chapter_i_to_3.docxChapter I: Introduction
1.1. Research Background
The employee’s retention plays a vital role in achieving the organization’s objectives. Holtom et al (2008) studied the trends of staff turnovers at different periods and the increasing necessities on concentration on such staff retention. Fulmer et al (2003) focused on employee’s relationship in staff retention. Sultanate of Oman, a developing nation, articulated its Vision 2020 to achieve its human resource requirements through proper higher education and by providing necessary supports and infrastructure (Oman Vision 2020). Thus staff turnover and staff retention are the major terms used at strategic level and measured with various perspectives. The staff retention highly supports in the organization productivity in turn increases the organizational climate. Thus there are always need to study the staff retention and attrition rates using various tools and methods. The high staff retention rates promote the organization in maintaining the high customer relationship. The staff retention is directly related to the staff satisfaction. Hence the companies need to identify the various factors that increase the staff satisfaction, in turn, the staff retention.
Retaining all the employees may not be the desire of every business. Most of the organizations are concerned with retaining the high performers, those who possess key skill and knowledge needed to run the organization and those who are difficult to be replaced. Greenberg and Sweeney (2010) also emphasize that organizations should make efforts to keep their best talent despite difficult times. They further argue that it is the top performers that distinguish one business from another. Cardy&Lengnick-Hall (2011) also advocate that if best workers are not retained, an organization can be negatively affected from the operational to the strategic level and that human capital remains one of the few resources that can provide a sustainable competitive advantage. They however suggest that employees should be classified as platinum, gold, iron and lead, and that organizations should spend more effort to retain platinum employees as compared to the lead employees.
It is worth mentioning here that employee’s exit from a job has different dimensions. However, the issue which is of relevance here is that certain factors of employee’s exit may be controlled by the management while there are other factors on which the management has little or no bearing. For example an employee may leave his job because of family situation, job offers and pursuit of new opportunities. Cardy&Lengnick-Hall (2011) further emphasize that efforts to maximize retention are consistent with a concern for employees and a desire to make the organizational environment as “sticky” as possible in order to keep employees. Efforts to minimize turnover, on the other hand, can be seen as motivated to reduce or avoid a cost.
Back in the 1990s, Fitz-enz (1990) observed that employee commitment and retention is not determined by a single issue but by a cluster of factors . In previous researches a number of factors associated with employee retention have been identified. Factors that are commonly cited are developmental opportunities and quality supervision, job stress and colleague stress ; compensation and appreciation of work done, provision of challenging work, promotion and development chances, attractive atmosphere within the organization, relationships with colleagues, work-life balance, communication and supervision . According to Ghapanchi and Aurum (2011) retention factors include remuneration and benefits, training opportunities, fair and equal treatment, organizational culture . While Allen and Shanock (2013) stressed on relationship with colleague socialization , Andrews and Wan (2009) emphasized on management style and leadership to increase an organization retention capability . A group of researchers led by Loan-Clarke (2010) noted autonomy, work-schedule flexibility and social support help organization to keep their employees for a longer period of time .Christeen (2014) identified eight retention factors: management, conducive environment, social support and development opportunities, autonomy, compensation, crafted workload, and work-life balance.
Employee retention issues are emerging as the most critical workforce management challenges of the immediate future. Researches have shown that in the future, successful organizations will be those which adapt their organizational behavior to the realities of the current work environment where longevity and success depend upon innovation, creativity and flexibility. In fact, the dynamics of the work environment will have to reflect a diverse population comprised of individuals whose motivations, beliefs and value structures differ vastly from the past and from one another. This phenomenon is especially true in light of current economic uncertainty and following corporate downsizings when the impact of losing critical employees increases exponentially (Caplan and Teese, 1997). Critical analysis of workforce trends points to an impending shortage of highly-skilled employees who possess the requisite knowledge and ability to perform at high levels, meaning that organizations failing to retain high performers will be left with an understaffed, less qualified workforce that ultimately hinders their ability to remain competitive (Rappaport, Bancroft, &Okum, 2003) with managers facing a difficult challenge of motivating and retaining the employees in an environment of increased uncertainties (Mitchell, 2002). Retention rates generally falls as employees become distracted, confused and preoccupied with potential outcomes immediately following an organizational transition (Bridges, 1991).
Researcher’s finds that human resource management practices in compensation & rewards, job security, training & developments, supervisor support culture, work environment and organization justice can help to reduce absenteeism, employee retention and better quality work (Meyer and Allen, 1991; Solomon, 1992; Snell and Dean, 1992; Arthur, 1994; Snell and Youndt, 1995; MacDuffie, 1995; Delaney and Huselid, 1996; Ichniowski, Shaw and Prennushi, 1997). According to Accenture (2001) study on high performance issue find that organization strategy regarding employee retention primarily start from US, Europe, Asia than Australia. According to Osteraker (1999), the employee satisfaction and retention are considered the Cornerstone for success of organization. Past study divided it into social, mental or physical Dimension. The grouping is based on social contacts at works, characteristics of the work task or the physical and material circumstances associated with work. The retention factors of the mental dimension are work characteristics, employees are retaining by flexible tasks where they can use their knowledge and see the results of their efforts. The social dimension refers to the contact employees have with other people, both internal and external. The physical dimension consists of working conditions and pay. In order to retain employees the organization need to gain information about the dynamics that characterized the motivation to work. Van Knippenberg (2000), suggested that employee become more loyal and stay in the organization when they identify themselves within a group and contribute to the performance as a group. This suggestion relies on work performed by Locke and the goal setting theory he developed. The goal is team performance and the individual feeling part of the group. The focus of Locke was on the goal, but in order to reach the goal one must associate oneself with the group and task. Glen (2006), describes another framework manager can use when communicating with its employees to know that the cause of retention consist of nine different predictors; organizational processes, role challenge, values, work, life balance, information, stake/leverage/recognition, management, work environment and product or service. Fitz-enz (1990) recognized that only one factor is not responsible in management of employee‟s retention, but there is several factors influenced in employee‟s retention which need to manage congruently i.e. compensation & rewards, job security, training & developments, supervisor support culture, work environment and organization justice etc. Accordingly, organization utilizes extensive range of human resource management factors influence in employee commitment and retention (Stein, 2000; Beck, 2001; Clarke, 2001; Parker and Wright, 2001). This study also have objective to find out the factors which is more influence in employees retention. Thus, I have selected this topic to study the factors that are influencing the employees in their satisfaction and hence to continue to work in the same organization for longer period.
