employee_retention.docx

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chapter1: introduction

Research Background

In achieving the organization objective employee’s retention plays a significant role. Various research has been carried out by researchers such as Holton et al. (2008) regarding staff retention and staff turnover and key factors that revolve around them. Fulmer et al 2013 focused on the relationship of the employees with the employers. Developing countries such as Oman, says that its vision 2020 to achieve its human resource through proper higher education and providing proper supports and infrastructure. Amadasu( 2003); Taplin et al.(2003); Gberevbie(2008) have found that if appropriate employee retention strategies are adopted and implemented by organizations employees will surely remain and work for the successful achievement of organizational goals . In the view of Acton et al., (2003), the Human Resource Department plays an active role in retaining its employees

Staff turnover and retention are used at a strategic level of management and can be measured with various perspectives. Staff retention supports productivity which increases organization climate, conservation and attrition rates can be measured using different tools and methods. A higher rate promotes an excellent customer relationship; there is a direct connection between staff retention and satisfaction. Most of the organizations are concerned with retaining the top performers and not keeping the employees. Companies tend to keep those with necessary skills and knowledge; organizations should make efforts to keep their best talent despite trying times.

Organizations which do not adopt the best workers hurt the operational to the strategic level. Human capital is said to be one of the resources which can give a company a competitive advantage, employees, therefore, 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. 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. Organizations have control of employees exist factors while some are out of control, efforts to maximize retention are consistent with a concern for employees and a desire to make the organizational environment as “sticky” as possible to keep employees. Efforts to minimize turnover, on the other hand, can be seen as motivated to reduce or avoid a cost.

In 1990s, Fitz-enz (1990) showed that employee commitment and retention is determined by various factors which include; developmental opportunities, quality supervision, job and colleague stress, compensation and appreciation of work done, provision of challenging work, promotion and development chances, the charming atmosphere within the organization, relationships with colleagues, work-life balance, communication, and supervision. Also, a study from Accenture (2001) showed that organization strategy that regards employee retention starts from US, Europe, Asia, than Australia. 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. The most factor affecting the success of an organization is employee satisfaction and retention as shown by Osteraker (1999). Grapanchi and Aurum (2011) states that retention factors include remunerations and benefits, training opportunities, fair and equal treatment and organizational culture, but Allen and Shanock (2013) emphasizes on leadership style and management as the best retention practices.

Although retaining of all employees may not be the desire of the company, most businesses are getting concerned with retaining higher performers and those that posses key skills and knowledge needed to operate the organization and are not easy to find or replace. Greenberg and Sweeney (2010) emphasizes companies putting efforts to retain their best talents amidst difficulty times. Retention of employees is becoming the most critical issue workforce challenges in the future. Researchers have shown that successful organizations will be those who adapt their organizational behavior to the realities of the current work environment where longevity and success depend upon innovation, creativity, and flexibility. Christeen (2014) indentified eight employees retention factors which include; social support, conducive environments, opportunities,autonoy, compensations, crafted workload and work life balance. Cardy and Lengineck-Hall (2011) advocates that if best worker are not retained, an organization can be negatively afftected operationally upto to the strategic level and human capital remains one of the few resources that can provide a suitable competative advantage. They also say that Different can be classified differently such as plantinum, Gold, leand and Iron, more efforts should be deployed on retaining plantinum employees as compaired to lead employees. Employees exit job from different organisations at different dimensions of which some can be controlled while others are out of control by the management. .Dynamics of the workplace will have to reflect a diverse population comprised of individuals whose motivations, beliefs and value structures differ vastly from the past and one another. Analysis of workforce trends points to an impending shortage of highly-skilled employees who possess the knowledge and ability to perform at high levels. Organizations which will fail to retain top performers will be understaffed, less qualified workforce hinders competitiveness. Managers will have difficulties regarding motivating and retaining the employees.

Researchers such as (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) find employees retention, quality work, and reduced absenteeism can be increased through compensation & rewards, job security, training & developments, supervisor support culture, work environment and organization justice. Following an organizational transition, retention rates fall as employees may become distracted, confused and preoccupied with outcomes. Employees become to stay in a company and become more loyal if the identify themselves with a group and contribute to the performance as a team as started by Van Knippenberg (2000). Glen (2006) tries to describe other frameworks which managers can use to communicate with employees to show them 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. Osteraker (1999), says that employee satisfaction and retention are considered the Cornerstone for the success of the organization. Several factors need to be put into account in order to improve employees retention rate which include compensation system, reward schemes, job security, employees training and development needs, support culture by supervisor, general work environment and justice within the organizational according to(Stein, 2000; Beck, 2001; Clarke, 2001; Parker and Wright, 2001).

Managers are always faced with a need to retain employees in an organization which has a direct correlation with productivity and improvement of organization climate thus they should adopt necessary tools to ensure that there is maximum retention of skilled employees as this is also attributing to maintaining high customer relationship. As employees are the most precious and important asset of an organization, so, organization should take measures to encourage employees to stay in the organization for the maximum period of time or until the completion of the project

This study has the objective to find out factors which influence employee’s retention, its connection to the employee's satisfaction and their desire to work for a longer period in an organization. the reason. The importance of this study cannot be over emphasized because it is the desire of each and every company to retain and keep most of its experienced workers because they are the one conversant with the company. Also these old employees are experienced in most of the company areas of expertise and possess great skills. A company that lays off its experienced workers is likely to incur an additional cost of training new employees so that they can be conversant with the company day in day out activities. This study therefore is important in showing how a company can retain its valuable employees regardless of any trying moments and hence it is of great importance to any organization. I have selected this topic in order to study factors that influence employee’s satisfaction level and their willingness to stay within the same organization for longer period of time.

1.1. Statement of Problem

Al Sawafi (2012), conducted studies that show an insight and the perceived views of the staff retention and turnover in Sultanate of Oman. Organizations in Sultanate of Oman have a high number of experienced work forces. They have an underway strategy to replace existing workforce with skilled labors and human capital. Individuals working in such organizations are now relocating and moving to other places nearer to their hometowns, for future benefits such as obtaining higher positions. Currently, these organizations are coming up with a way to increase staff retention rate to achieve their vision and mission statements. As it is seen in Oman many employees in other institutions are opting also to leave the companies they are currently working in because of issues such as poor salary, poor working conditions, and unnecessary pressure from their seniors. This possess a great threat to the company they are working in because in the event that they exit from that particular company, that organization will be forced to employ new workers and this will cost the company an extra cost of training the new work force. In regard to this every measure should be put in place to ensure that all experienced workers are retained in their current working organizations.

