A Proposal for Reducing Turnover
at Everyday Lives:
A Generative Plan of Action
by
Patrick Kelly Collard
Graduate Student
PSU ID No.: 9-3038-5329
Submitted:
September 27, 2015
The Pennsylvania State University
HRER 802 - Organizations in the Workplace
Professor Patricia Shope, Ph.D.
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It has been widely recognized by our executive staff that Everyday Lives (EL) is very concerned
with the high turnover rate of our Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) as it relates to our residential
group home, and to a lesser extent our supported living and vocational divisions. A Proposal for
Reducing Turnover at Everyday Lives: A Generative Plan of Action will posit that through a change in
hiring, job design and culture, EL will be able to reduce its high turnover rate of DSPs, while attracting
new staff and clients to ensure its long-term future in the highly competitive marketplace. With your
approval, the "EL Way" will start today!
EL is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit with limited state and federal sources of income, which makes it
difficult to offer a higher rate of pay as compared to our for-profit competitors. Thus, instead of
engaging in a reactionary adaptation of change when trying to compete on pay, we must be ahead of
the curve to anticipate change (Luthans, 2011, p. 60) and become a Generative Learning Organization
(GLO) that adds value to our DSP positions. As a GLO, we will place an "emphasis on continuous
experimentation and feedback, [which] directly affects the way [our] personnel [goes] about defining
and solving problems" (Luthans, 2011, p. 60) to become the employer of choice for the DSP market. As
empirical research suggests, the linkage between a GLO and its financial performance is positively
concomitant. (Ellinger, Ellinger, Yang, & Howton, 2002, pp. 5-15). It is this Generative Learning theory
which will encompass the proposed changes in the hiring and job design of our DSPs, and the culture of
our organization. Thus, in order to effectuate this plan of action, EL must embrace change at all
organizational levels, starting with its hiring.
We are all too familiar with our current process of hiring. A DSP quits, we react by combing
through applications, conducting interviews, and making offers of employment without giving too much
thought as to how this person might fit into our organization. As a result, our DSP turnover rate is high.
Although a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test suggests utility in this case, focusing on the Big Five
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personality traits of job performance is imbued with more empirical research and is much easier to
implement across our divisions. The Big Five personality traits include: 1) Conscientiousness, 2)
emotional stability, 3) agreeableness, 4) extraversion, and 5) openness. (Luthans, 2011, p. 132). Keeping
the Big Five in mind, we need to strategically script our DSP interview questions, and have two EL staff
members independently grade each personality trait of the candidate from 1 to 5, with 5 being the best.
Once completed, each EL staff member will total his/her score and an average score of the two will be
calculated. Moreover, with the same set of strategic questions, the current DSPs will be graded and
calculated in similar fashion with the same two EL staff members. Notwithstanding other employment
factors, such as education, experience, availability, and background check results, those candidates with
a score greater than or equal to 15 will be extended an offer of employment. As long as the Big 5 test
was not discriminatory and was job-related and consistent with a business necessity, (Walsh, 2012, p.
185) it would be permissible to discharge any current DSP with a score of less than 15. However, such
will not be the case. Just as the Big 5 empirical data will greatly assist in our socialization techniques for
new employees as to customize their orientation, training and assignment of mentors, so (Luthans, 2011,
p. 130) too will it benefit our current DSP population. It is postulated through this new hiring process
that a two person DSP team with a large score differential will allow the higher scored person to
positively influence his/her lower score member regardless of perceived mentorship labeling. As was
the case in The Hawthorne Studies, where a small workgroup was known to have a causal change in the
worker's performance (Luthans, 2011, p. 13) regardless of economic rewards. Consequently, DSP job
design will play a critical role to ensure that the positive relationship between effort and performance is
maintained, while creating a level of job satisfaction.
According to the Porter-Lawler Expectancy Theory of Motivation, the level of job satisfaction is
defined as "the interaction of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards as well as the perception that rewards were
distributed equitably." (Luthans, 2011, p. 167). Through job design, more specifically job enrichment,
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we will maintain adherence of the positive relationship between effort and performance as to engender
job satisfaction, through a generous and fair rewards system.
As our exit interview data indicates, seventy percent (70%) of DSPs dislike their working hours
and sixty-three percent (63%) dislike the involuntary overtime, because it conflicts with their second
jobs. As a result, there exists a yearly sixty-five percent (65%) turnover of DSPs in our group homes for
the evening shift. However, as a GLO, our DSPs will be given more responsibility and autonomy by
working as a two-person team with less managerial oversight. First, each DSP team will be responsible
for its own work schedules. If one team member needs a day off or is out sick, the other team member
is responsible for covering his/her shift, even if it means working the ensuing shift, because of the
absence of a DSP team member. Thus, not only is each member of a DSP team accountable toward each
other, but all DSP teams become accountable toward other DSP teams. As a reward, every quarter,
provided there are no lapses in schedules or verifiable complaints from patients, each eligible DSP team
will be given the opportunity to have continuing education paid for by EL, as not to exceed four classes
per calendar year, recognition on the company website and in our quarterly newsletter. Former
Secretary of Education Horace Mann and the social reformers of the day believed that if given an
opportunity, a reasonable person could educate himself/herself out of his/her circumstances.
