High Turnover Concerns at Omega Security Services - Essay Example

High Turnover Concerns at Omega Security Services Introduction Omega Security Services provides among other things contracted security services to businesses and individuals. Omega Security Services is a subsidiary of the Compass Group which provides various contracting services to various people and businesses. Omega Security Services has a contract with the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital. Providing guard services is not an easy thing; here are many HRM issues that come up. With regard to the Omega Security Services, these problems are underscored by the issue of pay and benefit structure which is hard to achieve due to the fact that the customers are not willing to pay more money to for the guards and the company has to make a profit from each of them if it was to stay in business. High staff turnover is also another issue that may need to be addressed. Like most other guard companies, Omega Security Services is faced with high rates of staff turnover and this makes it more difficult for the firm to be able to provide good services. High rate of staff turnover at Omega Security Services There are certain factors that have led to the high rate of staff turnover in Omega Security Services. To begin with is the problem of the fact that the jobs are low-paying and there are better paying jobs in the government is an issue. Most of the officers are likely to be looking for better pay elsewhere in the government or even in other private security firms. With regard to Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital, more issues then come up such as the issue of the highs risk environment in that the guards have to work in a hospital where the issue of likely infection is a challenge. Insufficient training is also another issue that has increased high rates of staff turnover. There is also the problem of miscommunication between the staff (guards) and the management and this means that the Gerard’s dint feel that their issues are being taken care of. In a nutshell, overall job dissatisfaction is major cause of the high rates of staff turnover. Consequences of High Turnover As Lyma (1974) points out, the first short term cost that is imposed on the firm due to high rate of staff turnover is the selection and recruitment cost. Recruiting even for such low level jobs is always a hard task and it costs the firm not only money but also time (Jeanne & Pau, 1987). Every time there is an officer who needs to be replaced, this means that the firm will incur cost and this is not acceptable. There is also the issue of training cost increasing every time there is a new officer who needs to be trained. Although these officers who are recruited are already trained to be security officers, they also need further training after they join Omega Security Services, they need to be trained in order to fit within the organization. This has a cost and it is necessary for this cost to be managed. High staff turnover rates also mean higher leaving cost imposed on the firm. There are also costs associated with transition and this also is brought about by the high turnover rate of the members of staff. Every time a new offer has to be delayed to a certain position that was being filled by another who left, this means that there will be some cost that will be incurred (Dittrich & Carrell, 1979). New members of staff are not as productive as the older staff and this means that whenever a member of staff leaves, the new one who will replace him will take some time before he reaches optimum productivity. When the numbers are too high, this means a very high cost to the organization. The long term costs are also imposed on the firm when the high rate of turnover is seen among the staff members. Some of the long term costs include decreased production. As has been identified, new members of staff are not as positive as the experienced staffs who have already know the insides and outs of what they are required to. According to Cotton and Tuttle (1986), new staff are not only less productive, they are also are likely to have low quality of work. The decrease in productivity and the low quality of work are an indirect cost the organization and the cost can be in millions when there are too many members of staff leaving the organization. The low quality of work with new members of staff is also linked to reduced performance levels by staff (Jang, 2008). It is good t note that overall performance by the entire staff is based in the total of the individual performances of the individual people. If there are too many new employees who are not yet performing well due to the fact that they are still training for the job, this will mean that they will affect the overall performance level of the staff. Unnecessary overtime is also another long term cost for high employee turnover, especially for private security guards. When an individual or even a business contracts a company like Omega to provide its client with guards, they expect that they will be receiving the services 24/7. The customer does not want to care that the guard abruptly left the company, they will still need to have a guard at their doors. High rates of turnover coupled with the fact that the process of recruitment is one that takes some time, it mean that every time an officer leaves their duty, those who are left are the ones to stand for his place. This leads to unnecessary overtime. It also means that the available officers will have to be overworked beyond their limit and this has a fundamental impact on their performance quality. In the past, there have been cases of guards sleeping while on duty and this is definitely a big challenge because it means that they are not providing the security they are supposed to be providing to the client. This has a direct connection to the fact that some of them are overworked as a result of them having to stand in for the guards who have left. Low morale for existing staff is also another issue that comes up when there is high staff turnover. Low pay also leads to decreased motivation by the staff and this is an issue that can affect the staff in a big way. With low morale, the organization can hardly perform well. It is well known in business that the customer is only as happy as the employee who is serving them (Slugoski, 2008). Low morale means that the clients will not be happy with eh service. Apart from that, it is also necessary to note that when the client is a business, the security guard also act as customer service for the customers of the business since they are the first contact that they meet at the gate before even getting other business itself (Dwivedi, 1995). Yet, low levels of motivation only means that these officers cannot be able to relate well with the people they serve on a daily basis as they go about their work. Low pay and poor benefits structure definitely has an impact on the morale of the employees. High rates of turnover