PAC Engineering, a building construction contractor established in the early 1990s, has its headquarters in Lebanon. In 2010, the number of employees was over 10,000 and the company had multi-million dollar projects to its name. PAC Engineering operates in many areas of the region such as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Sudan, and Libya.

At the beginning, the company had no trouble motivating and retaining competent engineers, but later it faced great difficulty because construction reached a standstill. Even though the company was flourishing, top management at PAC witnessed a high turnover as its engineers were finding more attractive offers in the region. The CEO was quite aware of the problem and its consequences and thus hired a human resources consulting firm to pinpoint the cause of problem.

The problem was quickly identified and PAC Engineering’s motivation strategy focused on finding work opportunities for the engineers in Lebanon so that they would stay with their families and save the extra expenses of working abroad. However, when engineers were sent to handle projects in Dubai, they started comparing their salaries with those of engineers working for companies in Dubai. The implications of the equity theory now were a challenge for PAC.

Once again, the consulting firm was called upon. There was a close investigation of the company’s financial packages, which were redesigned to offer more incentives and enhance motivation. For the first time in Lebanon, PAC Engineering introduced a ‘partnership scheme’ for its high-level executives and engineers.

Questions:

What were the main reasons for the high labor turnover at PAC Engineering?

Can inequity be a major source of lack of motivation among employees? 

What were the solutions which PAC Engineering adopted to solve the problem and to motivate their employees? 

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

The main reasons for the high labor turnover at PAC Engineering were its engineer... View the full answer