Corporate Volunteer ProgramEssay Preview: Corporate Volunteer ProgramReport this essayINTRODUCTIONIn the last two years Family Videos employee retention has dramatically decreased. Employee retention has gone from sixty five percent to a staggering fifty two percent in the last two years. Family Video is currently growing at an average of sixty new stores each year. With this rapid growth Family Video must focus on how to increase the employee retention.
Employee retention requires a whole lot more than just competitive salaries and great benefits. Employee recognition and pay based on performance are just two ways on how to get started in retaining your best. Employees want to feel part of something bigger than them. Corporate volunteer programs are a proven way to increase employee moral and retention. This report will briefly show that family video is already doing all that is necessary when dealing with pay, benefits, and room for advancement. It will discuss how a corporate volunteer program would be the best choice for the company to undergo in order to help increase employee retention. The other benefits that result from a corporate volunteer program and the costs of the program will also be presented.
COMPETITIVE WAGESThe first thing a company usually investigates when trying to increase employee retention is employee wages. Family Video does not need to focus on altering employee wages because we already offer competitive wages. The area where employee retention is low includes the in store employees. This includes the part time employees, assistant managers, and store managers.
The table below shows that Family Videos wages are actually higher than those of our two top competitors. Compared to Blockbuster and Hollywood Video our hourly wages are on average one to two dollars higher than our competitors. The wages of our salary managers are two to six thousand dollars higher than Blockbuster and Hollywood Video (About Blockbuster, 2005, Jobs for Friendly People, 2005).
FAMILY VIDEOBLOCKBUSTERHOLLYWOOD VIDEOPART TIME$6.50-$7.00/hour$5.50-$6.00/hour$5.50-$6.00/hourASSISTANT$9.00-$11.00/hour$8.00-$9.00/hour$7.00-$8.00/hourMANAGER$36,000-$38,000 salary$32.000-$36,000 salary$30,000-$35,000 salaryFigure 1. Wages of Family Video and Top Two CompetitorsFocusing on altering employee wages to increase employee retention would be a waste of Family Videos time and money. Since the companys employee wages are higher than our top competitors in this industry, increasing them would not have a significant impact on recruiting and retaining employees looking for a career in the video retail industry.
ENTICING BENEFITSMany employees when looking for a job or deciding whether to stay with their current employment often considers the employee benefits the company offers. When focusing on retaining employees a company must offer benefits that are offered by most other companies in the same industry. The table below illustrates that Family Video already offers most if not all of the benefits that our competition offers(About Blockbuster, 2005, Jobs for Friendly People, 2005).
BENFITSFAMILY VIDEOBLOCKBUSTERHOLLYWOOD VIDEODENTAL COVERAGEMEDICAL COVERAGEVISION PLANDISCOUNTS ON VIDEO RENTALSLIFE INSURANCEPAID VACATIONFLEXIBLE HOURSHOLIDAY PAYFigure 2. *** Benefits offered by Family Video and its Competitors****Family Video already offers an enticing benefit package to its employees, which include most if not all benefits sought after by loyal employees. There is no need for Family Video to focus any energy on benefits packages when trying to find ways to improve employee retention.
Rewarding RecognitionAn area companies can look at to aid in increasing employee retention is employee recognition and pay based on performance. Family Video currently fulfills this requirement by demanding that each in store employee gets an evaluation every six months. These evaluations our completed by the store and district managers. The evaluations evaluate the employee on his or her performance and work habits. The evaluation is then reviewed with the employee. This allows the employee to receive recognition for accomplishments and constructive criticism for areas that need improvement. The evaluations are determinations on whether the employee will receive a raise. The employee is up for a raise on average once a year. Here is how are employees already receive recognition and pay based on their performance. Another example of how Family Video currently pays based of performance is the commission available for the employee to earn. The higher the sales of the employee, the higher the commission earned, this is an incentive and a reward for the employees performance.
Family Video is currently offering the best wages, benefits, recognition, and pay based on performance that it could offer. The question is what can Family Video offer to its employees to help retain a higher percent of them.
CORPORATE VOLUNTEER PROGRAMSForty percent of employees in companies that engage in community involvement, including corporate volunteering, are truly loyal and plan to stay with the company. This is compared to the ten percent of employees in companies that do not engage in corporate volunteer programs and are quick to leave the company in search of other opportunities. (Changing our Community One Volunteer at a Time, 2005). This is a result of the increased employee morale and the sense the employee receives of belonging to something bigger than them. An IBM-sponsored study of 156 companies showed that employee morale is up to three times as higher in companies actively involved in community (Employee Volunteer Programs). Employees involved in a corporate volunteer program get a sense of
a great deal less of a feeling of being part of the team than they were in the beginning. Many people assume that just because a company is involved, that it will always go out of its way to give members the time they need or want, or even just be there that the team gets involved to get things done. However, the true truth is that you can get a sense of what your company is involved just by reading its history, but you really can’t look at the company when you really are watching some of its past issues. In fact, the true benefit of social networking, especially in some organizations where there is a high level of involvement from employees, is that they can easily connect with their friends and colleagues and become more productive people as a team. This in turn is even more beneficial to your company’s long-term viability. With many of our business partners’ benefits and benefits derived from the community engagement and training within this way, the value of their services goes beyond the benefits of individual employees. The benefit can, in fact, grow throughout the organization (Socialles – Social Networking for Business – 2005). A study conducted by the Stanford Organization for Community and Social Engagement found that by being a member of the organization at all levels, you have an unparalleled capacity to meet others and grow your team more. They described the importance of social networking for long-term sustainability to: (Branz, F., Ruhl, M., & Yacoubek, S. 2002). Social connection. (Harvard University and the Graduate College of Arts and Sciences) (Harvard, Harvard, and Stanford, 2002). For the first time, we can look beyond the organization but still find the same things we do when we’re connected with our family and friends. We can reach out to friends for help with the job and our family’s needs so we can share our stories and resources. With all this in mind, our next best bet is online community events. There are over 800 such events hosted on the “Volunteer Websites” – a growing list of thousands of individual volunteer companies around the world – where participants gather and interact regularly to learn with each other and learn from each other. All these events are not just events of community, they are a chance to experience the work and share in the same spirit of partnership with the community and other individuals and companies that sponsor and support these events. As an example of what is possible in these kind of activities, here is a short but compelling excerpt from a discussion that was offered to me to promote these programs: A volunteer group of companies and organizations is being constructed, with each one supporting a volunteer program. These companies plan and participate in these events to educate their workers and employees on the problems facing the community when it comes to volunteering. In this discussion, there is emphasis on the importance of community and the important role of individual volunteer programs. As a company owner and to ensure that our employees are engaged in those programs, we are committed to creating a social network and the right place for any worker who wishes to participate and for their own employees to participate in those activities. It is the mission of Team Vibrato Enterprises (VCE) to share that information and