Reference no: EM133181424

Communique provides strategic public relations consultancy for companies seeking to engage in digital branding and social marketing. The agency has built up a team of seasoned digital and media specialists since its entry into Singapore in the 2000s. Communique has won many accolades for its knack in designing engaging digital marketing campaigns. However, turnover among the marketing specialists appears to be on the rise after the retirement of the incumbent Creative Director. The average turnover rate in the marketing industry is 10%. 

Oliver, the CEO, is concerned and has directed Joyce, the HR Director, to provide an assessment of the rate and impact of turnover at the next management meeting. As the HR manager, you have been tasked to prepare the management brief with the information drawn from the HR information system below. 

TURNOVER INFORMATION FROM COMMUNIQUE'S HRIS

Table 1. Job Categories and Turnover Rates

Job Category	No. of Employees in 2019	Annual Turnover Rates within Job Category
Digital & Media Specialists	80	30%
Marketing Managers	20	20%
Total	100	-

Table 2. Profile of Leavers Job Category

Job Category	Perf Grade	Number of Departures
Digital & Media Specialists	Good	10
	Average	6
	Poor	8
Marketing Managers	Good	3
	Average	0
	Poor	1
Total		28

Table 3. Average Hourly Compensation of Current Employees

Digital & Media Specialists	$30.70 per hour (Mid-Pt Ave Hourly - $28.00)
Marketing Managers	$45.55 per hour (Mid-Pt Ave Hourly - $45.00)
HR Executive	$20.20 per hour
HR Manager	$43.80 per hour

Table 4. Average Hourly Compensation of New Hires

Digital & Media Specialists	$25.50 per hour
Marketing Managers	$40.60 per hour

Digital & Media Specialists Marketing Managers Exit procedure for each departing staff: 

• A 30 min exit interview by a HR Manager. 
• A HR executive requires 2 hours to process the resignation 

Recruitment activities for each vacated position: 

• Cost of job advertising per vacancy at $500 
• Each job application is processed by a HR executive and takes 2 hours. There is an average of 8 applicants per vacancy. 
• Shortlisted applicants go through a 30 min job interview with a HR Manager. Two applicants are shortlisted for each vacant position. 

On-boarding of new hires: 

• 3hr orientation brief by an HR executive. 
• 1-month on-the-job mentoring by Marketing Manager. The Marketing Manager spends 5hrs per work week mentoring the new recruit. There is an average of 4 work weeks in a month. 

The company estimates that it loses a contract value of $20,000 and $50,000 with every departure of digital and media specialists and marketing manager respectively.

(a) Distinguish between the different types of employee separations and explain which type of separation Communique should be concerned with and why. 

(b) Describe ONE (1) metric that you could use to determine if turnover is an issue in Communique using data provided in Appendix 1 and assess if turnover is indeed a problem using this metric. 

(c) Calculate the annual cost of turnover for Communique.

During the management brief, you propose investing in HR measurement to monitor and understand turnover within the company. The Chief Finance Officer, Malcolm, was not supportive and remarked that 'There is no need to measure anymore. We know it is a problem, we should solve it. The money is better spent on initiatives to retain the staff.' 

(d) Discuss if you agree or disagree with Malcolm's remarks and provide reasons for your position with illustration. 

REFERENCE: 

Bauer, T., Erdogan, B., Caughlin, D., & Truxillo, D. (2019) Human resource management: People, data, and analytics SAGE Publications