of the business, lenders etc. (ii) organizational: This is very important from Paypal point-of-view an it comprises of everything that stays in the organization at the time when the employees have left the premises, but that cannot be expressed in monetary terms which are brand name, intellectual property, business processes, systems, organizational structures, information that is available on paper or in databases, and so on. (iii) Human: depending on this competence is also important since this covers every attribute that connect with individuals as resources for the organization which can never be replaced by machines or written down. This covers information such as competence, attitude, skills, implied knowledge, networks, etc. (Murphy; Burgio-Murphy, 2006)

In order to quantify employee retention, organization like Paypal must employ retention metrics which has been acknowledged as the next step in employee retention and engagement. Over the years it has been witnessed that employee tenure has declined to less than four years in U.S., nevertheless 75% of the companies do not have retention metrics in organizations. Through employing retention metric, Paypal will be able to understand regarding what it is presently doing to identify the present attrition threats and measure the outcomes of any retention-centric endeavors. There are different types of methods available for quantification of retention inclusive of components of retention scorecard. These are expenses of attrition techniques, the manner in which to find out turnover, procedures for monitoring risks in the present employee population and the prevailing best practices for exit interview collection of data. (Benavides, 2006)

In this direction Paypal must look at (i) providing of research on the different factors which is responsible to employee commitment and engagement (ii) observe sample survey tools which supply specific data to the company on the factors that have the closest relation with attrition (iii) understanding the important association between employee retention and client retention. (iv) Building accountability in the organization for lowering attrition rates. Sometimes, there is attrition which appears to be unavoidable, and sometimes it becomes necessary, however an organization which successfully gauges and tracks employee dedication and the outcomes of retention endeavors can guarantee that a higher proportion of top talent will stay with the company. (Benavides, 2006)

References

Benavides, Lily. (2006, Oct) "Retention Metrics: The Next Step in Employee Retention & Engagement." Retrieved 23 October, 2007 at http://www.nchra.org/staticcontent/download/CH_1012_SolanoYolo.pdf

Gass, David. (2007) "The Importance of Employee Retention."

Retrieved 23 October, 2007 at http://www.articlenorth.com/Article/the-Importance-of-Employee-Orientation/19328

Harrelson, Gary L. (2002, Oct-Dec) "Commentary" Journal of Athletic Training, vol. 37, no.

4, pp: S-134-S-135.

Hartline, Michael D; Witt, Tom De. (2003) "Individual Differences among Service

Employees: The Conundrum of Employee Recruitment, Selection, and Retention" Journal of Relationship Marketing. vol. 3, no. 2/3, pp: 25-42.

Murphy, Mark; Burgio-Murphy, Andrea. (2006, Mar-Apr) "The deadly sins of Employee

Retention" Journal e-Review. Retrieved 23 October, 2007 at http://www.ihrim.org/resources/eJournal/ejournalMarApr2006.pdf

N.A. (2007) "The Four Cultures of Employee Retention." Retrieved 23 October, 2007 at http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/9-13-2006-108621.asp

Price Water Coopers. (2007) "Attracting, motivating and retaining employees."

Retrieved 23 October, 2007 at http://www.pwc.com/extweb/insights.nsf/docid/1AFA331A0A69825780257205004A6ED9

Wheeler, Anthony R; Richey, R Glenn; Tokkman, Mert; Sablynski, Chris J. (2006)

Retaining employees for service competency: The role of corporate brand identity." Journal of Brand Management, vol. 14, pp: 96-113.