Employees that exit leaves a huge loss and unbalanced situation to the internal environment of the organization. The organization should take measures to encourage employees to stay in the organization for the maximum period or until the completion of the project since they are the most valuable asset in a company. This is important because when an employee leave an organization it is likely incur huge losses and unbalanced internal environment which may affect the organization operations. Based on the above discussion, the study aims to identify the factors which influence the retention of employees working in different organizations’ and their impact on Job security, Job satisfaction, Work-life balance and Compensation on retention of employees in Oman.

1.3 Scope of Study

A survey was carried out by many organizations in Oman, which identified different organizations located in various region and those which met the criteria were those with functional HR department most of the organizations in Oman are believed to have un-functional human resource department. Since many organizations in Oman had no organized structures do not have formal HR structures; it was not prudent to carry out the research in all the organization in the town. The study focused on staff from the organization with well structured HR departments/policies and kept an update of their staffs because they are able to provide the researchers with viable information necessary for the study purposes. In this study, the key areas which will be considered include; 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 a different organization.

1.4 Significance of Study

In any organization employee turnover, a staff retention is a big problem and therefore it a area that should be taken with a lot of concern. Both internal and external environment affects dynamics of organization and job market factors. This study is therefore useful to organizations that want to increase job satisfaction level and keeping their staff as this is the most important thing that any company should undertake in order to avoid any unnecessary pulling out of workers or laying off of workers. As this would impact negatively to the organization and may negatively affect the company productivity. . It is helpful to both Government and private organizations and a valuable resource for researchers in the area of job retention.

1.5 Research Objectives

Though this study concentrates on employee’s retention which has a direct connection to employee satisfaction levels, there is a urge to identify factors that affect employees satisfaction in an organization. Thus the following objectives can be formulated;

Objective 1: To determine significant factors influencing employee’s retention in Omani environment.

Objective 2: To measure the impact levels of the factors on the individual employee.

Objective 3: To ascertain best practices which are implemented in the Omani organizations for staff retention.

Objective 4: To determine the employees’ retention ratio as a result of high satisfaction.

Objective 5: To determine whether there is a significant relationship between all independent variable and dependent variable about employee’s retention which are (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 have 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.

Proposal model

The figure below demonstrates a model for staff retention

Staff Retention

H5:O.J.

H4:E.A.

H2:P.S.

H3:O.C.

Fig 1: Proposed Model for Staff Retention

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

This section covers previous studies and denotes factors influencing employees’ withholdings rate done by other researchers and scholars. This research looks at the retention rate of employee, turnover and retention strategies that may include recruitment and selection, training and development and Work Life Balance. Long term health and success of any organization depends upon the retention of key Employees. To a great extent customer satisfaction, organizational performance in terms of increased sales, satisfied colleagues and reporting staff, effective succession planning etc., is dependent upon the ability to retain the best employees in any organization. Encouraging employees to remain in the organization for a long period of time can be termed as employee retention. It is a process in which the employees are encouraged to remain with the organization for the maximum period of time or until the completion of the project.Maertz & Campion (1998) stated relatively less turnover research has focused specifically on how an employee decides to remain with an organization and what determines this attachment...retention processes should be studied along with quitting processes. Zine din, (2000) has viewed retention as an obligation to continue to do business or exchange with a particular company on an ongoing basis. Denton (2000) has clearly stated that employees who are happy and satisfied with their jobs are more dedicated towards their work and always put

their effort to improve their organizational customer’s satisfaction. Stauss et al., (2001)

has defined retention as “customer liking, identification, commitment, trust, readiness to recommend, and repurchase intentions, with the first four being emotional-cognitive retention

constructs, and the last two being behavioral intentions.

The study will also highlight on ecological environment, working place, rewards and recognition, health and safety measures, family welfare measures, job security, and employee motivation.

Retention of employees plays a critical role because of employee turnover and the shortage of skilled labor. Advanced workers have a key role in realizing the importance of securing talented employees. In the management of work force, employee commitment, productivity and retention issues are emerging as the most critical challenge of the management of the workforce (Nema,2015). In India retaining of talented employees in production sales and service industries has never been taken of importance as compared to education, hospital and training institution.

2.2 Retention Employee

In today’s growing competitive global economy, retaining the intellectual assets is one of major challenge encountered by most of the industries. However, employee retention is the most overlooked aspect of the organizations which are growth oriented. Employees exit Organization because of the job dissatisfaction, lack of supervisor assistant and feedback, lack of training and development and ineffective pay. Generally, the employees leave the organization 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 organization in less period of time. If managers and supervisor are less trained and have poor skills than the employees in this case employees can leave the company in less time. Johnson 2007 states that employee’s retention is dependent on management/ leadership skills and human resource strategies i.e. if managers and supervisors are endowed with poor skills and training they are likely to influence employees to leave earlier.

Each and every company should put each and every effort to retain it most valuable assets i.e. it employees. In case a company realizes the need to reduce or layoff it workers, all efforts should be put in place to retain it most productive employee and sacrifice the lazy and those employees that are not productive. A company should also ensure that it employees are working in best environment, and that they have a good pay and training and good supervision by their supervisors. Retaining the employees is essential for the economic development of the industry as an organization can give more time in creating and less time training them (Vasquez, 2014). Whereas, attracting, retaining and engaging the employees produce quality results will lead to excellent customer satisfaction (Whitcomb, 2012). He also states that well trained and engaged staff has a substantial influence on the employee retention rate.

