It's Time To Say Goodbye (An HR Strategy in dealing with situations in the maturity phase)

The growth of retail stores in Indonesia this year is growing very rapidly and most retail players are old companies that have been in the retail world for a long time such as Careefour, Hero group (Hero supermarket, Giant, Guardian, Starmart), Ramayana, Alfa Group (Alfamart, Alfa Midi, Alfa express, Lawson and Dan+Dan), Indomaret Group (Indomaret minimarket, Indomaret Plus, Superindo), Century healthcare, Kimia Farma, Circle K, Melawai Group (Optik Melawai, Pharmacy Melawai, Rapico), Tip Top is skipper -Retail skipper who has been poor across the world. It is certain that the company is a company that has entered the maturity phase.

sources : Aprianto & Arisandi (2013),

According to Aprianto & Arisandi (2013), companies with a maturity phase must carry out an HR strategy in carrying out HR practices as follows:

? "Recruitment" must use a strategy of only recruiting entry level from external, and promoting more existing employees.

? In conducting “Selection” only use high potential employees

? More training/"training" with instructors from internal (not external), because instructors from internal know more about the ins and outs/competencies of the company

? Wages must be equal to or above the market average.

? “Incentives” given to employees must be better than other phases, because the company has been quite successful.

? “Benefits” given to employees must be large enough, so that employees feel at home in the company

? “Career path” should be set up in such a way as to benefit internal employees.

? “Organization Development” focuses on long-term planning and improvement of procedures

In the first part of the article the problem faced by the CEO who leads a company that has been around for 40 years (maturity phase) is that a lot of employees are hijacked or left, and many employees think "It's Time To Say Goodbye" to the company, meaning there is a problem. with its HR strategy. Let's dissect in more detail what happened at the company.

In fact, the CEO did (1) introduce a lot of new employees both at the top level and middle level (not entry level). The new employee will cause a lot of bad things for the company's maturity phase. Or (2) will quickly increase the salary, facilities or increase his position from subordinates who have the same "chemistry" as him.

The first disadvantage?is that top-level/middle-level employees will interfere with the company's performance. As we know, top-level/middle-level employees will usually immediately try to show a powerful and fast performance by entering their "colonel" whom they can "chemistry" trust. In order for the colonels to enter, usually they will change the organizational structure in a slightly "barbaric" way, namely adding new positions on the grounds of "necessity and urgency".

The addition of new positions followed by the addition of unnecessary new employees will result in the company's performance going down. You can, this is because of the "social loafing effect"

Figure 1. The Social Loafing Effect (Thompson, 2008)

The Social Loafing Effect?describes a phenomenon that occurs when individuals exert less effort when working as a team than when working independently, this is due to the fact that there are too many people working in teams. There are several levels of Social Loafing Effect in each group, it can run according to its function until it does not function at all, the effect in the group is "lack talent" or the best talent does not contribute to the group, so it will cause performance to decline (Latane, 1979). For the individual effect which has a side effect is "lack of satisfaction" from employees, they will be a lot disappointed and a lot of pressure in doing their work, so the company will lose the opportunity to take advantage of the "ability" and "knowledge" of the employees. And the most severe individual effect is that there will be a mountain of work piled up because employees are irresponsible from each other.

To avoid the Social Loafing Effect, a supervisor can start by establishing individual accountability, developing rules of play at work, creating a minimum and maximum team, conducting individual accountability, encouraging group loyalty, implementing peer evaluation, writing down the rules of the game in the team, minimizing the size of team members, create personal relationships between superiors and subordinates, evaluate every process in work, increase discussion between team members or with engagement individuals

The second disadvantage, such as the first reason, top-level/middle-level employees will usually immediately try to show strong and fast performance by making radical innovations of their own version. Innovation is really needed in companies, but radical innovation must be carried out according to the phases according to Figure 2. Stages of Organization models (Sabbeth, 2003)

Figure 2. Stages of Organization models (Sabbeth, 2003)

The Stages of Organization models-SOO (Sabbeth, 2003) adapted from the Arthur M. Young framework explains that companies in carrying out their cycle phases evolve with different patterns and require different strategies and organizations.

·??????Phase I Start up, where New ideas are run freely to get the opportunities that exist, there is a lot of "Lack of direction" due to the many ideas that arise.

·??????Phase II Growth, where it takes a leader whose task is to "generate" employees (followers) & Cash Flow, where there will be "Lack of Sustainability" due to a large investment in "generating" new employees (followers)

·??????Phase III Specialization, where a clear strategy is needed in accordance with the company's core competencies, there is a "lack of control" because there will be a lot of mis-aligned in carrying out the clear strategy

·??????Phase IV Institutional, where management must apply all existing problems into a clear System Procedure and Structure, resulting in "Lack of productivity", because all available resources are used to improve the system and structure.