1.2. Statement of Problem
A study conducted by Al Sawafi (2012), provided an insight and the perceived views of the staff retention and turnover in Sultanate of Oman. Currently, the organizations in Sultanate of Oman have significantly having high number expatriates as the work force. The Omanization is under the way to replace the existing workforce with proper skilled labours and human resources. Now, the Omani working in such organizations are surfing to relocate and to move to other places nearer to their hometowns, for their future benefits, in view of higher positions and so on. Now, the organizations have made to increase their staff retention rate in order to achieve their vision and mission statements.
1.3 Scope of Study
A purposive survey was carried out among many organization in Oman, which identified different organization allocated in different region which met the criteria for the study which was to identify organization with functional HR departments. The rationale was that since majority of organization in Oman County do not have formal HR structures; it was not prudent to carry out the research in all the organization in the town. Therefore, the study focused on staff from the organization which well structure. These organizations were chosen because they have well-structured HR departments/policies, they keep records of their staff and they are assisted the researcher to gather the desired information which formed a key element in this study. The key elements which will be evaluated in this study are Ecological Environment, Working Place, Rewards and Recognition, Health and Safety Measures and Family Welfare Measures. Therefore, this study focused on Omani’s employee retention factor and turnover from different organization.
1.4 Significance of Study
Employee turnover is a universal problem and can challenge any organization in any part of the world. It depends not only on the internal dynamics of the organization but also on external environment and job market factors. The study will be useful for organizations striving to increase job satisfaction and institutions which are concerned with keeping their staff. Government and private organizations will benefit from the study alike. The study will also serve as useful resource for researchers in the area of job retention.
1.5 Research Objectives
As the study concentrates on the employee’s retention which is based on their satisfaction, there is a need to identify the satisfaction due to various factors in the organization. Thus, the following objectives are set in this regard.
Objective 1: To identify the major factors which are having influences on employees’ retention in Omani environment.
Objective 2: To measure the impact levels of the factors on the individual employee.
Objective 3: To identify the best practices which are implemented in the Omani organizations for employees’ retention.
Objective 4: To measure the employees’ retention ratio due to their high satisfaction.
Objective 5 :To determine whether there is significant relationship between all independent variable (Ecological Environment, Working Place, Rewards and Recognition, Health and Safety Measures and Family Welfare Measures) significantly influence the dependent variable (employee retention).
1.6 Research Questions and Hypothesis
To identify the factors support the organizations in their staff retention the following research questions are set.
1) What is importance of staff retention at an organization? How this is viewed in Omani work environment?
2) What are the major factors that increase the staff retention ratio in Omani work environment?
3) How the human resources department shall increase the staff retention rates to support the strategic management in achieving their goals?
4) Which factors influence the employee to search for relocation?
5) Does working environment has a significant relationship with employee retention in Oman?
Based on the above research questions, the following objectives were set to measure using various statistical methods which are the major factors identified through the secondary data analysis for staff retention.
Hypothesis H1: The financial supports (F.S.) by the organization increase the staff retention.
Hypothesis H2: The employee’s psychological satisfactions (P.S.) increase the staff retention in the organization.
Hypothesis H3: The proper organizational climate (O.C.) in the organization increases the staff retention.
Hypothesis H4: The employee’s attachments (E.A.) towards the organization increase the staff retention in the organization.
Hypothesis H5: The acceptable organizational justice (O.J.) supports by the organization to increase the staff retention.
Proposed Model
( H1:F.S . )
( Staff Retention ) ( H 5 : O.J. ) ( H 4 : E.A. ) ( H 2 : P .S . ) ( H 3 : O.C . )
Fig 1: Proposed Model for Staff Retention
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
Literature review section covers previous studies and provides factors influencing employees retentions by other researchers and scholars. The chapter covers theretention employee, turnover ,employee retention strategies including recruitment and selection , training and development and Work Life Balance.Also it’s highlight ecological environment, working place, rewards and recognition, health and safety measures, family welfare measures, job security, and employee motivation.
Employee retention is the most critical issue facing by organizations because of employee turnover and the shortage of skilled labor. Intelligent employers always realize the importance of retaining the talented employees. Retaining talented employees has never taken so important in the India as we take in organization (production, sales, service) point of view or in case institutional (education, hospital, training). Employee commitment, productivity and retention issues are emerging as the most critical challenge on the management of workforce in the immediate future (Nema,2015).
retention is one of the main challenge faced by any industry. In today’s growing competitive global economy, retaining the intellectual assets is one of major concern encountered by most of the industries. However, it still remains one of the understudied issue by the Human Resource and the large organisations. Employee retention is the most overlooked aspect of the organisations which are growth oriented. Generally the employees leave the organisation because of the job dissatisfaction, lack of supervisor assistant and feedback, lack of training and development and also ineffective pay (Kemelgor& Meek, 2008). According to Johnson (2007), employee retention
is reliant on management/ leadership skills and Human resource strategies for example, if the manager/ supervisor is not well trained and have poor people skills than the employees will leave the organisation in less period of time. The productive and talented employees of the organisation are encouraged to stay whereas, the unproductive and poor performers are pressurise to leave the organisation. However, if assessable an organisation would keep all the employees, those who are beneficial and the ones who are detrimental as they know all the work and the company does not want to spend on hiring and training new employees (Sigler, 1999).
Employee retention helps towards the economic balance in several aspects like job safety, additional profits and extra spending on goods and services. Retaining the employees is crucial for the economic development of the industry as an organisation can give more time in creating and less time training them (Vasquez, 2014). Whereas on the other hand, according to (Whitcomb, 2012), attracting, retaining and engaging the employees produce quality results for the industry which leads to good customer satisfaction. He also states that well trained and engaged staff has a substantial influence on the employee retention rate.