2.3 Turnover

It is a very significant characteristic of Human Resource management. An organization should concentrate on retaining staffs and turnover rate to sustain an innovative and cost effective business (Hongvichit, 2015). High turnover is as a result of an of employees dissatisfaction; it can create a significant problem to a business regarding the value of goods and services. It also raises the cost of replacement and recruitment of employees. Generally high turnover specify the employees who leave the organization because they are not satisfied with their work. A high turnover reduces the productivity of employees because some employees pull out from the company in that they see like they are not working. This creates a bad image to the company and thus should be avoided by the human resource office by ensuring that there is a good employee turnover is maintained. This create negative impact on other employees and they can also be influenced to leave the job (Louden, 2012) The researcher found that a high rate of employee turnover results in the loss of revenue simultaneously, it also leads to employee confidence issue and the new hires always have a problem with the acknowledgement from the regular guests. (Carbery, et al.2003). To sustain

2.4 Employee retention strategies

Interviewing, selecting and hiring process forms the backbone of employee’s conservation plans (schriber, 2002). The primary objective is to minimize loss of talented and trained staff from the industry as shown by James and Mathew, 2012. There are different strategies which need attention to improve the employee retention rate. Recruitment strategies and better quality training can help in attaining the useful result. In future organizations will need to put the focus on enhancing quality and organizational strategies like enhanced recruitment, training, appropriate education and work life balance to increase employee’s productivity and retention rate.

Employees tend to work and stay in organizations that provide a positive work environment; this makes them feel valued. Physical and work environment plays a key role in employees exit decision; this is according to research by ASID. Business attributes such as low wages and social working hours, low skills requirements unhealthy working environments, high employees target have a negative effect on both employees performance and retention. Organizations which will have focus on improving quality and strategies such as recruitments training, education and proper work life balance will enjoy a high productivity and retention rates Deery 2008.

2.4.1 Recruitment and selection

Selecting and recruiting employees acts a big headache for Human Resource department as they have to seek for more qualified and skilled employees within a short time. Recruitment helps in retaining decent staff members in regards to a company quality requirement. Most recruiters need to give attention to skills and abilities essential for their industry. For example in hospitality industry, it is important for them to seek highly talented individuals who are able to meet their organization needs.

A structured recruitment and selection process helps in retaining the employee in the industry and lower 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. Business post 2014 port laid that hospitality sector in Ireland faced issues in finding qualified work force in their various functional department.). 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 that 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. A high volume of employees leave or get fired by the organization early due to different circumstances and reasons. Recruiters should provide all the relevant 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 organizations to interview the candidates with all impartial and neutral process. Common strategies used by 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 organizations prefer pre trained candidates and trainees because they are cost efficient and also time saves on time. To retain the employees, the recruiters have to make sure that they are using the right approach to recruitment which is required for the effective operations of the businesses (Baum, 2008).

2.4.2 Training and Development

Recruiting trained and skilled personnel who can deliver quality services to the customers gives industries a high time as they have to meet the organization standards. Some organizations prefer to train their staff regarding their business norms. Managers are sometimes unenthusiastic, and they have less time to train their employees, inadequate training may embarrass employees as they may lack necessary skills to deliver the service quality of the organization. Employee’s retention can be affected by training and development as they influence work satisfaction and dedication. Training and development influence the work satisfaction and dedication towards the establishment which impact employee retention. The insufficient training provided to staff worsens the employee turnover, also the quality level and revenue of the organization (Poulston, 2008). It is essential for the employers to give appropriate training to the employees in order to encourage them to stay in the organization. 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 organization 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)Inadequate training provided to the staff hurts the employee’s turnover, quality level and revenue of the organization (Poulston, 2008). Employers should, therefore, give their employees proper training to increase their retention rate. Good training should be given to ambitious staffs to making them reduce the urge to search for another job in which they can obtain proper training. Researchers state that employees who are provided with appropriate skill are more mobile as compared to untrained workers as the new skills which they have acquired may be useful for other employers.

Job fulfillment can be as a result of training, and the employees may develop an objective to stay in the organization. It is essential for the hospitality industry to have an on-job training and vacation training n order to give candidates a chance to grow into their field. 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. Training managers should have a well structured program to fix the skills and knowledge as discussed by (Bharwani& Butt, 2012). Necessary training, therefore, should be impacted to the employees to helping them develop skills and competencies of the existing and new employees and this can, in turn, increase their retention rate.

2.4.3 Work Life Balance

In stabilizing personal necessities such as family, hobbies, community work and other activities Work-life balance is essential. A survey conducted by Irish Management institute (cited in Darcy & McCarthy, 2007) demonstrates work –life balance as a major challenge faced by the Irish hospitality sector. In modern times managers and human resource departments have to develop and integrate strategic approach in order take into account the work life issues of the employees as there is a highly competitive employment sector. Several employees search for the job in which they can create stability between work and personal lives. There are very limited employees who want to work for numerous hours, manage infrequent working conditions and accept extremely stressful and challenging circumstances in the many industries. 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 organization 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 meets the requirements of the employees as well as the organization.

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 can be described as a point where personnel can balance the time, emotion and performance stress related to work and personal responsibilities at the same time (Darcy & McCarthy, 2007). Employees are nowadays searching for jobs which can give them stability between work and personal life; fewer employees may want to work for numerous hours, manage unstable working hours and accept stressful and challenging circumstances. It is essential for employees should research the organization that they want to work to find out whether they offer proper work life (Philips & Edwards, 2009). Work-life balance is increasingly important for engagement and affects retention.

Hyman et al., (2003) in their empirical research in the UK found that interventions of work demands into personal life (e.g. working during the week-end) resulted into heightened stress and emotional exhaustion among the employees. In a study conducted by the AustralianTelework Advisory Committee (2006)[43it was found that 70% of businesses that incorporated telework options reported a number of positive benefits, such as increased business productivity and reduced costs, improved employee flexibility and work life balance, and increased workforce participation .

