Retention of employees as a key factor of long-term organization success Essay

The purpose is to explore what factors influence employee retention, it is important to review previous researchers' literature on this topic. This is also intended to help the researcher to understand more the subject matter and will also help the readers to familiarize themselves with employee retention techniques.
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. Panoch, (2001) forwarded the view that organizations today take great care in retaining its valuable employees and good employees as they are increasingly becoming more difficult to find . Walker (2001) was of the view that managing and retaining promising employees' is an important fundamental mean of achieving competitive advantage among the organizations. Cutler (2001) was of the view that one of the most important demands on management today in any organization is keeping the most vital and dynamic human resources motivated and dedicated. It is not important to see who the organization hires but what counts is that who are kept in the firm. Gberevbie (2008) have found that if appropriate employee retention strategies are adopted and implemented by organisations employees will surely remain and work for the successful achievement of organisational goals.
Retention is a complex concept and there is no single recipe for keeping employees with a company. In literature, retention has been viewed as "an obligation to continue to do business or exchange with a particular company on an ongoing basis" (Zineldin, 2000). A more detailed and recent definition for the concept of retention is "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" (Stauss et al., 2001). Studies have also indicated that retention is driven by several key factors, which ought to be managed congruently organizational culture, communication, strategy, pay and benefits, flexible work schedule and career development systems (Logan, 2000). Retaining top ability remains an essential concern toward numerous organizations today.
Increasing numbers of organization mergers and acquisitions have left employees feeling displeased from the companies that they work and haunted by concerns of overall job security. As a result, employees are now making strategic career moves to guarantee employment that satisfy their need for security. On the other hand, employers have a need to keep their stuff from leaving or going to work for other companies. In fact, companies that offer employee development programs are finding success with retaining workers (Logan, 2000).
Critical investigation of workforce patterns focuses to a looming deficiency of exceptionally talented employees who have the imperative knowledge and ability to perform at high states, implying that organizations neglecting to retain talented workers will be left with an understaffed, less qualified workforce that at last frustrates their ability to stay competitive (Rappaport, Bancroft, and Okum, 2003).