Employee Turnover is a significant characteristic of Human Resource management. It is one of the important topic among the academic researchers on how to efficiently control and expect the turnover (Hongvichit, 2015). To sustain an inventive and cost-effective business, the organisation must concentrate on retaining their staff and reducing the turnover rate. Generally high turnover specify the employees who leave the organisation because they are not satisfied with their work. This create negative impact on other employees and they can also be influenced to leave the job (Louden,
2012). Employee turnover creates a major problem for the business influencing the value of the goods and services, it also increase the cost of replacement and recruitment of new employees (their training and to unite them into the establishment). Thus, it substitute in increasing the productivity and competence for the organisation. Some researcher found that the occurrence of high rate of employee turnover results in the loss of revenue simultaneously. The high rate of turnover also lead to employee confidence issue and the new employees always have an issue with the acknowledgement from the regular guests (Carbery, et al., 2003).
2.4 Employee retention strategies
The retention of employees starts with a procedure which includes interviewing, selecting and hiring process (Schreiber, 2002). The main objective of employee retention strategy is to avoid the loss of talented and trained staff from the industry (James & Mathew, 2012). There are different strategies which need attention to improve the employee retention rate. Emphasis on recruitment strategies and better quality training are the examples which can help in attaining the effective result.
There are various general approaches to observe the effect of low employee retention and in the figure there are several methods to increase work pleasure and organisational commitment. The framework include different aspects of organisational and business attributes like low wages, unsocial working hours, low skill requirements and so on, which effect the work life balance and the personal employee dimensions. In future if the organisation focus on improving the quality and organisational strategies like enhanced recruitment strategies, training, appropriate education and job fit and work life balance of employees then it will increase the productivity of the organisation and the rate of employee retention (Deery, 2008).
2.4.1 Recruitment and selection
Recruiting and selecting individuals to fill the positions is critical for the Human Resource department as they have to hire the most talented and qualified candidates within less time and resource (Nickson, 2007; Nickson, 2007). Recruitment plays an important role in retaining decent staff. Especially any industry, if the recruitment team give emphasis on hiring the quality and quantity staff then it will also benefit the image of the organisation, this can be done through strategic approach by handling the roasters for the employees and decreasing their workload. The recruiters need to give attention to the skills and abilities which are essential for the industry. Most of the time the recruiters are not adequately strategic about this area (Deery, 2008). While selecting any candidate the recruiter must give importance to the characteristics that are important for the job and also to those features which will be required in future. In the hospitality industry, it is important to hire a highly talented employee, but in some cases the employee may lack in practical and business proficiency (Souza &Zajas, 1995). Therefore, many organisations in Ireland search for the capable hospitality graduates. In a research done by Connolly and McGing (2006), it was provided that 17% of hospitality graduates believed that, it is important to have a degree in the same field whereas, 68% said they do not think that a degree course is necessary to work in hospitality sector in Ireland. The graduates even think that when recruiting a manager, degree is not essential, they mainly believe all the managers and supervisors must have experience and skills in order to take responsibility. On the other hand, according to a report published in Sunday Business Post (2014), it was highlighted that most of the hospitality sectors in Ireland face an issue in finding the qualified staff for different departments. For example, a big hotel based mainly in Dublin and other parts of Ireland, have a special “Graduate Recruitment program” for the new staff who join the industry without qualifications. This states that qualification and knowledge about the industry is important for the new employees to work in any department. The people who work in the hospitality industry see it just as a job and not as a sustainable profession. A well-structured recruitment and selection process helps to retain the employee in the industry and also lower the turnover rate. The recruiter gives an opportunity to the candidates to self-select the profession, in case the job is suitable for them or not they can decide. A high volume of employees leave or get fired by the organisation early due to different circumstances and reasons. Therefore, the recruiters must provide with all the information regarding their work and neither give any false hopes to the candidates nor let them built any wrong prospects by themselves (Taylor, 2002). It is important for the organisation to interview the candidates with all impartial and neutral process. The effective recruitment strategies which are used commonly among the recruiters are social networking, internal referral, open house recruiting, job fairs, use of recruiters and advertising on different job portals. According to Smith (1994), he stated that the organisations search for the pre trained candidates and generally they hire the trainees who did there training from the same organisation. It is a cost effective and also time saving technique, through this procedure the HR department can retain the employee. In order to retain the employees, the recruiters have to make sure that they are using the right approach of recruitment which is required for the effective operations of the businesses (Baum, 2008).
2.4.2 Training and Development
It is always hard for the industry to attract and recruit the inspired, trained and skilled candidates who can provide the quality services to the customers as per the organisation standards. Though maximum number of organisation train their staff according to their business norms however this industry still has a poor reputation of training the employees. The training managers are unenthusiastic about spending time to train the employees and therefore, the staff leave the organisation early. The insufficient training may embarrass the employees in front of the customers and also lack of skills represent the service quality of the organisation. Training and development influence the work satisfaction and dedication towards the establishment which impact employee retention. The insufficient training provided to staff worsen the employee turnover, also the quality level and revenue of the organisation (Poulston, 2008). It is essential for the employers to give appropriate training to the employees in order to encourage them to stay in the organisation. For the ambitious staff it is important to get good training by the employer otherwise they start looking for other job opportunities in which they get proper training. On the other hand, it is argued that the employees provided with training are expected to leave the organisation early because they develop skills for the job which are useful for other employer. The employees find it easy to move to another job after receiving training as compared to the employees who are not trained and they cannot find opportunities (Taylor, 2010). Training gives a positive effect on the job fulfilment, training happiness and the employees have an objective to stay in the organisation. For instance inhospitality industry it is important to provide the employees with an on-job training or the vocational training which help them to grow in their field. It is important for the hospitality staff to progress and trained technologically as now a days all the departments make use of technology in every task in place of traditional, whether it is related to transactions in any department, in room product modernisation, food and beverage production and so on. Training and development of new skills and technique in different departments help the employees to have extensive and up to date knowledge of the procedure associated with the operational process. Thus, a well-structured training programme need to be used by the training managers to fix the skills and knowledge as discussed previously (Bharwani& Butt, 2012) and all industry need to give importance to the training to enhance the skills and competencies of the existing and new employees in the organisation, this will help the employees to grow and remain the part of the organisation for long.