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 a different form of creative prospects associated with work. The HR needs to be more imaginative and willing to create work life balance approach which meets the requirements of the employees as well as the organization. The Human resource managers who follow better work life balance plan are likely to have improved recruitment and retention, lesser illness and nonattendance, a decrease in anxiety levels, high self-confidence in employees, better staff and customer reliability and increased productivity. Work life balance plays a vital role in employee’s decision to stay or leave the organization. Work stress and job commitment have a significant impact on the employee’s work, and it also contributes to 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 types of research, 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 industries, 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 affect 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 lead them in leaving the industry and look for another employer. These situations affect the employee turnover rate. The employees who have a substantial load of work are likely to have little work life balance, due to this reason they start losing interest in their job, and their job performance gets poor. The work life balance and employee attitude related to their job affect the work satisfaction and the work commitment. Accordingly, the employees with weak job satisfaction and work commitment are expected to leave the organization early (Deery&Jago, 2009)

Human resource department should be able to come up with integrative and appropriate work life approach which can meet the employees’ requirement, and as a result of this, it will help the organization in improving the recruitment and retention rate of the employees. Work life balance plays a vital role in an employee’s decision to exit or stay in the organization, an increase in attendance and a decrease in illness and anxiety increases customer reliability and productivity. A model created by Mulvaney et al. (2006) (cited in Deery, 2008) tried to come up with measures need to be taken to reduce the work life balance and retain the employees in the industry.

High demand for quality products and services may make employees work under pressure for several hours, and this may affect their work life balance. In many industries, it is important for the employee to do their best work because of the competitive pressure of the industry. According to (Karatepe. 2010). Challenging instances in work places have a direct effect on the employees’ family and work life, longer working hours hurt personal and work life, and this may make them deliver poor work and employees may become unsocial and less flexible within their social quarters. Unhealthy lifestyle and work related stress may make employees leave the industry and search for better workplaces; such situations translate to a high staff turnover rate.

Employee’s attitude and work life balance (WLB) therefore affects work satisfaction and commitment levels and according to Deery&Jago, 2009), employees with low job satisfaction and work commitment are expected to leave the organization early.

2.5 Ecological environment

The workplace environment is very diverse as it takes into account all things that are within the employee’s involvement and work. Total Reward Association defines workplace environment as the total cluster of observable physical, psychological and behavioral elements in the workplace. The better work environment is associated motivation and commitment levels of employees. It looks at the environment as the total cluster of 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 the employee. 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.

Favorable and conducive environment can be defined as a flexible atmosphere where working experience is enjoyable, resources are adequately provided Day and Gilin 2009 gathered evidence supporting the fact that a favourable working environment contributes to employee retention . Researchers have put a more emphasis on a conducive and flexible and enjoyable environment is very essential to the retention of employees. 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. Ellett,Ellis, Westbrook and Dews (2007) and subsequently Loan-Clarke and his colleagues (2010) states that the importance of flexibility in healthy workers retention. For a work to be enjoyable retention of workers should be emphasized. Moncarz and his co-researchers (2009) emphasized the importance of fun in working place and flexibility. A conducive working environment is thus created by fun in work place and resource availability.

2.6 Working place

Many researchers have been carried out in relation to work environment and how it impacts on 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). The work environment one of the most factors in employee’s retention, turnover job satisfaction and organization commitment. Work environment takes into account noise, toxic substances exposure and heavy lifts within reach of the worker, service sector have a different work environment as compared to production sector. Service industries affect the clients and customers regarding work load, decision, support, and stressors, while production sector effects are felt by workers. Companies should, in this case, strive to offer employees a good work environment to increase their commitment levels.

Ramlall,(2003), emulate that people are willing to stay and work for organizations which are in a capacity to provide a good and a positive work environment and where there feel valued. Research carried out by ASID outlines that employees work and physical environment is key in employee’s retention rate, instances such as the poor lighting of the office, noise have a psychological effect on employees. Light has been identified as a casual factor to job performance while noise disturb the working environment and create a hitch in office which s harmful to employee psychological and physical and productivity.

Working condition plays a vital role in individual’s decision to leave or exit an organization. Herzberg (in Jones & George, 2009:474 focused on, motivator needs, hygiene needs as an essential factor which that contribute to employee’s satisfaction level, managers, therefore, should ensure that the two are taken into account well. 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 achieved.

Country such as Zambia and others in Africa have faced a challenge mainly in their health sectors. Conditions such as poor equipment, inadequate drug supply and poor support by the management makes worker feel neglected and isolated. Zambia is said to face these challenges because of poor resource allocation. Unsafe and unprotected environment is said to have a direct correlation to retention of employees and in this case managers have a key role of ensuring that, working conditions are continuously improved as good working conditions translates to motivating factor for employees and thus affect their retention.

2.7 Rewards and recognition

A reward is something that is offered by the organization to its workers due to their performance and contribution toward achieving organizational goals and objectives (Agarwal 1998). Rewards and recognitions are brought about the increased performance index of the worker or employees. Reward can either be intrinsic or extrinsic they can be in the form of, gifts, bonuses, certificates, trips awards and so on. Rewards vary regarding employee’s contribution to the success of the organization; they are very important in improving motivation, behavior change and bringing a feeling of being valued in the company (Silbert, 2005). Organizations which are committed to recognizing worker’s efforts are likely to make more investments as compared with similar firms who do not adopt worker’s recognition. Walker (2001), compensation offer recognition, but non-monetary forms of recognition is 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. However, different organizations can adopt different reward system which is suitable for their employees.

Walker (2001), recognizes non-monetary forms of recognition as very vital to the employee's instances such as recognition by the boss, team members, core workers and customers is likely to improve on loyalty. Participation in decision making by the employees I s also vital.

(Watson Wyatt, 1999; Tower Perrin, 2003; Mercer, 2003) Research has shown that there is a high correlation between rewards and recognition to the employee’s retention rate, the good reward system is also important in talent management. Watson Wyatt study finds that recognition is important for workers and they want to listen that their work is recognized and appreciated .According to Arthur 1994, organization should adopt best practices on reward distribution to ensure they are distributed generous and equitably among the employees. . 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)

The reward can, therefore, be viewed as an award to employee’s achievement and contributions where recognition takes the shape of praise on the employee’s involvement and achievements in the company. By adopting good reward and recognition schemes, an organization is in a capacity to attract, encourage, motivate the employees and this will, in turn, reduce the staff turnover rate. Employees in many cases feel more attached to the organizations which they feel acknowledge for their work (Salie&Schlechter, 2012).

Reward and recognition can be faced by some draw backs; this may include, the difference in manager’s preference, work competition and politics in the company. Internal competition, teamwork, and collaboration also weaken the reward system.

