Abstract
In this continuously changing contemporary economy, companies have to be able to anticipate technological innovations and to compete with other companies worldwide. This need makes important a company’s ability to evolve through its employees’ learning and through continuous development. Securing and retaining skilled employees plays an important role in this process, because employees’ knowledge and skills are central to companies’ ability to be economically competitive. Given that employee retention is very important for the functioning and competitiveness of a company, this study focuses on the organisational and personal factors that influence employee retention. A special interest is taken in employees’ learning, because this is seen as a retention supporting activity. A questionnaire was administered to 349 employees, and 11 employees were interviewed. The interviews are used to illustrate and contextualise the quantitative results. The results show a large positive contribution of appreciation and stimulation of the employee to employee retention. This result is consistent with findings of earlier research. However, the retention benefits arising from personal development offer new possibilities when attempting to enhance employee retention. This study also showed that individual differences influence employee retention. Leadership skills and seniority have a positive relationship with employee retention and the level of readiness and initiative regarding learning are negatively related to retention.
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Appendix: Overview factor items and factor loadings
Appendix: Overview factor items and factor loadings
Factor items independent variables
Factor 1: Appreciation and Stimulation (explained variance 16.91%, α = .94) | |
5. | The executive staff try to understand the problems employees experience in their work. |
6. | On the job I have sufficient opportunity to use my personal talents and use my initiative. |
7. | The executive staff in this company seem to make an effort to be nice to the employees. |
11. | At work there seems to be an honest interest in the things I’m doing outside of work. |
12. | The executive staff in this company always appear to be ready to give advice about how I can learn something new. |
14. | We can criticise the work regulations and our criticisms are heard. |
19. | When reforms are implemented, it’s because somebody had a good idea which was implemented. |
28. | My company gives me the opportunity to get training in subjects that interest me. |
30. | My company stimulates me to think about where I stand and where I need to get to achieve the company goals. |
31. | In this company they believe in me. |
35. | In this company people can really choose what work they want to do. |
36. | At work I am doing stimulates me to develop myself in things that I’m not yet very good at. |
37. | The company motivates me to develop, if possible, my own work-related interests. |
38. | In this company I have the opportunity to organise my work so that it fits the way I learn. |
39. | For a large part, I determine how I work. |
43. | There are lots of ways that I can choose to learn. |
46. | Our ideas and interests are taken serious by executive staff. |
48. | My company gives me the opportunity to specialise in my strengths. |
49. | Most executives make an effort to get to know us. |
51. | I have the feeling that I have to put my own ideas aside to meet the corporate strategy. |
52. | In my job I have the opportunity to do something with my skills and knowledge. |
53. | In my job I am stimulated to think about the skills that I am good at. |
55. | We have a lot of freedom of choice when it comes to the tasks we have to do. |
56. | My executive appreciates it when someone has a new way of looking at a problem. |
Factor 2: Leadership Skills (explained variance 10.03%, α = .89) | |
1. | I can communicate, present and give a speech well. |
8. | I can convince everyone of the correctness and necessity of the ideas and actions I propose and undertake. |
9. | When doing my work I use my creativity and inventiveness. |
15. | I think of feasible and concrete actions that are in accordance with my personal vision and goals. |
20. | I can assign task to the right people in a clear manner. |
22. | When I’m speaking in a group, I draw everyone’s full attention. |
27. | I’m able to motivate others to do their tasks as well as possible. |
33. | When I’m working in team, I easily take the lead. |
34. | I know very well what my strong points are. |
40. | I make good decisions, even when I’m under pressure. |
42. | I find myself capable of taking on an executive function in this company. |
44. | I have an executive function in this company. |