The work-life balance is mainly considered to manage and stabilise the personal necessities such as family, hobbies, community work and other activities. According to a survey conducted by Irish Management institute (cited in Darcy & McCarthy, 2007) on work life balance, it seems to be one of the major challenge faced by the Irish hospitality sector. In the existing highly competitive employment sector, where to attract and retain the skilled staff is challenging, the managers are required to give importance to the work life issues of the employees. It is important for the employees to balance their work and personal life which also affect the factors related to their job such as anxiety, job satisfaction, efficiency and staff turnover. Some orgnisationare trying to attain the strategic approach in order to balance the work and personal life of the employees. However, the Human Resource department with the help of managers are trying to find the technique to develop the performance of the establishment and the staff. Work- life balance can be described as a point where a personnel is able to balance the time, emotion and performance stress related to work and personal responsibilities at the same time (Darcy & McCarthy, 2007). Several employees search for the job in which they can create a stability between work and personal lives. There are very limited employees who wants to work for numerous hours, manage infrequent working conditions and accept extremely stressful and challenging circumstances in the many industry. Though they still need more time to get involved in their family and social events. Generally, before starting any job the employee try to find out whether the organisation will offer them suitable work life balance (Philips & Edwards, 2009). On the other hand, Doherty (2001) argues that the employees choose to work according to the requirements of this industry whether its day or night and they are also offered with different form of creative prospects associated with work. The HR need to be more imaginative and willing to create work life balance approach which meet the requirements of the employees as well as the organisation. The Human resource managers who follow better work life balance approach are likely to have improved recruitment and retention, lesser illness and nonattendance, decrease in anxiety levels, high self-confidence in employees, better staff and customer reliability and increased productivity. Work life balance plays an important role in employee’s decision to stay or leave the organisation. Work stress and job commitment has a great impact on the employee’s work and it also contributes in their decision to leave an organisation (Deery, 2008) and when the employees do not stay in an organisation then the turnover rate spontaneously increases. The model created by Mulvaney et al. (2006) (cited in Deery, 2008) tried to explain that what measures need to be taken to reduce the work life balance and retain the employees in the industry.
According to Deery (2008) in many researches it has been found that the work life balance (WLB) influence the personal life of the employees. Due to high demand and priority of quality and quantity service to the customers, it is examined that the employees work under pressure for several hours. In many industry, it is important for the employee to do their best work because of the competitive pressure of the industry. Therefore, the employees come across stress and challenging circumstances in the workplace. These situations simultaneously affects the family and working life of an individual (Karatepe, 2010). On the other hand, Deery and Jago (2009) argues that the longer hours of work are often related to the worse work life and personal life. Hence the employees become unsocial and they have less flexibility with their personal lives. Eventually, the unhealthy lifestyle and work stress employees leads them in leaving the industry and look for another employer. These situations affect the employee turnover rate. The employees who have substantial load of work are likely to have low work life balance, due to this reason they start losing interest in their job and their work performance get poor. The work life balance and employee attitude related to their job affects the work satisfaction and the work commitment. Accordingly, the employees with weak job satisfaction and work commitment are expected to leave the organisation early (Deery&Jago, 2009).
Workplace environment includes not only the physical elements around the work area of an employee but also all things that form part of the employee’s involvement with the work itself. World at Work, the Total Reward Association defines workplace environment as the total cluster of observable physical, psychological and behavioural elements in the workplace. A positive work environment is believed to make employees feel good about coming to work and provide the necessary motivation to sustain them throughout the day. This observation is echoed by Wells &Thellen (2002), who stress that organizations offering suitable levels of privacy and sound controls at the work place thereby improving levels of motivation and commitment in employees have an increased ability to satisfy and retain employees. Heneman (2007), also does allude to the fact that one of the most crucial element of any organizations total reward strategy is having a positive work environment.
A conducive work environment appears to be an essential factor in employee retention. Spence, Leiter, Day, and Gilin (2009) gathered evidence supporting the fact that favorable working environment contributes to employee retention . A conducive environment can be defined as a flexible atmosphere where working experience is enjoyable, resources are adequately provided. In their respective studies, Alexander, Lichtenstein, Oh and Ullman (1998) then Wood and his research team (2013) reached the conclusion that availability of resource can be a determinant factor in retention . For Ellett,Ellis, Westbrook and Dews (2007) and subsequently Loan-Clarke and his colleagues (2010), flexibility plays an important role, particularly in the retention of health workers . For workplace to be a conducive factor of retention it should be enjoyable . The research of Moncarz and his co-researchers (2009) emphasized that the importance of a fun working environment and flexibility . It appears that contributing factors of conducive working environment are flexibility, a fun workplace and availability of resources.
A numbers of studies have conduct to explain the work environment with different aspects such as job satisfaction (laffaldano&Muchinsky, 1985) and employee retention (Martin 1979), employee turnover, organizational commitment and job involvement (Sjoberg &Sverke 2000). Work environment is considered one of the most important factors in employee‟s retention (Zeytinoglu& Denton, 2005). According to Hytter (2008) work environment is generally discussed as industrial perspective, focus on aspect i.e. noise, toxic substances exposure and heavy lifts etc. The interesting part of work environment is; work environment characteristics in services sector is differ from production sector, because services sector directly deal with consumers / clients (Normann 1986). The interactions depends on the kind of job or / and kind of business, it may be more or may be less. The interaction between employees and client / consumer move from physical to Psychological dimension. Psychological work environment consist of work load, decision, support, stressors, latitude and decision etc. It is much important to know and recognize the emerging needs of employees and provide good work environment as required to keep the employees committed with organization.
According to Ramlall,(2003), people are strive to work and to stay in those corporation that provide good and positive work environment, where employee feel that they are valued and making difference. Proficient employees of such organizations are dragging together to push the organization forward. Research conducted by ASID find that physical & work environment play pivotal role in employee‟s decision whether to leave the job or stay and consider as a major factor in employee retention. Light has been identified is a casual factor of job performance, sometime noise disturb the working environments and create a hitch in office which is harmful to employees psychological & physical welfare, encouragement and at times productivity. The most plentiful audio grievances are, short of speech isolation, such as eavesdrop people discussion and receiving the same feeling as well. It is beneficial for office environment as well as for health to reduce apprehension and stress.
