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Kaiser, Sally M. "An examination of new employee orientation and training programs in relation to employee retention rates." Menomonie, WI : University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2006. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2006/2006kaisers.pdf.

Dixon, Sherry Ann. "Retention of Information Technology Employees." ScholarWorks, 2016. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/3152.

Yadav, Nitin. "Effect of people process culture on the overall productivity and harmony of an organization." Online version, 2008. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2008/2008yadavn.pdf.

Anderson, Sarah J. (Hovland). "A case study of employee training and retention at Company ABC." Online version, 2009. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2009/2009andersons.pdf.

Shelton, Karen. "The effects of employee development programs on job satisfaction and employee retention." Online version, 2001. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2001/2001sheltonk.pdf.

Åberg, Lisa, and Jessica Henry. "Employee Retention : Utifrån ett generationsperspektiv." Thesis, Högskolan i Skövde, Institutionen för handel och företagande, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-15223.

Karas, Melissa M. "Recruitment and retention from a to z variables for all organizations to consider /." Instructions for remote access. Click here to access this electronic resource. Access available to Kutztown University faculty, staff, and students only, 2005. http://www.kutztown.edu/library/services/remote_access.asp.

Karsnia, Elizabeth J. "Best practices for employee engagement." Online version, 2009. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2009/2009karsniae.pdf.

Guma, Pendulwa Vuyokazi. "Organisational factors impacting on employee retention." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1530.

Laing, Ann. "Employee Retention Strategies in Nonprofit Organizations." ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/7024.

Essel, Bernard. "Employee Retention in Small Retail Businesses." ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/7924.

Shikongo, Johanna Nelago. "Staff attraction and retention : a model for a Namibian state-owned enterprise." Thesis, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11838/1739.

Lennie, Graeme Mark. "Retention strategies for skilled SARS customs employees." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/999.

Muir, Kate Rosemary. "Forest Industry Employees: training, safety and retention." Thesis, University of Canterbury. School of Forestry, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/10461.

Singh, Alicia. "Employee Retention Strategies in Trinidadian Small Enterprises." ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/5782.

Busch, Andrew. "A critical analysis of research related to workplace retention, satisfaction and motivation of the millennial generation." Menomonie, WI : University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2005. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2005/2005buscha.pdf.

Schouten, Theresa Lynn. "The impact recognition has on employees in the Human Resource Department at Bemis Company, Inc." Menomonie, WI : University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2006. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2006/2006schoutent.pdf.

Human, Ricardo Ronald. "Retention strategies of technical graded employees at Transnet." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/11080.

Panoch, Amber. "The relationship between diversity and employee retention." Online version, 2001. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2001/2001panocha.pdf.

Javed, Basit, and Muhammad Jaffar. "Impact of Succession Planning on Employee Retention." Thesis, Högskolan i Jönköping, Internationella Handelshögskolan, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-43902.

Shaheen, Ahmad. "Successful Employee Retention Strategies in Childcare Centers." ScholarWorks, 2016. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/3005.

Edwards, Tiffany. "Relationship Between Self-Determination and Employee Retention." ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/7136.

White, Gentri Mabelann. "Strategies for Employee Retention in Nonprofit Organizations." ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/7904.

Mokoditoa, Jocelyn Molly. "Academic staff recruitment and retention strategies at the University of Limpopo." Thesis, University of Limpopo (Turfloop Campus), 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/393.

Grobler, Elaine Maria. "Retention strategies for gold-collar employees in an institution of higher education." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/6126.

Cooney, Katherine M. "Retention of child care staff understanding predictors of retention with survival analysis /." Online access for everyone, 2008. http://www.dissertations.wsu.edu/Thesis/Spring2008/k_cooney_042108.pdf.

Sete, Lerato Virginia. "Staff retention at an institution of higher learning." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/6564.

Ramsay, Mark J. "Comparing Five Empirical Biodata Scoring Methods for Personnel Selection." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2002. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3220/.

Tanton, S. N. "Talent management in the role of employee retention." Thesis, University of South Africa, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/142.

