Retention factors among administration staff in the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville campus.
Date
2019
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Abstract
Retention of skilled employees is key to building and maintaining successful organizations,
including higher education institutions. There are many factors that contribute to the retention of
employees such as; compensation, career development, organizational culture, leadership, work
environment, work-life balance, job security, participation in decision-making and good
relationships, to mention a few. Both monetary and non-monetary rewards are highly important to
keep employees motivated, satisfied and productive. Failure to retain employees often results in
high costs of recruitment and loss of one competent employee to a competitor institution
strengthens the competitor’s advantage. The University of KwaZulu-Natal faces prolonged staff
turnover, thus, this study aimed at identifying retention factors among the administration staff of
the institution. The objectives of the research were to; investigate the retention factors, to identify
the potential causes of seeking alternative employment. This was a mixed method study which
adopted the descriptive survey research design. A survey questionnaire was sent to 103
administration staff and six (6) staff members from the Human Resources Department were
interviewed. The findings of the study revealed that the highest retention factors are; overall
positive relationships between co-workers, strong inspiration from leadership, good work
environment, which provides employees with a sense of belonging and which makes it easier for
the employees to adapt to the UKZN culture, job security assurance in the midst of economic and
higher education challenges and lastly, fee remission, which is a huge benefit that allows
employees and their families to study at no cost. Furthermore, the results also showed that the staff
would seek alternative employment due to low salaries and incentives, lack of promotion
opportunities, lack of work-life balance, limited career growth and less participation in decisionmaking.
The study therefore recommended that the university should improve on offering
competitive salaries and giving incentives to hard working employees. In addition, the institution
needs to put up a promotion strategy, increase ways of career development and engage employees
concerning decisions.
Description
Master’s Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.