50. | Others in this company see me as someone who takes the lead easily. |
57. | When an unexpected situation occurs and people panic, I remain calm. |
Factor 3: Pressure of Work (explained variance 6.59%, α = .88) | |
17. | The work pressure is too high here. |
21. | I sometimes think that my job asks too many different things of me. |
25. | The constant pressure of work—things that need to be done, deadlines and competition—make me tense and sometimes depressed. |
26. | There is a lot of work to do. |
41. | Within the company a lot of the time the focus is on my weaknesses. |
54. | As an employee I am put under a lot of pressure. |
Factor 4: Following Procedures (explained variance 6.10%, α = .81) | |
13. | When I do my work, I follow the instructions closely, even when they are not in line with my own ideas. |
16. | When innovations are made, it is usually because management has decided on a corporate strategy and corporate goals and we then try to accomplish these goals as well as possible. |
24. | In my job it is very important that I do what is expected of me as closely as possible. |
32. | Usually when a problem occurs I rely on procedures that are dictated by the company. |
45. | In this company, expectations are that I should spend a lot of time on learning. |
47. | For most situations at work, procedures are enforced by the company. |
Factor 5: Learning Attitude (explained variance 5.14%, α = .80) | |
2. | When I want to learn something that can be useful in the workplace, I take the initiative. |
3. | To gain insight into a complex problem, I let my imagination run free, even when a solution does not seem to be close at hand. |
4. | I love undertaking activities on my own initiative. |
10. | Some subjects that arise during work are so interesting that I investigate them further, even when it is not necessary for my work. |
18. | I love to accept complex and challenging tasks. |
23. | If I get the chance to learn, I will definitely take it. |
29. | I think it is important to learn throughout my life. |
Factor loadings independent variables
Component | |||||
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
1. | ,496 | ,402 | |||
2. | ,422 | ||||
3. | ,483 | ||||
4. | ,487 | ||||
5. | ,604 | ||||
6. | ,656 | ||||
7. | ,417 | ||||
8. | ,478 | ||||
9. | ,465 | ||||
10. | ,628 | ||||
11. | ,432 | ||||
12. | ,641 | ||||
13. | ,616 | ||||
14. | ,576 | ||||
15. | ,424 | ||||
16. | ,554 | ||||
17. | ,786 | ||||
18. | ,479 | ,444 | |||
19. | ,533 | ||||
20. | ,509 | ||||
21. | ,628 | ||||
22. | ,552 | ||||
23. | ,599 | ||||
24. | ,690 | ||||
25. | ,749 | ||||
26. | ,712 | ||||
27. | ,634 | ||||
28. | ,583 | ||||
29. | ,691 | ||||
30. | ,620 | ||||
31. | ,683 | ||||
32. | ,640 | ||||
33. | ,711 | ||||
34. | ,507 | ||||
35. | ,567 | ||||
36. | ,681 | ||||
37. | ,704 | ||||
38. | ,505 | ||||
39. | ,423 | −,431 | |||
40. | ,612 | ||||
41. | ,480 | ||||
42. | ,728 | ||||
43. | ,655 | ||||
44. | ,580 | ||||
45. | ,439 | ||||
46. | ,732 | ||||
47. | ,718 | ||||
48. | ,724 | ||||
49. | ,713 | ||||
50. | ,758 | ||||
51. | −,480 | ||||
52. | ,669 | ||||
53. | ,742 | ||||
54. | ,816 | ||||
55. | ,555 | ||||
56. | ,554 | ||||
57. | ,427 | ||||
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.
Rotation converged in 6 iterations.
Values under .40 suppressed.
Factor items employee retention
Dependent factor: Employee retention (explained variance 49.13%, α = .91) | |
a. | I’m planning on working for another company within a period of three years. |
b. | Within this company my work gives me satisfaction. |
c. | If I wanted to do another job or function, I would look first at the possibilities within this company. |
d. | I see a future for myself within this company. |
e. | It doesn’t matter if I’m working for this company or another, as long as I have work. |
f. | If it were up to me, I will definitely be working for this company for the next five years. |
g. | If I could start over again, I would choose to work for another company. |
h. | If I received an attractive job offer from another company, I would take the job. |
i. | The work I’m doing is very important to me. |
j. | I love working for this company. |
k. | I have checked out a job in another company previously. |
Factor loadings employee retention
Component | |
1 | |
a. | ,791 |
b. | ,789 |
c. | ,621 |
d. | ,768 |
e. | ,494 |
f. | ,820 |
g. | ,658 |
h. | ,734 |
i. | ,534 |
j. | ,815 |
k. | ,586 |
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
1 components extracted.
Values under .40 suppressed.
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Kyndt, E., Dochy, F., Michielsen, M. et al. Employee Retention: Organisational and Personal Perspectives. Vocations and Learning 2, 195–215 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-009-9024-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-009-9024-7