The major problem that WeCare In-Home Services is facing is a high customer turnover rate, which is greatly affecting its operations, performance, and service provision to the community. As it stands, the organization is using too many recruiting sources. As the case study demonstrates, WeCare recruits its employees from 10 sources, each with different approaches and outcomes. However, within one year, most employees leave the organization, making it necessary for the management to continue sourcing new workers. The case study shows that in 4 years, 123 potential employees applied for jobs at WeCare, 58 were potentially qualified, and 49 were invited for interviews.
However, only 24 qualified were offered jobs, with only 16 accepting the offer and joining the organization. Nevertheless, only nine stayed at the company for at least one year. These statistics from the company indicate that the company has an employee turnover rate of 43.75% against a survival rate of 56.25% in a year (Dessler, 2019). As a general rule in human resource management, an employee retention rate of 90% or higher is considered good for an organization, which implies that the turnover rate should have a maximum of 10%. Consequently, WeCare’s retention rate of 56.25% against a turnover rate of 43.75% is a major problem. Similarly, the cost of using too many recruitment sources is very high.
Over the four years, the company spent $23,075 in the recruitment process, with some sources having extreme costs that do not necessarily reflect a high retention rate. For instance, the organization spent $9,000 recruiting through employment agencies, but none of the employees from this source remained for over a year. Recruitment from educational institutions cost the company $3,700, but only 50% of the employees obtained through this method were retained for at least a year.
In contrast, internet ads and social media are affordable as they cost the company just $275 and $500 within 4 years. Employees obtained from these sources had a high retention rate compared to other methods. Some methods deemed to have a high probability of providing highly-qualified nurses, such as state nursing association meetings, proved to be less effective, given that this source had a success rate of 0%, yet it cost the company $1,150. Noteworthy, the company’s statistics for the four years demonstrate that employees who survive for at least a year are recruited from referrals, the internet as social media, educational institutions, and job fairs.
It is worth examining the probable problems and causes contributing to the current issue of high employee turnover rates at WeCare. According to Dessler (2019), low retention and high turnover rates are associated with and are caused by poor hiring decisions and bad management. In poorly managed organizations, hiring decisions tend to be faulty, which leads to the recruitment of misfitting employees who are likely to leave the company within a short period. Besides, employees in such organizations are also likely to report such problems as an overwhelming amount of work, lack of motivation and recognition, poor company culture, lack of flexibility, poor relationship with the leaders, problematic benefits and remunerations, and poor learning and developing opportunities.
From a comprehensive analysis of the issue at WeCare, the current recruitment strategy is problematic as the plan is poorly established. It appears that the company’s plan fails to consider the effectiveness and efficiency of each method. This process should have helped in using only the most successful approaches and doing away with the others. Evaluating the success and efficiency of each method requires an in-depth analysis of certain metrics associated with each- average success, retention, and turnover rates, and cost of recruitment. With this approach, it is possible to identify opportunities for improving the recruitment strategy.
From the table, one can see that employee referrals, internet ads, social media, and educational institutions are the most viable sources of recruitment for the organization. Employee referral is a recruitment source with an average rate of 3 and a retention of 50% over one year. Even though the retention rate is far lower than the recommended 90%, it is worth noting that it is affordable, costing only $100. Therefore, this method provides an opportunity for improvement. Internet ads method has a retention rate of 66.7%, an above average rating of 2, and costs only $275. Similarly, the social media approach has an employee retention rate of 100%, an above-average rating of 2, and a total cost of $500. Junio colleges and hospital-based schools, unlike university programs, have proved to be reliable sources of recruitment, given that their retention rates stand at 50% but with high above-average rates of 2 and a combined cost of $5,000.
Considering these factors, it is suggested that WeCare reduce the recruitment sources from the current 10 to 4- employee referrals, internet ads, social media, and educational institutions. However, it is also suggested that each of these methods be improved further by evaluating the problems and opportunities. In addition, internal company factors such as communication, corporate culture, workload, and work ethics, workplace conditions, and employee satisfaction need to be evaluated and improved further.
Reference
Dessler, G. (2019). Human resource management (16th ed.). Pearson Education (US). Web.