Summary of Findings on effect of human resource management practices on
retention of millennial work force
The background analysis results revealed that female were the majority respondents
whereas the majority of the millennials were aged above 25 years. The results also
revealed that most of the millennials had a bachelor’s degree with a few having a
master’s degree and majority of them had worked with the bank for five years or
more. Further, the results established that majority of the millennials were married
and most of them were holding middle level job positions.
The research findings have revealed that the Human Resource Management Practices
play a major role in the retention of millennial work-force at Consolidated Bank of
Kenya Limited. The study revealed that the employees appreciate the way CBKL
handles recruitment and selection as this is one of the practices that can either have a
negative or positive impact on retention. The descriptive analysis results revealed that
the millennials were content with the way CBKL conducted interviews and felt that
the recruitment and selection process was free and fair. In addition, CBKL provided
adequate job description and proper induction after recruitment and gave first priority
to internal staff members.
Learning and development also has a major effect on employee retention, however,
the study also established that millennials at CBKL were not generally satisfied with
the learning and development function. Though the millennials agreed that Learning
and Development can be used to develop them and that they were responsible for
their own personal development. There is a view that CBKL learning and
development has not really build the value based culture in the organization. There
was a feeling also that CBKL does not always conduct training aligned to position.
According to millennial at CBKL, the number of trainings per year were inadequate.
Reward and motivation can help determine whether employees will work for an
organization or they will search for another job. The descriptive analysis results
established that millennials at CBKL were not generally satisfied with the bank’s
reward and motivation strategies though the millennials indicated that going to work
always exited them and positive rewards did not increase their productivity of hard
word. However, the millennials did not have knowledge on the tools and methods
employed by CBKL to reward employees hence they were not satisfied with the used
tools. The millennials also indicated that positive rewards had no major role towards
meeting their work goals.
The study also revealed that Job Design at Consolidated Bank of Kenya Limited is
well structured and this is appreciated by the employees. The findings revealed that
job design is a big determinant of employee retention. The findings also indicated that
millennials at CBKL were cognizant of their tasks, duties and responsibilities and
they were confident that their skills were in line with their job requirement. Addition,
the millennials at CBKL were aware of job requirements needed to perform various
tasks and always focused on
their duties at work. However, the millennials indicated that CBKL did not focus on
job rotation, enlargement and enrichment which are key in productivity enhancement.
Succession planning is one of the HRM practices but it does not influence the
retention of employees in an institution. The findings established that millennial
employees were satisfied with the CBKL’s succession planning strategies and that
knowledge about continued growth and development path motivated millennials. In
addition, millennials at CBKL had adequate knowledge regarding succession
planning and understood the skills, experience and development opportunities
required to progress to the next job level. However, they were not aware of CBKL’s
strategies for identifying and developing prospective leaders as well as the bank’s
plans for identifying prospective career opportunities.
Work-life balance is a significant part of a work environment that is healthy and
ensures employee retention. The study results established that millennial employees
were contented with the CBKL’s work life balance strategies and they clearly
understood the concept of work life balance as well as its importance in the work
environment. The millennials were also aware that cultural, generational and
economic changes lead to the evolution of work life balance. However, the
millennials were unsure whether CBKL’s work environment enhanced work-life
balance and encourage working after the normal hours.
The study established that Performance Management directly impacts on the retention
of employees. It further found that millennial employees were not generally satisfied
with the bank’s performance management strategies though they agreed that the bank
performance
expectations are clearly outlined at the start of the year and they were aware about the
bank performance management practices. However, according to the millennials the
bank did not give constant feedback on performance management and few meetings
were held to discuss results and outcomes. As such, the millennials indicated that
CBKL did not involve the setting goals.
The findings demonstrate a positive link between compensation and benefits, and
employee retention. The research findings also established that the millennials were
not satisfied with CBKL’s compensation and benefits to the employees, they did not
experience job satisfaction at CBKL and they felt that they were not appreciated and
recognized at the work place. However, the millennials agreed that their line manager
were easy to relate with, they were understanding and the bank offered excellent
working conditions.
The regression summary results indicated that the independent variables comprising
of performance management, learning and development, recruitment and selection,
job design, succession planning, reward and motivation, work-life balance comprises
of 79.4% of the variation in the dependent variable (employee retention). The
coefficients results revealed that recruitment and selection had a positive and
insignificant relationship with retention of millennial employees while learning and
development had a negative and significant relationship with retention of millennial
employees at Consolidated Bank of Kenya Limited. Further, reward and motivation
results indicated a positive and significant relationship with the retention of
millennial employees while job design had a positive and significant relationship with
retention of millennial employees whilst succession planning had a negative and
insignificant relationship with retention of millennial employees at
CBKL. Lastly, work-life balance had a negative and a significant relationship with
retention of millennial employees while performance management had a positive and
significant relationship with retention of millennial employees at CBKL.
Conclusions
Based on the documented findings, the study concludes that learning and
development can influence millennials retention through building the value based
culture, conducting training aligned to position and increasing the number of
trainings. In addition, work life balance can influence millennials retention through
having a favourable work environment, prioritizing work-life balance and change of
attitudes on work-life balance. Further, reward and motivation can enhance
millennials retention by ensuring millennials possess the job required skills, are aware
of job specifications and focuses on work when on duty. Job design can enhance
millennials retention though understanding of reward and motivation tools as well as
having positive rewards. Lastly, performance management can enhance millennials
retention by having clear performance expectations, getting constant feedback and
involving millennials in performance evaluation.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Practice
The study results indicated that recruitment and selection does not significantly affect
millennial employees’ retention at CBKL. However, it is recommended from the
study that the management of Consolidated Bank of Kenya Limited should regularly
review and revise their existing recruitment and selection strategies to make sure they
do not suffer from poor talent and skills mismatch and ensure that the job-talent fit is
achieved.