Consequently, a second job may no longer be required, provided our DSPs are getting enough hours.
However, considering that forty-three percent (43%) of our DSPs are single parents in need of extra
income, it stands to reason that a motivated DSP will be able to work more hours. Second, as a GLO,
and because seventy-four percent (74%) of our DSPs have a second job, i.e., working for our competitors,
we need to debrief these people as to how the competition manages its organizations when solving
problems, and provide the DSP a commensurate reward if the strategy is to be implemented. By
conflating the intrinsic reward of bettering one's self through education with the extrinsic reward of
organizational commitment to loyalty by providing competitor information, our DSPs efforts should lead
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to better performance, and engender additional job satisfaction. Consequently, our educational
expenses for this job design strategy toward job enrichment should be offset by a decrease in turnover
of our DSPs. However, without a sense of community and a unified voice, EL remains an organization
that lacks a cultural identity.
Implementing hiring and job design strategies evinces EL's commitment toward the larger
picture of establishing its cultural identity. However, if we are truly to become a GLO, we must foster an
environment that extends the extrinsic reward system of organizational commitment beyond the DSP.
As we have shown, job satisfaction can be enhanced through job design, similarly organizational
commitment also can be enhanced. (Luthans, 2011, p. 151). Consequently, all remaining EL staff
members need to be rewarded for enrolling new patients, which would be paid from a percentage of
the stipend we receive. Like our DSPs, we all know people who would benefit from EL's services, and we
should compensate any of our staff members who are instrumental in enrolling a new patient. This
unified voice and sense of community will further enhance each employee's organizational commitment
to EL. The advantages of job satisfaction are numerous, e.g., the work itself, pay, supervision, coworkers,
(Luthans, 2011, p. 141) but organizational commitment has a "somewhat stronger relationship with
organizational outcomes such as performance, absenteeism, and turnover," (Luthans, 2011, p. 151)
which should not be overlooked, because it is the precise outcome desired by our executive staff.
Furthermore, our cultural identity as a GLO is also determinant on how we approach diversity
and ethics as it relates to these rewards. Our proposed organizational approach to diversity when using
testing, training, mentors and teams, alternative work schedule, (Luthans, 2011, p. 50) and rewards will
undoubtedly advance our objectives of becoming a GLO. However, as an organization we must keep in
mind that these rewards may have a pernicious effect on the ethical behavior of our staff. Even though
our managerial oversight is proposed to be less involved, we should with alacrity remain communicative,
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empathetic and interactive to provided conflict resolution skills. In doing so, we need to do as Dr. Mary
Gentile states, "Give a voice to values," for unacceptable ethical behavior within the organization.
"Giving a voice to values" goes beyond the question of 'what is the right thing to do?' and explores the
question of 'how would you act on your values?' (Gentile, 2015). By looking at ethics in this Generative
Learning fashion we are empowering our employee's to act in a creative and/or problem solving way.
Make no mistake, ethics impacts our "bottom-line" and there is increasing evidence that ethics
programs and being ethical in the workplace pay off for organizations. (Colle & Werhane, 2008).
A Proposal for Reducing Turnover at Everyday Lives: A Generative Plan of Action has successfully
argued that through a change in hiring, job design and culture, EL will be able to reduce its DSP turnover
rate, attract new staff and patient enrollees, thereby ensuring its long-term future in the highly
competitive marketplace with minimum government assistance. Moving forward as a dynamic GLO, EL
must not only adapt, but also reflect, research and reach-out to the staff to continually improve and
adjust its tactics. In doing so, the organization and its valuable employees will remain engaged and
emotionally invested in the "EL Way."
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References
Colle, S. & Werhane, P. (2008). Moral Motivation across Ethical Theories: What Can We Learn
from Designing Corporate Ethics Programs? Journal of Business Ethics, 81(4), 751-764.
Ellinger, A. D., Ellinger, A. E., Yang, B., & Howton, S. (2002). The Relationship between the
Learning Organization Concept and Firms' Financial Performance: An Empirical Assessment. Human
Resource Development Quarterly, 13(1), 5-15.
Gentile, M. (2015, Sep. 22). Giving a Voice to Values [Webinar]. In An Innovative Approach to
Value-Driven Leadership. Retrieved from https://meeting.psu.edu/marygentile/
Luthans, F. (2011). Organizational Behavior: An Evidenced-Based Approach (12th ed.). Boston:
McGraw Hill Higher Education.
Walsh, D. (2012). Employment Law for Human Resource Practice (4th ed.). United States: SouthWestern College of Publishing.
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