Harris, Corey. "Employee Retention Strategies in the Information Technology Industry." ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/5559.

Chaney, Serrita. "Strategies Used by Healthcare Supervisors for Employee Retention." ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/6539.

Cross, Darren. "Employee Retention Strategies in the Fast Food Industry." ScholarWorks, 2017. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/3936.

Izard-Carroll, Michael D. "Public Sector Leaders' Strategies to Improve Employee Retention." ScholarWorks, 2016. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/2157.

Griner, Charles H. "Small Construction Business Owners' Strategies for Employee Retention." ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/7871.

Anderson, Andrew. "Decreasing Voluntary Employee Turnover in the Hospitality Industry." ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/6508.

Moroko, Lara Marketing Australian School of Business UNSW. "New perspectives on employer branding: an empirical investigation of scope, nature and success drivers." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. Marketing, 2009. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/44753.

Morton, Deborah. "The Relationship Between Authentic Leadership and Employee Retention: Measuring the Perceived Level of Authentic Leadership and the Effect on Employee Retention." Wright State University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=wright1340722665.

Mwanza, Besnat. "Retention strategies of key talent at the bank of Zambia." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1140.

Ketye, Lungelo. "Retention strategies for knowledge workers at a consulting engineering firm." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/6247.

Barcus, Sydney Anne Guarnaccia Charles Anthony. "The impact of training and learning on three employee retention factors job satisfaction, commitment and turnover intent in technical professionals /." [Denton, Tex.] : University of North Texas, 2008. http://digital.library.unt.edu/permalink/meta-dc-9797.

Lassausaie, Claire, and Kyler Lotte. "Employees' Needs at Work : A case study of employee retention at a real estate firm." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-151390.

Rowan, Jeff. "Employee satisfaction and retention at Vigil Health Management Inc." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape2/PQDD_0020/MQ49215.pdf.

Thompson, Nicholas W. "Managing the Millennials: Employee Retention Strategies for Generation Y." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2011. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/240.

Nwabuzor, Nathaniel. "Exploring Employee Retention Strategies in the U.S. Hotel Industry." ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/5388.

Raz, Adi. "Leadership Strategies for Employee Retention in Small Lodging Establishments." ScholarWorks, 2017. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/4249.

Padron, Thomas C. "Retention of employees in the Wisconsin restaurant industry." Menomonie, WI : University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2004. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2004/2004padront.pdf.

Gie, Liiza. "Theoretical and practical perspectives of employee wellness programmes at a selected South African university." Thesis, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11838/2600.

Quader, Kazi, and Sisi Jin. "Managing Selection and Retention of Employees : A Case Study on Länsförsäkringar Bergslagen." Thesis, Mälardalens högskola, Akademin för hållbar samhälls- och teknikutveckling, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-12939.

Ntile, Zukiswa. "Assessing the personal development of employees in a municipal environment." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020420.

Bailey, Rachel. "Evaluating payment systems : the case of nurses in the National Health Service." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.319904.

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Factors Affecting Employee’s Retention: Integration of Situational Leadership With Social Exchange Theory

Wei xuecheng.

1 School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia, George Town, Malaysia

Qaisar Iqbal

2 Centre for China-India-Pakistan Studies, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Zigong, China

3 School of Chemistry and Environmental Science, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Hohhot, China

Associated Data

The original contributions presented in this study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Sketching on the Social Exchange Theory (SET), the present study aims to investigate the direct relationship between training and development, work environment, and job satisfaction with employee retention. The contingent role of transformational leadership was also analysed under the Situational Leadership Theory (SLT). Accordingly, we collected data from 287 employees of SMEs in northern China by employing a convenience sampling approach, exhibiting a response rate of 57.40 percent. The Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis was then run to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings revealed a significant positive impact of training and development, work environment, and job satisfaction on employee retention. However, no moderating effect of transformational leadership was indicated on their direct relationship. This study has enriched the literature on employee retention and the leadership arena. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no prior evidence concerning the study’s integrated relationship of the continuous variables. The implications and limitations were finally expressed at the end of this manuscript.