Secondly, the finding documented that learning and development significantly
affected millennial employees’ retention at CBKL. Therefore, it is recommended that
the management of Consolidated Bank of Kenya Limited should ensure continuous
and regular training of the millennial employees to re-fill lost employee knowledge,
provide employees with a sense of competence, intellectual security to perform and to
retain the top talented employees.
Thirdly, the study results indicated that reward and motivation significantly affected
millennial employees’ retention at CBKL. Thus, the study recommends that the
management of CBKL should effectively structure their reward and motivation
programs as having competitive and good reward and motivation structure so as to
reduce employees exit, deliver both psychological rewards and financial benefit
which will make millennial employees feel comfortable staying in their jobs.
Fourthly, the research findings indicated that job design significantly affected
millennial employees’ retention at CBKL. The study thus recommends that CBKL’s
management should effectively design all jobs at the bank to ensure the human
resource department is able meet the retention needs of millennial employees, to
fulfil organizational and technological necessities along with the personal and social
necessities of the employee.
Fifthly, the study documented that succession planning does not significantly affect
millennial employees’ retention at CBKL. Hence, the study recommends that
CBKL’s management should have an effective and up to date succession strategy as
poor succession strategies may encourage exit and may make millennial employees to
quit when they perceive that the bank does not have long-term plans for them.
Sixthly, the study indicated that work-life balance significantly affected the retention
of millennial employees at Consolidated Bank of Kenya Limited. The study therefore
recommends that the management of CBKL should provide flexible work schedules
that allow employees to accomplish their family duties like child rearing and
vocations as this would offer employees with a superior sense of control and
ownership above their own lives and provide better relationships with the banks
management.
Lastly, the study established that performance management significantly affected
retention of millennial employees at Consolidated Bank of Kenya Limited. Therefore,
it is recommended by the study that CBKL’s management should put in place as well
as review their performance management indicators to align company goals with
those of employees and teams so as to increase efficiency, productivity and
profitability.
Recommendation for Policy and Theory
In relation to policy the study recommends that policy making institutions like the
Kenya Bankers Association, Institute of Human Resource Management and other
relevant policy bodies should work with bank managers to develop policy
mechanisms on HRM practices to aid the retention of millennials employees in the
banking sector since a large number of its work force comprises of millennial
employees.
In relation to theory, the study focused on the Becker’s human capital theory and
Hormans’ social exchange theory to explain the interrelationship between human
resource practices and retention of millennials at CBKL. The study thus recommends
incorporation of other Human resource theories to explore the interlinkages between
the two concepts.
Limitations of the Study
This study sampled the 97 millennial employees aged between 25-40 years at
Consolidated Bank of Kenya Limited upon which only 77 employees responded to
the study’s questionnaire. Therefore 100% response rate was not achieved by the
study. Thus, the study results were based on the 77 millennials employees’ at CBKL
who responded to the study questionnaire.
Additionally, the study was carried out at Consolidated Bank of Kenya Limited thus
the study was restricted to the targeted bank. Therefore, the study may not be
widespread to other commercial banks in Kenya as different banks have different
human resource management strategies making it difficult to replicate the findings to
other banks. In addition, the study’s context was in Kenya thus the findings may not
be replicated to other banks in other countries.
The study focused on millennial employees working at Consolidated Bank of Kenya
Limited. Thus, the study did not incorporate the views of other employees aged above
40 years who work together with the sampled employees. Therefore, the views of
other Consolidated Bank employees was not in the millennials group was not
incorporated in the study.
Finally, primary data was utilized for the study and these was collected through
questionnaires that were structured in nature and had close ended questions. Thus, the
study did not capture the qualitative views of the respondents through open-ended
questions which gives respondents a space to express their views and opinions. In
addition, the views
of the management and respondents from the human resources department were not
incorporated.
Suggestions for Further Research
The study’s focus was on recruitment and selection, learning and development,
reward and motivation, job design, succession planning, work-life balance and
performance management as the main Human Resource Management Practices to
determine their effect on the retention of millennial employees at Consolidated Bank
of Kenya Limited. The model of the study’s summary specified that the variables
accounted for 79.4% of the variation in millennial employees’ retention. This implies
that there are other several factors that affect the millennial employees’ retention at
CBKL. The study suggests a similar study to be done to other factors that might
influence the retention of millennial employees at Consolidated Bank of Kenya
Limited.
The study was also a case study of the Consolidated Bank of Kenya Limited hence
the study did not incorporate all commercial banks in Kenya. Statistics from the
Kenyan banking sector indicate that most of the Kenyan banks’ employees are
millennials and aged between 25 to 40 years. This is also evidenced by most of the
bank CEOs a majority of whom are aged below 50 years. The study thus recommends
a cross sectional survey of all the 43 commercial banks in Kenya to determine how
HRM practices affect the retention of millennial employees in the Kenyan banking
sector.
Finally, millennial employees also work with other older employees and they interact
with various individuals in their everyday operations. This means they may be
challenges associated with interacting and working with millennial employees.
This study thus recommends an additional research which will incorporate the views
of other bank employees to determine the various challenges they face when working
with millennial employees.