In implementing reward and recognition process managers should come up with appropriate techniques that can develop a positive atmosphere which is necessary for inspiring and encouraging employees to succeed and improve on retention rate.

(Bursch, 1999), says that organizations that take care of employees in order to have an adequate pool of customers.

2.7.1 Financial rewards

Financial rewards are a type of a reward that mainly depends on the employees and group performance. Connolly &McGing, 2007). States that the general reward system in the industry includes, bonuses, incentives, salary increment, shopping vouchers are special advantages that accrue to staffs of a company. Commissions, revenues, and bonuses may sometime be rewarded as employees or group performance rate at the work place. These rewards 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 achieves performance targets. As the employees are rewarded with the monetary rewards there are less chances of the employee to leave the organization and their performance also increases with time (Chauvin & Ash, 1994). A pay reward is mainly not attributed in any way to the basic pay of the employee as it depends on the achievement of the performance target. Monetary rewards make the employees more rigid to leave the organization as their performance also increases with time (Chauvin & Ash, 1994). Employees who do not get this type of rewards may leave the organization early while those who tend to get them may stay for a longer period (Armstrong (2012). Managers and other top management have a key role to ensure that they have a successful financial system that takes into account all the employees of the organization.

2.7.2 Non-Financial Reward

It is a reward scheme which involves recognition of employees either yearly, quarterly, monthly, through the mail, Appraisal forms, acknowledgement of worker’s track record achievement, praising and vocational training. This type of rewards keeps the employees more motivated, and this encourages them to do quality work and stay for a longer time in the organization. The human resource manager has a duty to recognize efforts of the workers to make them more motivated to do their duties. Non-financial rewards give an insight to workers of hoe the have performed, and what they have to do to get better, it is essential in providing confidence, encouragement and positive reinforcement. Organizations should adopt appropriate non-financial rewards in order to reduce the level turnover rate and also o increase quality of working life for their employees (Armstrong, 2012).

2.8 Health and safety measures

Companies should come up with the best practice that is meant to increase health and safety measures that are more efficient for their workers. Pakistan requires all its companies to have occupation and safety management system to take into account the workers welfare (Factory Act, 1934). Industrial Health and Safety Top management have a key duty of formulating policies which are essential in ensuring that employees are provided with a safe environment. 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;De Wulf 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). Healthy and safety measures differ from one company to another depending on their size and nature of safety problem; small firms can deploy safety director, medium size firms can employ safety specialist while large firms can employ a team of safety engineers, safety inspectors and industrial hygienists. Companies should be keen on safety issues in order to maintain a safe environment necessary for quality production, cost control, and profit maximization. (Crosby et al.1990; DeWulf et al. 2001). Technology has played a great role in reducing hazardous activities as they have been designed to be handled by machines, redesigning productions process can also be done to reduce hazard and if may fail a company can employ security check at various points where are moving parts of machines, it should also provide personal protection equipment’s(PPE) necessary to eliminate injury to machine operators. Workers retention ability can be obtained when they are provided with a safe operation environment free of hazards.

Education to all management level is very essential for any safety program. Top and middle management should have education on essential of safety and the need for effective accidents. Research has shown that safety and the healthy working environment has a direct connection to the employee’s level of satisfaction and retention rate. Organizations are therefore encouraged to adopt a safe and healthy environment to improve their retention rate of their employees.

2.9 Family welfare measures

Welfare is a key factor that contributes to employee’s morale and motivation; it is anything that is done for the comfort and improvement of employee’s life. It takes into account efforts made by the employers regarding services, benefits, and facilities offered to employees. Some actives that revolve around welfare include, working environment, industrial relation, workman compensation and insurance, accident issues and unemployment. The basic reason why workers are provided with welfare schemes is to create a nice, loyal and healthy labor force; it is also essential in raising worker’s standards of living. An organization which has better welfare schemes are likely to have a higher rate for their employees.

Welfare schemes have the following objectives:

· 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 labor force, to reduce labor 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.

Adopting a nice scheme makes a company have a more competitive ground as compared to rival firms in the market which may lack proper welfare schemes.

. 2.10 Job security

Anxiety over the future concerns is giving employees a high time and stress as they have to secure jobs which provide them with job security. (Watson, 2012:2) State that individuals are willing to secure jobs which have a better salary and security and also where they have a chance to advance their skills level. Research has also shown that there is an increase of anxiety and stress regarding retirement security, financial state, current level of saving and stock market performance.

Abe glen (1958) pp.55 found during the study of Japanese workers that employment features like lifetime employment and seniority system, job security lead to high commitment, job satisfaction as well as retention of employees in an organization. Researchers such as Ashford et al., (1989) pp.55; Davy et al., (1991 ) page 57conducted studies on job security and job satisfaction and found that that job dissatisfaction is the outcome of insecurity among employees. Rosenblatt and Ruvio, (1996) [58] conducted a research on the job insecurity and found that job performance and organizational commitment are negatively correlated with job insecurity

Employee’s retention level may be dictated by the level of job security; many may seek to move to an organization that has a higher degree of job security as compared to those with low job security. 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. Job security should always be granted to the employees from the management as this gives employees easy time in their work places. This also reduces anxiety and stress from the employee as they work knowing that their job security is guaranteed and not compromised.

2.11 Employee Motivation

Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators are essential for employees in modern times. Individual requires intrinsic motivators to keep a high performance level (Thomas, 2000). Employees nowadays have a key duty to search for work which can help them raise their skills levels. Those with necessary employability skills have an advantage as they can switch to different companies if dissatisfied with the current job description. Although Nowadays motivational issues are more complex because of the wealth and opportunity so many employees have enjoyed the importance of employee’s motivation cannot be overemphasized because of its great importance in increasing the morale of workers and this makes workers to work to their peaks and thus increasing the overall production of the workers and that of the whole organization.

There is a high staff turnover rate as employees are likely to leave unrewarding work, organizations, in this case, are faced with a challenge of ensuring that they have an efficient intrinsic reward process which can help the employees to develop the necessary skills, investing in this will help to retain more worker and reduce the staff turnover rate.