Introduction

Employee retention is intricate in a competitive market, albeit vital for the long-term competitive advantage and organisational success and longevity ( Das and Baruah, 2013 ; Arachchillage and Senevirathna, 2017 ; Kaur, 2017 ; Mahan et al., 2018 ; Paul and Vincent, 2018 ). The current COVID-19 situation has seen employee retention emerge as the core problem for organisations across the globe ( Karatepe and Olugbade, 2017 ; Yousaf et al., 2019 ). Low employee retention results in various issues, that is, increased training and recruitment cost, insufficiently skilled employees, and disruption to organisational operations ( A’yuninnisa and Saptoto, 2015 ; Ping et al., 2021 ). Due to these circumstances, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) view employee retention as highly complex and uncertain ( Park et al., 2019 ; Tian et al., 2020 ).

In China, SMEs are the driving force of its social and economic development ( Hadj, 2020 ; Hui, 2021 ), though they are presently finding it hard to operate at their full efficiency. This situation is exasperated by the COVID-19 pandemic, limited resources, low anti-risk capabilities, and diminished production scale ( Zhanjie et al., 2017 ). These SMEs face bankruptcy and employee retention ( Hui, 2021 ) due to adverse market conditions and economic uncertainty ( Yu X. et al., 2019 ). China possesses approximately 770 million people in its workforce ( Zhang and Chen, 2019 ), albeit maintaining the most significant global average turnover rate, that is, 18% ( Friedman and Kuruvilla, 2015 ; Yu X. et al., 2019 ). Hence, practitioners and academicians continuously report the severity of employee turnover in China ( Karatepe and Olugbade, 2017 ; Afsar et al., 2018 ).

High employee turnover weakens employees’ commitment and sets up negative perceptions of organisations ( Hadj, 2020 ). Privately owned enterprises in China reported a 20% turnover rate, while state-invested enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises displayed 8% and 15%, respectively. Such staggering employee turnover is a pressing issue for Chinese SMEs as they grapple with managing employee retention ( Zhang and Chen, 2019 ; Hu, 2021 ). Thus, practical managerial tools must be employed to alter employees’ behaviours ( Choi and Peng, 2015 ). Given these points, it is imperative to investigate the underlying factors to enhance employee retention, considering the scarcity of research in China ( Hom et al., 2017 ; Yousaf et al., 2019 ; Li et al., 2021 ).

Organisations are currently discussing varying strategies and practices to preserve their employees ( Tanwar and Prasad, 2016 ; Bibi et al., 2018 ). Employee retention is a process through which employees are influenced to stay with their organisations for a longer period ( Hom and Griffeth, 1995 ). Generally, employees are easy to retain, provided they see a good match with their employer ( Umamaheswari and Krishnan, 2016 ). Extent literature concluded the significant role of various elements in relation to employee retention, such as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors ( De Sousa Sabbagha et al., 2018 ), job promotion ( Woodall et al., 2017 ), and bonus ( Chinyio et al., 2018 ). Others include organisation commitment ( Perreira et al., 2018 ), compensation ( Colson and Satterfield, 2018 ), and knowledge sharing ( Agarwal and Islam, 2015 ). This list can be extended to peer support, organisational culture, and work-life balance ( Deshwal, 2015 ; Ombanda, 2015 ).

Notably, career development opportunities, benefits and rewards, and psychological factors are deemed vital for employee retention ( Bibi et al., 2018 ; Lyman et al., 2020 ). Academicians and practitioners have developed a consensus about the crucial role of human resource management in developing this idea ( Deshwal, 2015 ; Tian et al., 2020 ). Drawing on the basis of Social Exchange Theory (SET), this study aims to examine the direct effect of training and development, work environment, and job satisfaction on employee retention among China’s SMEs.

