Introduction
Direct support persons (DSPs) serving in a humanitarian organization Everyday Lives (EL) are mandated with the responsibility of taking care of mentally retarded individuals or rather intellectually challenged persons. Working conditions at EL have not been quite encouraging for DSPs to maintain their jobs at EL leading to an overwhelming rate of DSP turnover, this paper presents a remediation plan to address the turnover in the organization and ensure sustainability in the management of organizational operations besides cost saving on a regular human resource recruitment due to turnover.
Foremost, one reason that has been identified as to be behind the high rate of turnover among DSPs is the most common reason among industries generally and is concerned with remuneration. DSPs have been found to complain about the payment that they receive as compared to payments made at competitor institutions especially the ones that are for profit. The development of staff to partake in the administration and or delivery of services on behalf of the EL has several cost implications that relate to the training of the personnel. The training of the DPS personnel is essential in ensuring that they deliver quality services to clientele. According to Fidalgo and Gouveia (2012) a good turnover mitigation plan must put into consideration that the knowledge skills and expertise developed by the organization are retained. This goes a long way to ensure that the cost of developing these skills are kept to a minimum. Similar sentiments have been advanced by Allen (2008), who also notes that remuneration is a central element in retaining talent in the industry. As such to ensure that the talent in the organization is not siphoned by competitors in the industry, it is the mandate of the organization to ensure that employees are paid according to the standards of the salaries and wages in the industry (Allen, 2008). Hence, to address issues of employee turnover, as a result of payment that is considered unsatisfactory. The EL must invest in the development of alternative means to financing the activities of the organization to ensure that it generates enough revenue.
Setting up a measures to improve the rate of remuneration for DSPs can serve as an effective measure to ensuring that they are encouraged to maintain their jobs or discouraged from seeking jobs that pay better elsewhere. Benson and Rutigliano (2002) are supportive of the ideas presented by Fidalgo and Gouveia (2012) and add that employee retention is a sign that a manager is effective in the ability to foster productiveness in the workplace. One way of improving the pay of DSPs as earlier mentioned is to source for alternative means of funding since the government’s allocated funds to the organization prove insufficient to effectively manage operations at EL and also be enough to pay DSPs better. An alternative option for sourcing funds could be to charge patients for the care and services that they receive at EL. These charges can be catered for by patient’s relatives or otherwise. In instances where patient has no known relatives a fundraiser could be held to cater for the DPS services bills that accumulate for such patients. Such measures if enacted would serve to ensure that DSP turnover is reduced since they will have sufficient pay to take care of their basic needs.
Krell (2012) also notes that the improvement of pay in an organization can serve as a means to retaining the workforce. In this regard, business forecasting becomes essential in the development of a payment plan for existing employees. When recruiting employees, their mandate should have been designated such that the needs of the organization do not in any one time surpass the workforce that is available to deliver on the same. To this end ensuring that the number of employees is budgeted for in the remuneration plan will serve to sustain the employees in the organization since they are assured of reasonable pay.
The second observable reason for the rate of turnover among DSPs that need to be considered in the development of a DSP turnover remediation plan is the working hours that DSPs had to contend with. Most noted that they had to work late into the night between 4.00pm and midnight which served quite inconveniencing in part due to several reasons. A number of the DSPs were found to be single parents that made it quite impossible to maintain a night shift job while also be in a position to take care of their children. According to Krell (2012), most managers fail to retain their employees due to a simple fact that is in their lack of involvement with their employees once they have been hired. In this regard such managers lack in the ability to develop a relationship of sustainability between the organization and the employees (Krell, 2012). Therefore in developing turnover mitigation plans for EL it is paramount that the management develops post-hiring support for DSPs who may require that their working hours be adjusted so that they can tend to their families. Alternatively, the company EL can set up a care center where children of employees who are on shift can spend time within the premises as they await their parents to finish their shift and go home with them. This solution would work best for single parents who have no one to look after their children when they are working the night shift.
In essence, there should be some degree of flexibility in the management of the schedule of DSPs in the organization. As such, shifts should be allotted to DSPs foremost on a voluntary basis such that DSPs volunteer flexible hours that they can work during the week with the requirement that they meet the required hours. They could be allowed to either work on the night shift or day shift on different days of the week. This will eliminate the instance where some DSPs are tied down to working the night shift while others the day shift. This will also allow for shift rotation which also has the effect of improving performance of employees by breaking monotony (Huselid, 1995).
Thirdly, concern has been raised by employees in regard to the rules and regulations on overtime at the EL Company especially on the element that it is mandatory. By itself, the mandatory overtime becomes quite discouraging as they stand the risk of losing their second jobs if they fail to show up, as a result, of working overtime at EL. Meier & Hicklin (2007) explain that the turnover and organizational performance have a directly proportional relationship in which moderate turnover may lead to the exception but minimal improvement in the performance of the organization. On the other hand, the usual case is that in cases of extreme turnover the implication to the performance of the organization tend to recede (Meier & Hicklin, 2007).
Rigidity of the management at EL with regard to the requirement on personnel specifically DSPs to work long hours without any consideration of their other commitments serves as a great disadvantage to addressing turnover. Primarily, the mandate of the management is to develop a mechanism through which overtime services can be remunerated such that DSPs working overtime have a reason to do so knowing it will earn them more (Arthur, 1994).
The same sentiments are advanced by Arthur (1994) who observes that human resource practices that reinforce confidence in employees serve to enhance their commitment to the job. For instance, reward systems such as bonuses serve as encouragement for employees to perform better at their duties and responsibilities in the end having a negative impact on turnover or rather ensuring that the employees are retained at their jobs.
On the other hand, human resource practices of control that tend to force policies on employees result in a boomerang effect from employees who tend to rebel and eventually result in employee turnover (Arthur, 1994). In this regard, the management at EL in developing a plan to mitigate the high rate of DSPs turnover should consider relaxing the policies that require mandatory overtime working by DSP staff when required to do so. If not done, this will otherwise serve only to increase the rate at which DSPs turnover employment from the company. The plan should therefore develop strategies that enhance the commitment of DSPs to their jobs such as providing incentives to DSPs who voluntarily provide their services during overtime hours.
Conclusion
In general, the development of an appropriate DSP turnover remediation plan requires that parties involved in the remediation plan actively engage in discussions on a remediation plan. Among the matters discussed in the development of a remediation plan is the improvement of the pay of DSPs, the development of flexible working hours and the development of flexible rules and working conditions for DSPs all in an attempt to address the turnover rate. More importantly though, the need for the development of human resource management practices that serve to address pertinent issues of concern in the industry also serve crucial in the development of a plan to address the high rate of turnover by DSPs.
References
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