Corporate Volunteer Program

INTRODUCTION

In the last two years Family Video's 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 WAGES

The 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 Video's 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 VIDEO BLOCKBUSTER HOLLYWOOD VIDEO

PART TIME $6.50-$7.00/hour $5.50-$6.00/hour $5.50-$6.00/hour

ASSISTANT $9.00-$11.00/hour $8.00-$9.00/hour $7.00-$8.00/hour

MANAGER $36,000-$38,000 salary $32.000-$36,000 salary $30,000-$35,000 salary

Figure 1. Wages of Family Video and Top Two Competitors

Focusing on altering employee wages to increase employee retention would be a waste of Family Video's time and money. Since the company's 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 BENEFITS

Many 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).

BENFITS FAMILY VIDEO BLOCKBUSTER HOLLYWOOD VIDEO

401k **** **** ****

DENTAL COVERAGE **** **** ****

MEDICAL COVERAGE **** **** ****

VISION PLAN **** **** ****

DISCOUNTS ON VIDEO RENTALS **** **** ****

LIFE INSURANCE **** **** ****

PAID VACATION **** **** ****

FLEXIBLE HOURS **** **** ****

HOLIDAY PAY **** **** ****

Figure 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 Recognition

An 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 PROGRAMS

Forty 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