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

This chapter outlines the study methods used. It denotes the main aim of the research, approaches, design, philosophy and strategies used in the case of the study. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies are the main analysis methods that researchers use to draw conclusion about data collected. Various research tools such as survey design, sampling techniques and population is also vital in this topic. This topic will also highlight on the ethical consideration and limitation for the study. It gives a good insight on employee’s retention and turnover in relation to work life balance and staff satisfaction level and finally to view effect full methods that can be used to remedy employee’s turnover rate. The main objective of this study is to analyses 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, determining what strategies affect the retention of employees.

3.2 Research Framework

Under this research, researchers have used (research onion) framework designed by Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) which gives an organized structure to the research procedures.

The above Figure shows ‘The Research Onion' by Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009, p.138)

3.3 Research philosophy

Provides the necessary assumption from a reaches point of view, (Saunders et al, 2009, p.107), denotes it as a term which relate to nature and development of knowledge. Assumptions are essential as they help in research approach and techniques. Ontology and epistemology are the major methods that are used Research philosophy. Ontology relates to the assumption of nature of reality. Objectivism, subjectivism and constructionism forms the basic aspects of Research philosophy (Saunders, et al., 2009).

Epistemology is usually concerned with knowledge creation in the research field; it revolves around positivism, interpretation and realism from different researchers’ viewpoints.

Researcher has a preference to positivism method as it contains modern theory which is necessary for hypothesis formulation and testing (Saunders, et al., 2009).

3.4 Research approach

Inductive and Deductive are the two major research approach that have been used under the study, inductive is mainly concerned with data collection and analysis while in deductive hypothesis are formulated and necessary strategies are developed to test the hypothesis. According to (Saunders, et al., 2009), deductive have five major stages which include, gathering a hypothesis, stating the hypothesis in operational terms, testing the hypothesis, exploring the outcome and lastly adapting hypothesis in regard to the outcome.

Researchers have a special responsibility of choosing a suitable approach to evaluate the research project, according to (Cameron & Price, 2009), research design is developed in order to come up with best answers for the suggested research questions. In this study the researcher has adopted the deductive approach to provide the factors which influence the retention and turnover rate of employees in Oman.

5 Research strategies

Quantitative and Qualitative analysis are the major research strategies that have been deployed in this study. Qualitative data involves non- numerical data which arise as a result of opinions, beliefs perspective, stories, and images and human experience while Quantitative involves numerical data which can be calculated and interpreted statistically. 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 analyze 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 analyze the statistics collected and answer the questions (Saunders, et al., 2009) Statistics, graphs and charts allow researchers to calculate and give a better interpretation of date appropriately

Quantitative analysis depends on the deductive approach; collection quantitative data in this research has indicated the positivistic method. Researchers have used this method in this research by getting large pool of data from different employees in Oman organizations. Questionnaire has been used in order to give a descriptive and explanatory report in regard to the research and also to collect huge amount of data for analysis.

The researcher in this study chooses self –administered questionnaires to be completed by the respondents and managed electronically via internet/ intranet and poster. Researchers will try to use the most up to date data, valid scales to measure quantities based on the literature review and research questions. Literature review has given us a purpose of the study

3.6 Research instrument

The researcher in this study selected questionnaire as the study tool although there exist a large number of research instruments because it is appropriate for data collection. Questionnaires are capable of obtaining large data collection from Oman population. Researcher in this case preferred to use online questionnaire/ survey since it is easy to administer and is able to obtain data from a large population located in different organizations. 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). It is the best technique to the population that has an access to the modern technology (Quinlan, 2011). This survey was conducted in order to find factor that affect employee’s ability to stay in organization and factor which affect their exit to the organization.

. 3.7 Survey design

Questionnaires in this study were designed and administered to the target population through an online survey tool called ‘Survey monkey’ which is very easy to use and can give the correct statistics. The first part gives the demography of the employee which include age, gender and so on this part helps in analyzing age group of the employee the time they have been in the job market. The second part provides respondents with close ended questions with several options to select on a scale measured by ‘Likert scale’ it has five points i.e. agree, disagree, strongly agree, neutral and strongly disagree. (Quinlan, 2011), States that a Likert scale is a technique which can be used to collect beliefs and attitude of respondents towards a statement. To analyze view and opinions of the Oman worker survey has to

4.8 Population and Sample

Population is the group of individuals, organizations, and documents that are within the organization setup. The target population in this study is the different employees from different organizations in Oman. The researcher disseminated 500 survey question 200 were completed which reflects 40% of the targeted population. In this research, the whole population will be used or a sample from the population which represents a small group from the population (Quinlan, 2011). Sampling technique depends on the size, requirements, and availability of time for study. 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. The researcher in this case use sampling technique as it is effective for data collection instead of using the entire population.

This sampling technique is applied to the Oman companies since the targeted population who are active social media users who work in Oman industry.

A sample is selected using a convenient sampling technique to the participants which reflect easy and feasible access. The survey sample does not include any particular designation of employee it was for all the staff members who work with different organizations and sectors.

4.9 Ethical Consideration

Ethical consideration takes into account of moral values, confidentiality, and anonymity of an individual, group or organization. Anonymity ensures that participant’s identity and involvement in the research are kept as a secret. (Quinlan, 2011). For this study participant were notified on anonymity and confidentiality and the main objective of the research and what was required of them.

Ethical codes were fully adopted in the completion of the research, information was obtained by the use of online survey, and it was used for study purpose. For instance, all answer from the respondent was kept confidential; their identity was anonymous as they completed the survey online. Respondents were assured that data collected was for the sole purpose of research.

4.10 Data Collection

Data collection tool should be in a position to give the researcher the required data (Quinlan,2011) pp.128. Researchers under the study adopted online survey since they can reach to a large pool of respondents and it is easy to administer. In interviews a researcher may experience great challenges as he/she has to gather information by talking one on one with the respondents who are time consuming, interviewees may also conceal vital information which may be required by the researcher. Researchers in this study developed online questionnaire since most of the Oman organization have access to social platforms such as Face book, Gmail and Web links. 40% of the target population responded, and the information that they obtained from the surveys were saved by SPSS tool. i.e. Statistical packages for the Social sciences

4.11 Data analysis

Upon data collection, it is transferred to analysis tool, quantitative data which was used in this research was subjected to SPSS which is a special software package used for analysis. It is suitable for analysis of a large pool of surveyed data. Accurate scales are used by the researcher to measure all quantitative facts associated with the surveyed data. Descriptive analysis was used for the results and findings were described by the use of, pie charts graphs and numerical table which are used to give accurate data). 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.

