Factors Influencing Employee Retention

Good managers’ help people stay engaged; bad ones push them towards disengagement (Glen, 2007).

Retention is a voluntary move by an organisation to create an environment which engages employees for long term. According to Chaminade (2007: 1), this attachment relationship should be durable and constant and link the employee to the organisation by common values and by the way in which the organisation responds to the needs of the employees.

The main purpose of retention is to prevent the loss of competent employees from the organisation, which could have an adverse effect on productivity and service delivery. Also, retention allows senior and line managers to attract and effectively retain critical skills and high performing employees. This

With such effective retention policies in place, managers are able to keep the employee turnover at a manageable rate. It is imperative for organisations through the employment process, to attract quality employees to the organisation. However, it is more important for managers to device strategies with which to retain these talented employees in the service of their organisations in order for employers to benefit from the investment already made in them. Employee retention is one of the most critical issues facing organisational managers as a result of the shortage of skilled manpower, economic growth and high employee turnover. Phillips and Connell (2003) stated that employee retention involves being sensitive to employees’ needs and demonstrating the various strategies in meeting those needs. These strategies, according to Czakan (2005: 8) include career growth and development, competitive compensation benefits, opportunities for training and supportive management. Apart from the strategies mentioned above, employers should use a flexible approach to encourage retention and this approach should consider a number of value-adding components. Such components, Brown (2006: 2) contends include mentoring/coaching, opportunities for skill and career development, as well as flexibility around the frequency and size of performance rewards and incentives. The whole process of retention is to ensure that employees are retained in the organisation, especially employees with valued or needed skills or experience in a scarce/critical field (where recruitment is difficult) competitive advantage. Turnover is a costly expense and a huge concern to employers and must be avoided. High