Employee retention refers to the various policies and practices which let the employees stick to an organization for a longer period of time. Securing and retaining skilled employees plays an important role in this process, because employees’ knowledge and skills are central to companies’ ability to be economically competitive. The employer should take special interest in the employee and the work they do.

According to Wall Street Journal notes a high employee turnover rate can cost “twice an employee’s salary to find and train a replacement.” No matter the size of the business or at what stage the business is at, when the employees leave it is bad for the business.

As we can understand that employee retention is important for the functioning and competitiveness of a company, I looked in some online research articles to discuss more about employee retention.

Factors for employee retention

Unhappy employees can lead to reduced productivity, poor customer services and problems with employee retention.

Most employees who are at the same job without any change are more likely to the current job for another better offer. If employees feel they aren’t learning and growing, they feel they are not remaining competitive with their industry peers for promotion opportunities and career advancement. Once top employees feel they are no longer growing, they begin to look externally for new job opportunities.

When the employees are unable to meet their needs with the salary they get, they become insecure about the financial benefits of the job.

For an employee job satisfaction is important. If the company turnover is high but the employees does not feel satisfied in their job, they are likely to leave the job.

According to the present study by Eva Kyndt, Filip Dochy, Maya Michielsen and Bastiaan Moeyaert; factors such as organizational and personal factors have an influence on employee retention. On the organizational side employees will be determined according to the gap and appreciative approach. In the research paper the authors analyzed that the appreciative approach had a positive influence and the gap approach had a negative influence to employee retention. They also investigated the influence level of education, number of children, seniority, age, and gender on employee retention. According to this paper we can take note that high potential employees have higher employee retention rate because they are more responsible, they have more experience and they have career opportunities. Other than that level of education was also to have a negative relation with employee retention as education is a higher commitment to the organization.

The authors of this research paper collected data using questionnaire and interviewing. The sample contained total 349 employees from 57 different companies in private sector. Among them 50% (N=174) were male and other 50% (N=175) were female. They were categorized as 86.2% full time employees, 8.9% part-time employees, 2.4% had a temporary contract and the remaining 2.6% were employed under another type of contract. Apart from these 11 respondents who have a full time contract; 6 male and 5 female were interview as a qualitative research.

A multiple stepwise linear regression was used to determine the relation between the independent variables and the dependent variable of employee retention. The participants each responded differently. An important additional element that came out of the qualitative data and that is not reflected by the single factor is that some respondents made a distinction between commitment to the company and commitment to the field of work. . A high level of either type of commitment is positively related to employee retention.

According to the results (t=16.054, p<.001, β=.670).><.001, β=.670) there was a higher significant positive influence of appreciation and stimulation on employee retention. The work pressure shows a negative influence on the employee retention (t=−4.159, p<.001, β=−.190)><.001, β=−.190). Next is leadership skills and learning attitude, which are associated with high potentials. Among them leadership skills has a positive influence on employee retention (t=3.45, p<.01, β=.145) h><.01, β=.145) but learning attitude (t= −2.044, p<.05, β=−.089)><.05, β=−.089) has a significant negative influence on employee retention. Finally it is the level of education and the relation between seniority. It shows that seniority (t=2.907, p<.01, β=.139).><.01, β=.139) has a significant positive influence on employee retention whereas level of education (t=−2.436, p<.05, β=−.110)><.05, β=−.110) has a significant negative influence on employee retention. (Kyndt, Dochy, Michielsen, & Moeyaert, 2009)

Findings of these study shows the importance of both personal and organizational factors when investigating employee retention. It also shows that the individual differences can enhance or reduce employee retention. Apparently the key to employees leaning towards their job is the duration of their job. The longer they are in the job the more they lean towards staying.