The main objective of the analysis was to provide measures that various Oman organizations could use in regarding retention and high employees turnover rate. As a result of the analysis, the researcher found that compensation, job flexibility, development chances and skill appreciation were key to employee’s retention while work life balance, motivation, reward and recognition, job satisfaction, working environment, co-worker and socialization practices affect employees’ turnover rate.

4.1.2 Limitations

Time and sample size acted as the main sources of limitation to the study, in this online research survey that was administered though they were open for a limited period and therefore the participants for the survey were limited. The sample size was also small as the research concentrated on employees from Oman and therefore the researcher obtained literature from every data that was relevant.

4.1.3 Conclusion

Human resources are complex and not easy to understand. These are the assets which can make as well as break an organization. Retaining them will help in the Long-term growth of an organization and will also add to their goodwill. But the most difficult task faced by an organization today is retaining as well as satisfying these resources. Although the research paper tried its level best to reveal the various research works done and the contributions forwarded by various researchers in the area of employee retention and job satisfaction, but still much scope remains for more exploration in the field of employee retention and it by taking into consideration the factors like compensation practices, leadership and supervision, career planning and development, alternative work schedule, working Conditions, flexible working hours etc. These efforts should be conducted by HR professionals.

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA ANALYSES AND DISCUSSION

This chapter outline the analysis of data gathered from the field through the research tool "questionnaire". SPSS tool utilizes to analyze final respondent to determine the factors that affect women empowerment. Different method and technique used to analyzed these data. This cover demographic characteristics of questionnaire respondent, reliability statistic, descriptive statistic, correlation, regression, ANOVA and coefficient.

4.1 Demographic Characteristics of Questionnaire respondents

The part consists demographical characteristics detail which defined the distribution of the participant by gender, age, occupation, education background, number of family, total work experience and percentage of women in their organization.

Below table present the Distribution of the Participant by gender. The number of male who participate in this survey are 97(48%),while 105(52%) are female.

Below table present the Distribution of the Participant by Age. The number of participate less than 20 are 18(8.9%),66(32.7%) of participants fall between 20-30, then 67(33.2%) number of the participant are from age 31-40 while 29(14.4%) are from 41-50,the number of participant more than 50 years are 22(10.9).

Below table present the Distribution of the Participant by Occupation. The number of participants who working in government are 77 (38.1%), while the number of participants who working in private sector are 69 (34.2%), while the number of participants who doing business are 52 (25.7%).

Below table presents the Distribution of the Participant by Education background. The number of participant who completed only their school are 9 (4.5%), the number of participant who completed their high school are 19 (9.4%) ,53(26.2%) of participant who completed their higher secondary,while the number of participants who completed their diploma only are 52 (25.7%), then the number of participant who completed their bachelor degree are 42(20.8%) while the number of participants who has master degree are 12 (5.9%) only 7(3.5%) who completed their PHD while the number of participate who did not complete their study are 8(4.0%).

Below table present the Distribution of the Participant by Total Work Experience in current organization. The number of participants who have experienced 1 year are 54 (26.7%), while the number of participants who have experience between 1-5 years is 82 (40.6%), while the number of participants who have experience more than 10 years is 66 (32.7%).

Below table present the Distribution of the Participant by Approximate Monthly Income.The number of participants who’s income less than 500 are 21 (10.4%), while the number of participants who’s income between 500-1000 is 58 (28.7%), while the number of participants who’s income between 1000-1500 is 71 (35.1%), the number of participant who’s income more than 1500 is 52(25.7%).

Descriptive

(Employee Retention Strategies is taken as the dependent variable and Ecological Environment, Working Place, Rewards and Recognition, Health and Safety Measures and Family Welfare Measures are the independent variables)

It is observed that mean values with respect to the variables is consistently above 3.40 while the standard deviation is less around 1.0. This shows that the response with respect to the opinion is having greater reliability.

Correlations

According to Kothari (2014) the purpose of a coefficient of correlation to determine the relationship among two pairs of the variable. In this part, a correlation between the variables has been made using the Karl Pearson’s coefficient of correlation. R value was defined in SPSS tool as a coefficient of correlation where the good relation should take values in [-1, +1]. if the R close to -1 that mean there is a negative correlation on the other hand if R value close to +1 that mean there is a positive value. According to the table 9 the coefficient correlation for all dependent variable between [.832-1]. It is observed that the correlation coefficient is very high with respect to these variables.

Reliability

The responses from the respondents have been tested for reliability test using Cronbach's Alpha for all the variables and it is found that it 0.991 which is found to be relatively high. Hence it is concluded that the data is reliable for statistical analysis.

Regression

In this study regression model utilized by defining the dependent variables and independent variables. Employee Retention Strategies is taken as the dependent variable and Ecological Environment, Working Place, Rewards and Recognition, Health and Safety Measures and Family Welfare Measures are the independent variables.According to Kothari (2014) R² =SSR/SST=1-(SSE/SST). That indicate 0 ≥R²≥1.When R² is closed to 1 this meant that model is good. on the other hand, if R² is closed to 0 this meant that regression dos not explained and not good.

According to the above table, the coefficient of regression with respect to the variables is also found to be relatively high and good.

According to Debella (2004) “The statistical methodology for comparing the means of several populations is called analysis of variance, or simply ANOVA”. According to many researchers they utilize or focused on Sig. the field which shows that value is .000. That value is smaller than p-value set to .05. Therefore, the independent variable in above table statistically significant. As shown in the above table F column which indicates F-ratio that utilize to examine the hypothesis which effects in real. The value of 36.931 are shown in the table is that indicate real effect available. Therefore, the significant result shows the common hypotheses with significant value for all independent variable.