forth security guards also mean that even if the firm tries to use the available guards to cover the shifts for the guards who have left, there will still be Low coverage of shifts. When the firm tries to use the available officers to meet their demands before they are able to recruit new staff to replace those who have left, they still cannot be able to meet the demand and this means that some clients may have to go without the full services as required by the contract. This has a fundamental impact on the quality of the service and can also lead to legal issues. Recommendations One of the ways that the organization can solve the problem is by looking at the way they reward their officers in term of the economic and non economic benefits that the guards are able to get from working for the firm. They can for instance consider reviewing remuneration in order to make the jobs to be more attractive and thus the officers feeling that this is a job they can keep in the long term. Reviewing the remuneration will have to look at this three perspectives; Higher base rate As has been indicated, one of the issues that have led to the high rate of turnover by the guards is the fact that the pay is very low and they therefore always consider looking for greener pastures everywhere. The public sector is especially a major competitor here because hey pay their employees who fill similar jobs a higher salary. In this regard, these guards are always looking to go work for the government and they take this opportunity other moment it is available. Raising the base rate in order to be at par with what these officers can earn elsewhere including in the government can go a long way in reducing the rate of turnover. In this case, the employer can look into this issue and know how to deal with this issue. Defitntely course, this will be a harder thing to do especially considering that the clients may not be willing to pay more for security officers (KOYS, 2001). However, Omega Security Services will have to look at this issue in a more serious way and know how they can manage to raise the base rate for the guards without at the same time affecting the profitability too much. Offer risk allowances As it was identified, the other factor hat has led to increased turnover rate is the fact that these officers work in a risky environment and some of them are willing to leave the firm to go and work somewhere else where he risk is not as high. Offering the officers a risk allowance can be a good way to incentive them to consider this as a jib worth keeping in the long term. Offering the risk allowance will not only motivate them due to the financial reward, it will also motivate them because it will be a positive gesture that the firm care of them and understand the risk that is involved in their jobs (Green, 2004). Offer non-monetary benefits Non-monetary benefits can also be very useful in motivating and engaging the employees. These Non-monetary benefits can include allowances such as travel medial cover. According to Koys (2001), the modern human resource is different from what it was the case in the earlier years. Employees do not just want to have a salary, they expect the firm to take care of the such as offering them medical cover for themselves and possibly for their nuclear family. Giving these employees a medical cover can go a long way in dealing with the issue of turnover. As Richard and Johnson (2001) argue, few employees would want to leave a firm where they are giving such benefits because they value such benefits more than the salary. When these three factors are combined, that is , a higher base salary rate, availability of risk allowances and the Non-monetary benefits, most of the officers will be willing to stay in the firm and will consider this as a long term job as opposed to as a stepping stone to a better job. This will help in dealing with the high rates of turnover. Review training It was also indicted in the case that poor or adequate training is one of the major causes of the employee motivation and thus turnover. In this case, it will be necessary for Omega Security Services to evaluate and improve its training program so that the guards are well trained. This as Egan et al (2004) say, will also go a long way in making sure that they have a high job satisfaction level and thus help in making sure that the turnover rates low. There should also be better understanding between the low level staff such s guards and the management team. They should be given a way to express their grievances and other opinions and this will help them to feel that they are in a work environment where they are valued. To engage the job satisfaction, those in leadership position or those who handle specialized areas such as control room should also have better qualification that match their roles (DeSpain, 2008). Bibliography Cotton, J., & Tuttle, M. (1986). Employee Turnover: A Meta-Analysis and Review with Implications for Research. Academy Of Management Review, 11, 1 , pp. 55-70 . DeSpain, L. (2008). The Relationship Between Police Supervisor Training and Job Satisfaction Levels as Reported by Patrol Officers. New York, NY: ProQuest. Dittrich, J., & Carrell, M. (1979). Organizational equity perceptions, employee job satisfaction, and departmental absence and turnover rates. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 24, 1 , pp. 29–40. Dwivedi, K. (1995). Organizational Culture and Performance. New York, NY: M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd. Egan, T. et al. (2004). The effects of organizational learning culture and job satisfaction on motivation to transfer learning and turnover intention. Human Resource Development Quarterly 15, 3 , pp. 279–301. Green, D. (2004). Human Resource Management: International Perspectives in Hospitality and Tourism. New York, NY: Cengage Learning EMEA. Jang, J. (2008). The Impact of Career Motivation and Polychronicity on Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intention Among Hotel Industry Employees. New York, NY: ProQuest. Koys, K. (2001). The Effects Of Employee Satisfaction, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, And Turnover On Organizational Effectiveness: A Unit-Level, Longitudinal Study. Personnel Psychology, 54, 1 , pp. 101–114. Lyma, P. (1974). Organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover among psychiatric technicians. Journal of Applied Psychology, 59, 5 , pp. 603-609. M.C., J., & Pau, l. E. (1987). Unemployment, job satisfaction, and employee turnover: A meta-analytic test of the Muchinsky model. . Journal of Applied Psychology, 72, 3 , pp. 374-381. Richard, O., & Johnson, N. (2001). Strategic human resource management effectiveness and firm performance. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 12, 2 , pp. 299-310. Slugoski, E. (2008). Employee Retention: Demographic Comparisons of Job Embeddedness, Job Alternatives, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment. New York, NY: ProQuest. Read More