Working conditions of an organisation play an important role in an individual’s decision to stay or leave the organisation. Herzberg (in Jones & George, 2009:474) proposed a need based theory which focused on two factors: - outcomes that can lead to high levels of motivation and job satisfaction and outcomes that can prevent people from being dissatisfied. These factors are: motivator needs (those related to the nature of work and how challenging it is such as interesting work, autonomy, responsibility, growth and development, accomplishment, achievement); and hygiene needs (those related to the physical and psychological context into which work is performed such as working conditions, pay, job security, good relations with co-workers and effective supervision). To have a highly motivated workforce that is satisfied, Herzberg (in Jones & George, 2009:474) suggests that managers should ensure that motivator needs are met.
The Zambian health sector is faced with a perception of deteriorating working conditions, which is a situation faced by other African countries as well (Vujicic et al, 2009). Public health institutions have severe working conditions, poor equipment, inadequate supply of drugs and lack support from management which makes workers feel isolated and neglected. The lack of ensuring a protective and safe work environment experienced by health workers in Zambia is a concern, as safety in the workplace is not highly placed in the allocation of resources for healthcare delivery, which is a turn off towards school leavers who become discouraged to join the medical profession (Ngulube, 2010:31), as well as those already in the sector.
Risk and fear of infection as a result of poor ventilation systems, cause a risk of communicable diseases on health workers (Pendukeni, 2004) as well as unprotected and unsafe work procedures affect their retention. Therefore, it is essential for managers to ensure that, working conditions are continuously improved as good working conditions are a motivating factor for employees and thus affect their retention.
The literature meaning of word “reward” as it is something the offer by the organization to the workers in response of their performance and contributions which are expected by the workers (Agarwal, 1998). The amount of pay, benefits, or equivalents employee received in return for service which employee render to organization. A reward can be intrinsic or extrinsic, it can be in form of cash i.e. bounces etc or reward can be in form of recognition / certificate such as commendation certificate or worker of the month etc. In business environment rewards are offered in several forms e.g. recognition, cash bonuses, awards, free trips and free merchandise etc. However reward is the thing which offers by the organization in any form in response of employee‟s contribution, to become employees motivated for doing well with positive behavior in future. Rewards are very important because its have enduring impression on employees and support the perception of employee‟s that they are valued (Silbert, 2005). Organizations that are more committed to their workers typically made more investment as compared to similar organization in progressive Human Resource practices i.e. education, training & development and compensation package (Arthur, 1994; Huselid, 1995). These organizations also adopt deserving practices on rewards distribution and distribute the rewards more generously and equitably. According to Walker (2001), compensation offer recognition, but non-monetary forms of recognition are also not ignored and important. Recognition from bosses, team members, coworkers and customer enhance loyalty. Employee participation in decision making and influence in actions are also important (Davies, 2001; Gold, 2001). Research studies highlighted the linkage between rewards and employee retention (Watson Wyatt, 1999; Tower Perrin, 2003; Mercer, 2003) and give insights into what workers want to do, their words about the rewards and their feeling regarding the work and reward matters. The recent research studies on talent management also support assumption that well and broad implemented reward practices help in talent retention and management. The annual survey of Watson Wyatt on worker attitudes toward employers and workplace, work USA 2002, show the opinions of 12,750 employees at all levels of job in all large companies, on different issues of workplace including rewards. The Watson Wyatt study finds that recognition is important for workers and they want to listen that their work are recognized and they are appreciated.
Rewards can be defined as an award given to an employee on their achievement and contribution towards their organisation, this can be gifts or incentives in any form. Whereas, recognition can be described as to praise the employee on their achievements and involvement in the company. Reward scheme is primarily use to attract, retain and encourage the employees in the organisation. Through Reward and Recognition, the motivation of employees is improved and it also lessens the staff turnover rate. Previous studies have shown that the employees get attached and committed to their organisation when they are acknowledged for their work and get rewarded (Salie&Schlechter, 2012). On the other hand, London and Higgot (1997) provided, that the reward and recognition process for the employees always remained a controversial part. The impartial rating for employees are difficult in this approach because of some factors like manager preferences, work competition and politics in the company. The reward, recognition and incentive process also doesn’t work because the organisations have no records to display the long term benefits, the managers setup the internal competition, the teamwork and collaboration is weaken by the reward process, this system also develop a failure in the employee. Implementing reward and recognition process in the industry can develop a positive atmosphere which inspire and encourage the employees to succeed and also help in employee retention rate. The reward strategies aims in employee motivation and benefit them in enjoying their work. If the employees are treated well and enjoy their work then the outcome of service to the customers is better in this industry. It is believed that if the organisation take care of their employees then automatically customer service will be adequate (Bursch, 1999).
The managers should be committed towards the organisation and know the technique to retain the talented staff. According to Connolly &McGing (2007), the reward strategy comprise of financial and non-financial rewards. The financial rewards are given to the employees who performs above expectation or have high performances, the rewards consists of bonuses, extra pay, coupons and tips. Whereas, in the non-financial reward system the staff whose performance is above expectation are provided with training, review by the management system (quarterly or half yearly) and vocal assessment (Connolly &McGing, 2007).
Reward and recognition system is appreciated by the employees and therefore they remain motivated and encouraged. The Financial rewards are given to the employees depending on their work performance and performance of the group. The general pay reward in the industry is in the form of incentives, bonuses, promotion, salary increment or different vouchers and there is a special advantage for the front line staff that they get tips as a reward by the customers (Connolly &McGing, 2007). These reward includes bonuses, commissions and revenue of company, this reward mainly depend on the performance of the individual employee or the group performance in their workplace. When an individual get selected for this reward, then the pay doesn’t include in their basic pay. As the contingent reward is not a part of the basic pay so these are remunerated in consequent time period when an individual employee achieve performance targets. As the employees are rewarded with the monetary rewards there are less chances of the employee to leave the organisation and their performance also increases with time (Chauvin & Ash, 1994). Whereas on the other hand Armstrong (2012) states that, the financial reward can demotivate the employees as well because it encourages the employee who receive them but for those employee who do not get the financial rewards in any form are discouraged and they leave the organisation early. Therefore, the managers should give exact, reliable and impartial valuation of performance and also provide the exact scheme according to the culture of industry. To improve the reward process the organisation need to include the supervisors, employees and other staff of the company to implement their knowledge and ideas in different fields (Armstrong, 2012).