The above table shows the beta value β under Standardized Coefficients, which used to explain the direction and measure the strength relation between dependent and independent variable. The closer value of β to 1 show the strong relation between dependent and independent variables. As to above table Ecological Environment, Working Place, Rewards and Recognition, Health and Safety Measures and Family Welfarevalue as the following .329, .209, .315, -.144,.270. Which indicate that has the stronger effect on the.

Testing the relationship between Ecological Environment and Employee Retention, the coefficients show that workplace has a positive impact on the Employee Retention(coefficients are significant”.000”, P<0.05). Moreover, examine the relationship between the Working Placeand Employee Retention, it shows that Working Place impact Employee Retentionpositively (coefficients are significant “.017”, P<0.05). To test the relationship between Rewards and Recognition and Employee Retention, the coefficients show that Rewards and Recognition has positive impact on the Employee Retention(coefficients is”.000”, P<0.05). Testing the relationship between Health and Safety Measures and Employee Retention, the coefficients show that Health and Safety Measures has negative impact on the Employee Retention(coefficients is “.054”, P>0.05).To test the relationship between Family Welfare and Recognition and Employee Retention, the coefficients show that Family Welfare has positive impact on the Employee Retention (coefficients is”.000”, P<0.05).

Hence, for Coefficients, the accepted value should be less than .05(P<0.05).

4.2 Hypotheses test

It was observed from survey outcome that health and safety malware has negative impact of employee retention.On the other ,the remaining factors(Ecological Environment, Working Place, Rewards and Recognition, and Family Welfare) has positive effect on employee retiontion)

Family Welfare

Ecological Environment

Health and Safety Measures

Rewards and Recognition

Working Place

Employee Retention

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35

job

77

38.1

38.1

38.1

69

34.2

34.2

72.3

52

25.7

25.7

98.0

4

2.0

2.0

100.0

202

100.0

100.0

government

Private

own business

4.00

Total

Valid

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

education

9

4.5

4.5

4.5

19

9.4

9.4

13.9

53

26.2

26.2

40.1

52

25.7

25.7

65.8

42

20.8

20.8

86.6

12

5.9

5.9

92.6

7

3.5

3.5

96.0

8

4.0

4.0

100.0

202

100.0

100.0

school

high school

higher secondary

dip;oma

BA

Master

PHD

8.00

Total

Valid

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Experience

54

26.7

26.7

26.7

82

40.6

40.6

67.3

66

32.7

32.7

100.0

202

100.0

100.0

1

1-5

6-10

Total

Valid

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Income

21

10.4

10.4

10.4

58

28.7

28.7

39.1

71

35.1

35.1

74.3

52

25.7

25.7

100.0

202

100.0

100.0

less than 500

500-1000

1000-1500

more than 1500

Total

Valid

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Descriptive Statistics

202

1.00

4.92

3.4924

1.02483

202

1.00

5.00

3.7040

1.08600

202

1.00

5.00

3.6304

1.07995

202

1.00

5.00

3.6312

1.05727

202

1.00

5.00

3.6754

1.05287

202

1.00

5.00

3.5473

1.08164

202

Retention

Ecological

w

Rewards

health

Welfare

Valid N (listwise)

N

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

Std. Deviation

Correlations

1

.874

**

.905

**

.901

**

.859

**

.883

**

.000

.000

.000

.000

.000

202

202

202

202

202

202

.874

**

1

.874

**

.845

**

.886

**

.832

**

.000

.000

.000

.000

.000

202

202

202

202

202

202

.905

**

.874

**

1

.944

**

.891

**

.888

**

.000

.000

.000

.000

.000

202

202

202

202

202

202

.901

**

.845

**

.944

**

1

.906

**

.897

**

.000

.000

.000

.000

.000

202

202

202

202

202

202

.859

**

.886

**

.891

**

.906

**

1

.891

**

.000

.000

.000

.000

.000

202

202

202

202

202

202

.883

**

.832

**

.888

**

.897

**

.891

**

1

.000

.000

.000

.000

.000

202

202

202

202

202

202

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

Retention

Ecological

w

Rewards

health

Welfare

Retention

Ecological

w

Rewards

health

Welfare

Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

**.

Case Processing Summary

202

100.0

0

.0

202

100.0

Valid

Excluded

a

Total

Cases

N

%

Listwise deletion based on all

variables in the procedure.

a.

Reliability Statistics

.991

51

Cronbach's

Alpha

N of Items

Variables Entered/Removed

b

Welfare,

Ecological,

Rewards,

health, w

a

.

Enter

Model

1

Variables

Entered

Variables

Removed

Method

All requested variables entered.

a.

Dependent Variable: Retention

b.

Model Summary

b

.935

a

.875

.872

.36734

Model

1

R

R Square

Adjusted

R Square

Std. Error of

the Estimate

Predictors: (Constant), Welfare, Ecological, Rewards,

health, w

a.

Dependent Variable: Retention

b.

ANOVA

b

184.656

5

36.931

273.692

.000

a

26.448

196

.135

211.104

201

Regression

Residual

Total

Model

1

Sum of

Squares

df

Mean Square

F

Sig.

Predictors: (Constant), Welfare, Ecological, Rewards, health, w

a.

Dependent Variable: Retention

b.

Coefficients

a

.124

.097

1.282

.201

.310

.057

.329

5.482

.000

.178

5.632

.198

.082

.209

2.416

.017

.086

11.689

.305

.085

.315

3.575

.000

.082

12.125

-.140

.072

-.144

-1.939

.054

.116

8.644

.256

.061

.270

4.196

.000

.154

6.474

(Constant)

Ecological

w

Rewards

health

Welfare

Model

1

B

Std. Error

Unstandardized

Coefficients

Beta

Standardized

Coefficients

t

Sig.

Tolerance

VIF

Collinearity Statistics

Dependent Variable: Retention

a.

gender

97

48.0

48.0

48.0

105

52.0

52.0

100.0

202

100.0

100.0

male

female

Total

Valid

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

age

18

8.9

8.9

8.9

66

32.7

32.7

41.6

67

33.2

33.2

74.8

29

14.4

14.4

89.1

22

10.9

10.9

100.0

202

100.0

100.0

less than 20

20-30

31-40

41-50

more than 50

Total

Valid

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent