Retention Strategies and Training Essay

Human Resources

The service provided by HR to the employer by contributing to the creation of strategic advantage. The HR function aligns itself with the overall strategy of the organization by ensuring that the right people are in the right roles, that they are sufficiently trained to perform to expectations, and that there are an absence of issues with respect to things like safety (SHRM.org, 2016).

Hiring and retention are two key areas of importance for HR. Basically, an organization requires good people who can execute their roles effectively. It is not always easy -- depending on the role -- to find such people. So where HR adds value with respect to strategy is by finding such people in the first place, and then putting the policies in place to retain such individuals (Mayhew, 2016).

The first practice that can be improved is the two day onboarding. You can't just blitz new employees with two days of material and expect them to remember much of any of it. The safety material can be covered because of its importance but whoever designed this clearly does not remember what it's like to start a new job -- your brain is mush by mid-afternoon on day one, so an intensive two-day program is hopeless. The second thing is the lack of standards on the new training programs. If the instructors vary significantly it is for lack of standards set out by HR. A third issue is the lack of an ongoing T&D program to keep up with changes in skills and technology. That must be remedied. There are other issues, too, but these are three of them.

4. Ongoing training is often better than single-day (or worse, two-day) training. There are several reasons why ongoing training is best practice. Regular training not only allows employees to remember information better, but it keeps them engaged with their roles. Motivation is higher with ongoing training, and the material they are trained on is more up-to-date as well, something that matters when dealing with both technology and with various safety and legal standards (Dillon, 2016).

5. The recommendation I would make is to restructure the training program. First, there should be specifications for the training -- how much time an instructor takes is less important that whether or not they have covered the material adequately. But specs and guidance for trainers is just as important as…