2.7.2 Non-Financial Reward
The non-financial rewards includes recognition as employee of month/ quarter/ year, personal star letters or mails, written appraisal, acknowledgement of achievements, verbal praising and training. Some employees just get the verbal praising and very limited or no training, they are not recognised for their achievements nor get a written appraisal (Baron & Maxwell, 1993). However, this type of reward is as important as the financial incentives, the employee remain motivated and are more encouraged to do better job and stay with the organisation (Tredget, 2002). Non-financial recognition is a great way of rewarding staff. To appreciate the employee’s work and achievement, the HR managers use the recognition process.
Through this scheme the staff also come to know how well they performed and what areas they need to concentrate to get better. This process provides confidence, encouragement and positive reinforcement. Non-financial reward process help the managers to analysis the work environment and make changes to increase the quality of the working life of the employees. organisation can achieve the business goal by making changes in the reward process and also retain the employees and lessen the employee turnover rate (Armstrong, 2012).
2.8 Health and safety measures
According to Pakistan’s Factory Act, 1934, all companies are required to have an occupational health and safety management system. A potential followers study, using Quantitative Research method, was performed among the managers and manual workers in different organizations. Workers and managers were asked to participate in this study.
When top management makes a decision that it wants to take steps to obtain a safe organization, it must decide just how future wants to go and what it wants to achieve. Does it want to have a company that position with the best in its industry in terms of low injury incidence and harshness? Or does it simply want a security effort that will
reduce workers’ retention to an acceptable level. Is it willing to invest sufficient change to achieve a really no unsafe place? Industrial Health and Safety Top management set the safety objectives and policies in the first place and top management prefers to support and implement its own policies to the usefulness of these policies. The particular most important element in the success or failure of any companywide program, whether it is safety, training, satisfaction or motivation, is the importance given to that program by top management (Palmatier et al. 2006). The organizational arrangements that created are conditioned by the size of the firm and the nature of its safety problems. In small firms, a full-time safety director is acceptable; the job may be given to the personnel director, to the plant superintendent, or to the head of industrial engineering. In medium sized firms, a company usually employs a full time safety specialist. He is the part of the personnel department. Large firms, especially those in harmful industries, will employ a whole staff of safety engineers, safety inspectors, and industrial hygienists. Some industrialists think that with the appointment of a safety director they can ―wash their hands‖ of all responsibility for safety and get on with their main business of obtaining high production, low costs, and sufficient quality. Nothing could be more from the truth. The only way to achieve and maintain a safe plant is to place responsibility of safety on equal status with responsibility for production, cost control, quality, and profit making. (Crosby et al.1990;DeWulf et al. 2001). Industrial Health and Safety Proper business to remove work danger is basic to any organized safety efforts. Today technology has advanced to the point where many dangerous conditions have simply been designed out of the equipment and processes and most of the remaining ones have been sufficiently secured. The first way of business for safety is simply to remove the hazard from the machine, process, or structure. If it is not possible then take out a basic redesign of the production process to remove the hazard, then the next stage is to design and install a security to check workers from coming in contact with moving parts or point of operation elements. In the last, it is not possible to remove the danger or to security the equipment itself, it may be possible to have the workers wear and use protective clothing and equipment(Palmatier et al. 2006). Job-safety analysis is very useful for hazard remove and for designing safe work methods. By such study the safety influence may note that a change in workplace arrangement, in the operating controls of the machine, or in work procedures may eliminate or reduce the possibility of injury to the operator. Through this workers feel safety in workplace and they retention about job.
Safety education for all levels of management and for employees is a very important element for any successful safety program. Top and middle management require education in the essentials of safety and the need for effective accidents, both human and financial costs, must be brought to the attention of line management. Top management does not need to worry itself with the detailed mechanics of accident obstacle, but it must obtain sufficient awareness of safety essentials.(Bolton et al. 2004). The research of safety and health relate to the job satisfaction and job satisfaction relate with the employee`s retention especially in the country like Pakistan. As a result the model provide a reliable guide in employee`s retention. The safety and health directly relate the job satisfaction and the job satisfaction directly relate to employee`s retention. This study or research is to check the importance of safety and health of employees in the organizations.
Employee welfare defines as “efforts to make life worth living for workmen”. “Employee welfare is a comprehensive term including various services, benefits and facilities offered to employees & by the employers. Through such generous fringe benefits the employer makes life worth living for employees.”
Welfare includes anything that is done for the comfort and improvement of employees and is provided over and above the wages. Welfare helps in keeping the morale and motivation of the employees high so as to retain the employees for longer duration. The welfare measures need not be in monetary terms only but in any kind/forms. Employee welfare includes monitoring of working conditions, creation of industrial harmony through infrastructure for health, industrial relations and insurance against disease, accident and unemployment for the workers and their families.
Employee welfare entails all those activities of employer which are directed towards providing the employees with certain facilities and services in addition to wages or salaries.The very logic behind providing welfare schemes is to create efficient, healthy, loyal and satisfied labor force for the organization. The purpose of providing such facilities is to make their work life better and also to raise their standard of living.
These efforts have their origin either in some statute formed by the state or in some local custom or in collective agreement or in the employer’s own initiative:
· To give expression to philanthropic and paternalistic feelings.
· To win over employee’s loyalty and increase their morale.
· To combat trade unionism and socialist ideas.
· To build up stable labour force, to reduce labour turnover and absenteeism.
· To develop efficiency and productivity among workers.
· To save oneself from heavy taxes on surplus profits.
· To earn goodwill and enhance public image.
· To reduce the threat of further government intervention.
· To make recruitment more effective (because these benefits add to job appeal).
The important benefits of welfare measures can be summarized as follows:
· They provide better physical and mental health to workers and thus promote a healthy work environment
· Facilities like housing schemes, medical benefits, and education and recreation facilities for workers’ families help in raising their standards of living. This makes workers to pay more attention towards work and thus increases their productivity.
· Employers get stable labor force by providing welfare facilities. Workers take active interest in their jobs and work with a feeling of involvement and participation.
· Employee welfare measures increase the productivity of organization and promote healthy industrial relations thereby maintaining industrial peace.