·??????Phase V Regeneration, where the company is getting ready for new growth by adapting the processes that have been experienced in the previous phase, usually occurs "Lack of Mobility and flexibility" because the company has got its identity.

·??????Phase VI Collaboration, the company must develop its Cultures and Values. This phase is usually a large company and must immediately look for other company partners who can be trusted so that they can continue to expand, in this phase there is usually a "Lack of Meaning" because cooperation with other companies results in a shift in culture which can cause employees to be confused in translating the company culture.

·??????Phase VII Co-Creation, in this phase the company is so large, the expenses are high enough, so the company must run the company with the principle of "minimum resources and maximum impact" by maximizing the existing resources, in this phase it requires careful management in running the company because the situation going forward is unpredictable and highly volatile.

Radical innovation occurs in Phase I Start Up and Phase II Growth, while for companies in the maturity phase, it occurs in Phase III Specialization and Phase IV Institutional, where radical innovation is forbidden to do, because this phase is a phase where companies institutionalize all core competencies into the system. If there is a radical innovation in this phase, it will cause the core competencies to change, and the change will result in very weak control and productivity, even though this phase requires a lot of energy for control and productivity.

The third disadvantage, top level / middle level employees will usually immediately try to show a powerful and fast performance by entering their "colonel" whom they can "chemistry" trust. By hijacking the new colonel, who was usually rewarded with a hefty salary. Well... this is where a very crucial problem arises, the old employees feel let down, they have struggled desperately from the start of the company starting Phase I Start up which is relatively difficult to clear the forest, then in Phase II Growth struggle day and night followed by Phase III Specialization and Phase II IV Institutional, koq... at the time of Phase III and Phase IV, the only thing left to do was to be crucified by a new colonel with a higher salary and facilities....well, just say "It's Time To Say Goodbye"

The fourth disadvantage, if the colonel enters and usually they need time to adapt so that the performance shown is not optimal, then the old employees will try to describe him, so that they return to the pattern of "social loafing effect". When the colonel's honeymoon (orientation) is over and he still hasn't shown optimum performance, the old employees will secretly laugh at him and what's worse is boycott the job. Operating conditions, and the nature of work (Spector, 1997) will not be conducive so that the company's performance is not achieved.

The fifth disadvantage, promoting subordinates who have the same "chemistry" as him by increasing salaries and facilities that are quite high. If the employee has adequate capacity, it will not interfere with the company's performance. But if not, then the disaster is that the old employees will secretly laugh at him and even worse, boycott the job. In promoting subordinates should have adequate capacity not based on "chemistry", the worst thing is promoting their subordinates, without paying attention to senior employees, will make senior employees very disappointed.

From?the five disadvantage?above, it is clear that if we have the wrong strategy in this maturity phase, it will result in HR practice not running according to the company.

·??????"Recruiment" which should use a strategy of only recruiting entry level from external, and promoting more existing employees, was violated by adding a new medium/top level colonel.

·??????In conducting the “Selection” only employees with high potential are no longer valid, because they are hijacking colonels from outside

·??????Do more training/"training" with instructors from internal (not external), because instructors from internally know more about the ins and outs/competencies of the company to be just a slogan

·??????Wages of old employees must be equal to or above the market average to be an “old employee duping issue”, because the colonel's salary is above the average

·??????“Incentives” given to employees must be better than other phases, because the company is already quite successful, it will set a bad precedent because the addition of new people will result in the distribution of incentive cakes getting smaller

·??????“Benefits” given to employees must be large enough, so that employees feel at home in the company, it is just a slogan, because the inclusion of mixed people will reduce the share of the old employee benefit cake.

·??????“Career path” must be formed in such a way as to benefit internal employees, it is just a slogan, waiting for old employees will be over with the arrival of a new colonel.

·??????From the information above, it is clear that it is already in the maturity phase, don't violate the HR practice standards, there are more harm than benefits, and the worst thing is that it causes our old employees to think "It's Time To Say Goodbye"

When overcast clouds hang over the horizon my children's hearts.

Jakarta, September 22nd, 2021

References

Aprianto Brian and Arisandy Jacob Fonny (2013), Complete Guidelines for Indonesian HR Professionals, PPM Publishers

David Sibbet (2003), Archetypes of Sustainability Toward a Hopeful Paradigm of Organizational Development

Latane, B., Williams, K., & Harkins, S. (1979). Many Hands Make Light The Work: The Causes and Consequences of Social Loafing. Journal of Personal Sociology and Psychology, Vol. (37), 822-832.

Kasali Rhenald (2006), Change, Gramedia Pustaka Utama

Spector, P. E. (1997). Job satisfaction: Application, assessment, causes, and consequences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Thomas (2008), Making the Team: A Guide for Managers 3/e?, Pearson?