The study of employee loyalty in the workplace in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal province.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to ascertain the main factors that influence employee loyalty in the workplace. It additionally sought to prioritise the main factors. The sample population used in this research was made up of fulltime employees in the private sector organisations in Durban. Data was collected using a questionnaire. A sample of 91 participants took part in the survey. This sample comprised of 91.2% male participants and 8.8% female respondents. Years of service with their current employers were 50.5% for 0-5 years, 19.8% for 5-10 years, 16.5% for 10-20 years and 13.2% for 20-40 years. In this research there was 1.1 % of the sample population with no-matriculation, 34.1 % with matriculation, 29.7% with a diploma, 30.8% with a degree and 4.4% with post graduate qualification. The research results revealed that having flexible working arrangements, having excellent mentoring and coaching, paying market related salaries, addressing employee’s concerns effectively and a good retention strategy were the main factors influencing employee loyalty in the workplace. There was a strong positive correlation between having flexible working arrangements, having excellent mentoring and coaching, paying market related salaries and feeling a strong sense of belonging to the employer with Pearson’s coefficient (r) of 0.767, 0.762 and 0.742 respectively. This research revealed a weak positive correlation between addressing employees’ concerns effectively, a good retention strategy and feeling a strong sense of belonging to the current employer with Pearson’s coefficient (r) of 0.463 and 0.401 respectively. This study contributes to employee loyalty research as it presents the main factors to be prioritised by top management.