· The social evils prevalent among the labors such as substance abuse, etc are reduced to a greater extent by the welfare policies.
Watson (2012:2) in his study on employee retention, poses practices and programs on how businesses are currently being run, in that, there is a wide increase in stress and anxiety of the future of an individual’s financial state, retirement security, current saving rates and capital market performance throughout the world.
Security is currently presiding over almost everything including a small salary increment in exchange for a guaranteed retirement benefit that doesn’t rise or fall with the market. Salary and job security tops the list of what people want when considering taking a job, followed by opportunities to grow their career and learn new skills (Watson, 2012:2).
Employees that (Grobler et al., 2002:610) perceive a low degree of job security in their jobs may decide to go where they perceive to have a greater degree of job security.
Management theory and practice has traditionally focused on extrinsic motivators. While these are powerful motivators, by themselves they are no longer enough—intrinsic rewards are essential to employees in today’s environment (Thomas, 2000). Nowadays motivational issues are more complex because of the wealth and opportunity so many employees have enjoyed. Over the long haul, people need intrinsic rewards to keep going and to perform at their peak (Thomas, 2000). Workers have been forced to take more responsibility for their own careers, going where the work is rewarding and where they can develop skills that will guarantee their employability, in whatever organization (Hall and Associates, 1996). Talented workers have more choices than ever before, and are likely to leave if not satisfied with their employer or job content. As employees have become more likely to leave unrewarding jobs, the impact of loosing individuals has become greater. In the future, the biggest gains will come from systematically improving an organization’s intrinsic reward process—making the work itself so fulfilling and energizing that employees themselves won’t want to leave. Rediscovering the role of purpose in work is key to understanding the new work and the motivation of today’s employees. Organizations now find themselves competing to attract and retain workers on the basis of the meaningfulness of their jobs.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
This chapter will outline the methodological framework used for this research study. It will detail the research aims and objectives, research approach and design, research philosophy and the strategy used. The researcher will also discuss the comparison between quantitative and qualitative methodology and why quantitative analysis is suitable for this study as compared to qualitative analysis. This will also look at the research tool used, survey design, sample techniques, the population targeted for the survey. Further it will discuss the ethical consideration, data analysis and limitations for this study.
The main objective of this study is to analyse and discuss about to identify the major factors which are having influences on employees’ retention in Omani environment.The sub objectives of this research include, to determine what strategies affect the retention of employees, to find whether wok life balance influences the employee’s intentions to stay with the organisation, it will also discuss whether motivation and work satisfaction factors are positively related to the high employee turnover, and finally what are the new strategies the Oman industries can adopt to retain the talented staff and reduce the employee turnover.
3.2 Research Framework
For this research, the researcher has used a framework designed by Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) known as ‘Research onion’. This framework give an organised structure to the research procedure which is carried out in this research.
Figure 3. 'The Research Onion' by Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009, p.138)
3.3 Research philosophy
‘Research philosophy is a term which relates to the development of knowledge and the nature of the knowledge’ (Saunders et al, 2009, p.107). The research philosophy has all the essential assumptions according to researcher’s point of view. These assumptions will support the research approach and the technique adopted as a part of the approach. The two major methods to consider in the research philosophy are ontology and epistemology. Ontology refers to the assumption of nature of reality; and contains three different aspects, objectivism, subjectivism and constructionism (Saunders, et al., 2009). On the other hand, Epistemology relates to the knowledge and by what process the knowledge is created in a certain field of research; and it involves positivism, interpretivism and realism viewpoint of the researcher (Quinlan, 2011).
In this research, the researcher has used the positivism method as it comprises of present theory to develop hypotheses and these hypotheses will be tested and confirmed that will lead to more development of the theory (Saunders, et al., 2009).
3.4 Research approach
There are two kind of researches used, Inductive and Deductive. In an Inductive approach, the data is collected and a theory is developed as an outcome of the data analysis. Whereas, in Deductive approach a hypotheses is developed and research strategy is designed to check the hypotheses. There are five stages in the deductive approach: gathering a hypothesis, stating the hypothesis in operational terms, testing the hypothesis, exploring the outcome and last will be adapting the hypothesis in the light of the outcome (Saunders, et al., 2009). The aim of this paper is to examine the major factors which are having influences on employees’ retention in Omani environment.
department is facing problem in retaining the employees in the Oman industry and also to evaluate a suitable approach to retain the employees in this industry. It is a responsibility of the researcher to choose the most suitable research approach in order to evaluate this research project. Research design is done to find the appropriate answers for the suggested research questions (Cameron & Price, 2009). Therefore, the researcher has adapted a deductive approach for this research as to provide the factors which are having influences on employees’ retention in Omani environmentand also the researcher assumes that there are adequate researches developed in the field of employee retention and turnover of employees.
3.5 Research strategy
There are two method of data research; Quantitative and Qualitative analysis. Qualitative data are non- numerical data which can originate in any form like opinions, beliefs, perspective, stories, and images and so on; or it can be described as the expression of human experiences and opinions (Quinlan, 2011) whereas, Quantitative data are numeric data or the data gathered is calculated numerically. There are different quantitative analysis methods such statistics, graphs and charts which allow the researcher to calculate the data more appropriately. The quantitative data analysis is the calculation of data through statistical technique. The quantitative analysis often relies on the deductive approach. The collection of quantitative data in this research has indicated the positivistic method. Therefore, this research has adapted a quantitative strategy by gathering a large number of data from employees from different organization in Oman. Quantitative analysis is a widely used research method and is expected to give positive results of the survey/ Questionnaire. This study will use the main method of quantitative approach that is questionnaire. Questionnaire is used for descriptive and explanatory research and also to collect the large number of responses from the participants to analyse the data. The researcher has chosen self -administered questionnaire which is completed by respondents; it is managed electronically through Internet/ Intranet, postal or delivery and collection. To meet the objectives of the research questions, the quantitative approach is undertaken as it provides all the numeric data that practically analyse the statistics collected and answer the questions (Saunders, et al., 2009). In this research, the researcher will try to use the most up to date, reliable and valid scales to measure the quantities based on the literature review and research questions. The main purpose of taking this topic has been discussed in the literature, nevertheless employee turnover and retention is becoming a challenge for the Oman sector as the industry is growing rapidly. There are evidences of the work associated with this research, therefore the literature has been designed to present and concentrate more on the shortage of employees in the industry and need to do more research.
