Hiring and Retaining Quality Employees Research Paper

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Hiring and Retaining Quality Employees

/Concept Definition

This is basically going out there for the best in the market, bringing them on board by hiring their services. But again hiring the best is not enough; retaining them is a much bigger task that many find it very difficult. This concept further entails going out in the labor market and recruiting quality employees whose portfolios speak for themselves .This requires one to exercise very rigorous interviews in which the best and not just experienced but result oriented employees get hired and given attractive packages that will not only boost their morale at work but also motivate them to increase their productivity and stay longer in the company. This is a very vital topic to research on because its findings are very important for any company that intends to go beyond borders and break through the international market.

Current Research on the subject in the recent past is evidence of the fact that a company or any other organization has to heavily invest in the hiring and retaining quality employees. A number of companies are very good at hiring and retaining quality employees, Merril Lynch and Apple inc. are perfect examples .Compensation is a perplexing and tricky issue. As Milkovich et al. (1999) said that some prestigious companies, such Microsoft, persistently hire top-quality workers for way below the average market salaries and sometimes for little benefit. Yet, workers flock to the company sometimes from places where they are paid far more. The question then becomes: what attracts top quality workers to a certain place if monetary compensation is not always the solution, and, as equally important, what prompts them to remain dedicated to their work of employment without leaving it-for the so called greener pastures. One organization that has a reputation for hiring and retaining quality employees, as earlier said, is Merril Lynch.

Proposal

The proposal of this resource is to basically conduct an intensive case study on the why and wherefore's of ML's success in recruiting and maintaining quality employees. It is my hypothesis that ML succeeds mostly due to the fact that the best companies take their employees into consideration and work around them rewarding them, giving them respect, and conducive working condition, promoting them, and acknowledging their hard work. Autonomy is an essential aspect of motivation and this coheres with Maslow's model of motivation where he ranks creativity as the highest hierarchy on the pyramid. Workers are not only motivated by money but other benefits that make their operations comfortable. Many individuals are motivated as much and sometimes even more by acknowledgment, recognition, and their higher needs being met (Bridgestar, 2009). Both conditions, that of behavioral reinforcement (where incentives play a part) and that of autonomy drive workers in Merrill Lynch.

However, I would like to analyze their treatment of their employees in general and of their FAs in particular more closely in order to test my hypothesis and to see whether I can learn anything new.

Merrill Lynch has received a reputation as being a glorious place for brokers to work for they provide a very conducive working condition. They are also described as the preeminent financial management and advisory company that serve governments, institutions, and investors throughout the world (Oliva et al., 2007). In the year 2003, Merril Lynch became one of the leading international financial-services firm and a major player on Wall Street employing more financial advisors (FAs) than those of its competitors. The fact that so many FAs choose to work in Merril Lynch and that they perform the sort of quality work that they do prompted one executive to remark that: They're the best. They do what we do, what everyone does but the difference is that they do it better. How they execute their responsibilities at times remains like a mystery, many always wonder how they manage to do it again and again (Oliva et al., 2007).

The same case is what goes on at Apple which is also a very successful organization that invests a lot in hiring and retaining quality employees. Like most other serious organization, Apple always hire creative individuals who posses the ability to come up with plans and marketing strategies .These individuals are engaged in very strict programs that ensure their productivity keeps on improving significantly to guarantee quality to customers. This may include marketing strategies in which they incorporate missions, goals and objectives of the organization to ensure that neither the organization's stakeholder nor the employees are at loss. Hiring the best is not just enough, and that is the reason why Apple ensures that they engage their newly hired employees in programs that help improve they productivity quality.

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Some of the techniques that Apple uses to retain and improve quality of theirs workers is engaging them in activities that help them hone their sales and marketing skills like on how to develop marketing strategies in the current business environment and this includes those that target customer care, taking advantage of new innovations which can support some of their applications and programs for instance the iPod and iPad craze and using a monolithic approach to marketing whereby all the products use the brand name Apple and hence boosting the overall performance of the company.

The planning principles that employees are trained in, at Apple, focus on ensuring that their customers get satisfied and their needs are catered for. According to Wilson & Gilligan (2005), the strategy that Apple Inc. uses, and in fact with the biggest impact is their approach to customers' needs and concerns. Here employees are trained on how they to heavily focus on the experience of their customers. Once employees have been taken through such rigorous training and experience, they tend to feel like they belong and are part and parcel of the company. Such strategies help in making employees feel like they are apart of one big family -- the company, and even moving out sort of becomes a bit difficult due to the attachment they have for the company. Apple's main competence and strong point is in ensuring that they hire quality employees who they further train to ensure that they deliver exceptional and excellent experience to their customers my ensuring that they have the best out of their services. Hiring and retaining of the best and quality employees is an aspect that the company gives a lot of priority. This is an area of that the company focuses on heavily in as far as their stability and that of their grip in the market is concerned (Parry, M.2005). Apple employs all round training to their employees to ensure that properly understand the market and customers .They, for instance, heavily train them on yet another branding strategy which basically focuses on customers' emotions. This strategy is more concerned with different customers' personalities which takes care of different aspects of their personalities for instance their lifestyles, their passion some of their aspirations, liberty and many other interests, tests and preferences. They focus on attempting to be simple and avoiding complexity by coming up with innovation and designs that appeal to the people.

About Financial Advisors in Merrill Lynch

Customarily called 'stockbrokers', Merill Lynch changed the name of this worker to 'financial advisor' making not only the employee in question feel more significant but establishing a connection between stockbroker and customer. The stockbroker was now in the more seemingly responsible and intimate position of 'advisor' to customer. This was aimed at improving quality among employees and the service they provide. Financial Advisors tend to differ in their approach to attracting clients. Each is allowed maximum freedom in developing his or her approach, since each is personally responsible for the outcome. These strategies in many ways help to improve the productivity by encouraging competition among employees. All FAs attract clients by a combination of elements that included networking, cold-calling, professional alliances, personal relationships, and so forth. Some FAs routinely contact clients and kept in touch with them, whereas others contact clients only when their investment firm has something new to sell or when client has a problem. All this is done to encourage employees to exercise their freedom to act and come up with initiatives that can help improve the company in anyway .By letting employees liberally come up with ideas and incorporate them in the company, employees feel like they are highly values and their skills improved hence improving on their relationship with the company.

Workplace Trends/Practices

Some of the work place trends and practices that take place at Merril Lynch are amazing .The organizational culture seems to be very interesting that most employees easily get incorporated into it. The culture of the organization seems very friendly and encourages liberalism in how things are run and how employees carry themselves around. Naturally, any company that has good relationships with the employees makes them feel at home and much valued. Such employees always feel appreciated and can never easily leave the company .Such strategies help in….....

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