3.6 Research instrument
There are many instruments in the quantitative study but the researcher selected to use questionnaire which is the most appropriate instrument for data collection and also used for this study. The researcher has to use this technique as large data is collected from big population of Oman. Questionnaire is a common word which consist of all methods of data collection and every respondent is asked the same set of questions by a fixed technique (Saunders, et al., 2009). Therefore, the researcher considered online questionnaire/survey is the most suitable option for this research and has used the online survey method which can collect data from large population. Surveys are mostly used for the calculation of data collected from large population and they are easily posted through internet to this population. Online survey method is the most common and effective technique to use for the survey population who have access and skills to use this technology (Quinlan, 2011). The researcher has developed a survey for the employees of Oman to find the factors which affect their stay while working in the organisation and what factors influence them in leaving the organisation. The survey carried out in this research also gives an outlook on the views and opinion of the employees while working in their organization.
3.7 Survey design
The Questionnaire for this research was developed and provided to the targeted population by using an online survey tool called ‘Survey monkey’ which gives out exact statistics and is easy to use. The first part of the survey comprises of demographics which includes employee’s age, gender, how long have they been working in current organization and approximate monthly income. These questions will help in analysing the data as it illustrates viewpoint of employees in defining what age group they belong to and time span in the industry
The second part includes closed questions were provided to the respondents with options to select on a scale and this was measured by ‘Likert scale’. The options have five point Likert scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The Likert scales are technique of rating scales and are used to collect the belief and attitude of the respondents towards the statements (Quinlan, 2011).
The main objective of this survey is to collect information from the employees in order toanalyse their views and opinions about the factors which affect them the most while working in the organisation.
4.8 Population and Sample
Population consists of groups, individuals, organisations, documents and so on, which are appropriate for the research (Quinlan, 2011), but for this research the target population were the employees from different orgnisation.The survey was sent to a total of 500 employees of different organisations from which 200 surveys were completed, 40% of the target population. A research will be carried out using the entire population or using a sample population depends on the size of the population, requirements and time available for study. A sample is a small sub group of the population (Quinlan, 2011). In this research, sample population is a suitable technique as it is an effective approach to collect data instead of using the entire population and specifically when there is time and requirements are limited for the researcher. In this research, the convenience sampling is used which is a nonprofitability technique (Quinlan, 2011). This sample technique is applied for theOman companies and the targeted population who are active social media users who works in Oman industry.
The sample is selected using convenience sampling technique for the participants which reflects easy and feasible access. A convenience sampling technique is used for those participants who are easy to include in the research sample (Quinlan, 2011). The survey sample does not include any particular designation of employee it was for all the staff members who work with different organisations and sectors.
4.9 Ethical Consideration
Ethical conduct can be described as morale values, confidentiality and anonymity of an individual, group or an organisation. Confidentiality and anonymity usually refers to the assurance that researcher give to the participants that their identity and involvement in a research will be kept confidential (Quinlan, 2011). In this research the participants were notified of the confidentiality of their responses and anonymity of their identity; also they were informed about the nature of this research and why it is carried out, moreover they were made aware that what is required from them as a participant.
All the ethical codes are followed while completing the research. For investigating on this research, the information was developed by applying an online survey and it was only used for the purpose of this study. Also the answers given by the respondents were kept confidential during the process of analysis and they were not required to give their name in the questionnaire. Therefore, their identity is also anonymous as they completed the online survey. The respondents were also guaranteed that the data gathered is sincerely for research purpose.
4.10 Data Collection
According to Quinlan, (2011) “The data gathering methods are designed in such a way as to ensure that they will yield the data required” (p. 218). As discussed previously in survey design, an online questionnaire is suitable rather than the interview to gather the data as it is easy to collect data from large population and also it is feasible to get through to the respondents. Whereas, in interviews the data is collected from individual respondent by taking their one to one, telephonic or online interview and the researcher has to involve those participants in an interview process also which is time consuming. The online questionnaire was carried out to get the opinions and viewpoints of the employees rather than the managers. The researcher developed an online questionnaire in which all the questions were administered online. The survey was provided to the target population by sending them a tool called “survey monkey” which gives out exact statistics and is easy to use. Oman is widespread and consists of many orgnisation so it is feasible to send questionnaire through Facebook, Gmail and Web links. The expected respondents for the survey were 200 people. The participants were reminded time to time to take part in the survey as to obtain minimum result. When the participants finished the survey then the responses were saved and the after getting adequate responses the online survey was closed. The data gathered was exported to SPSS tool.
4.11 Data analysis
Once the data is collected through survey then it is transferred to a data analysing tool. To analyse the quantitative data of this research, a software package called SPSS (Statistical packages for the Social sciences) is used. This tool is helpful in analysing large set of survey data. When the questionnaire was completed by all the participants, then the package was used to analyse the data (Quinlan, 2011). To correctly measure all research question in this paper, accurate scales is used by the researcher according to their validity and reliability. Scaling technique is used extensively to measure the quantitative facts.
In this research the descriptive analysis is used for the findings and results of the data collected and it is described by graphs, pie charts and numerical table. The graphical technique is recognised for identifying aspect of the large quantities of data. The numerical tables and chart gives accurate quantified data. These descriptive method is feasible for the reader to understand the findings and it is examined and discussed in the next chapter.
The main objective of this analysis is to provide the exact measures of the research questions about employee retention and high employee turnover, the researcher identifies the main factors which are training, wages and incentives, benefits and compensation, job flexibility, development chances and skill appreciation for employee retention. On the other hand employee turnover measures will include work life balance, motivation, reward and recognition, job satisfaction, working environment, co-worker and socialization practices.
4.12 Limitations
Although, there are some limitations which exists, the main ones are time constraints and sample size, therefore an online questionnaire was carried out to collect the data from the existing employees from different organization. But still, the online survey was open for a limited period of time and therefore the participants for the survey were limited. It seems to the researcher that there is lack of written data on this topic specially about Oman. Therefore, the researcher has carried out the literature from every suitable data which appeared to be relevant for this research.