The leaders in an organisation commonly initiate change, execute, and interconnect with the desired results ( Bass and Avolio, 1996 ; Bass and Riggio, 2006 ). In essence, employee retention is also not possible without effective leadership ( Covella et al., 2017 ). In the last few years, numerous leadership styles have been examined concerning employee retention, such as laissez-faire, instrumental, transformational, and transactional leadership ( Antonakis and House, 2014 ; Iqbal, 2016 ). Transformational leadership highly impacts employee commitment in contrast to transactional leadership ( Deichmann and Stam, 2015 ). These leaders are highly concerned about real-time problems and establish new benchmarks, develop understanding, shape employees’ behaviours, and accomplish organisational objectives ( Middleton et al., 2015 ; Tian et al., 2020 ; Iqbal et al., 2021a ).

Transformational leadership comprises four dimensions, that is, individual consideration, intellectual stimulation, idealised influence, and inspirational motivation. The first dimension, individualised consideration, is the extent to which leaders understand and prioritise the team member’s needs. Meanwhile, intellectual stimulation is the extent leaders offer support and encourage employees to generate innovative ideas beneficial to delivering optimum performance. Moreover, inspirational motivation provides necessary support to the employees, enabling them to pursue organisational goals. The final dimension, idealised influence, encourages practical examples of a leader exhibiting innovative thinking, faith, pride, uprightness, interest, effective communication, and trust ( Bass and Riggio, 2006 ).

Employees in China prefer leaders who exhibit transformational leadership attributes in the form of role models, non-use of abusive power, selflessness, and centring on employees’ well-being ( Su et al., 2019 ). Hence, transformational leadership has become one of the most crucial roles in the organisational success of China’s SMEs ( Lin and Sun, 2018 ). The current pandemic has resulted in economic uncertainty, environmental challenges, and the suitability of transformational leadership. Therefore, the Situational Leadership Theory (SLT) is applied to investigate its moderating role in the proposed relationship of training and development, work environment, and job satisfaction with employee retention.

Numerous contributions are made in this study concerning the theory and literature. First, the study developed the SET by revealing the direct impact of work environment, job satisfaction, training, and development on employee retention. Second, the insights on the conditional role of transformational leadership were elaborated in the context of SLT. The literature presented conflicting results and lacked clear explanations of the relationship’s nature of antecedents with employee retention ( Abeysekera, 2007 ; Haines et al., 2010 ; Mangi et al., 2011 ; Ahmad et al., 2017 ). In this context, further studies are recommended to better comprehend the training and employee retention relationship ( Bibi et al., 2018 ). Given these points, this study enriches the empirical evidence, specifically regarding the direct connection of training and development, work environment, and job satisfaction with employee retention. The final contribution included the literature on employee retention from the perspective of China’s SMEs.

Literature Review

Theoretical background.

The SET is widely applied to unravel the employer–employee relationship, especially in the employee turnover and retention literature ( Coyle-Shapiro and Conway, 2005 ; Gopalan et al., 2020 ). According to this theory, a person, who benefits from someone, feels obligated to repay that person through positive behaviours and devotion. Furthermore, this theory postulates that employees deliver their optimum performance upon achieving support and perceiving value from their employers ( Eisenberger et al., 2001 ). Hence, the theory is used to investigate the employees’ behaviour, enabling organisations to enforce certain HRM practices and igniting unique social exchange relationships.

From the SET perspective, employee retention can be induced by training and development offered by employers, which facilitate mutual benefits and create reciprocated obligations. This phenomenon occurs because individuals and organisations are involved in exchange relationships ( Raihan, 2012 ). Employees perceive responsibility to repay their employers upon providing a conducive working environment. This repayment may derive in the form of increased loyalty, commitment, and stay for a long time ( Settoon et al., 1996 ). Simultaneously, their job satisfaction and proper behavioural responses will increase, owing to the perception of fulfilling emotional needs ( Iqbal and Hasnah, 2016 ; Latorre et al., 2016 ; Iqbal et al., 2017 ; Rubel et al., 2021 ) and improving employee retention ( Rubel et al., 2021 ). Therefore, the current study posits that job satisfaction and work environment followed by training and development are positively related to employee retention.

A specific type of leadership is required to tackle the distinct needs and current challenges of a particular environment. Hence, according to the SLT, a single leadership style is insufficient for every situation ( Hersey and Blanchard, 1969 ). In this case, effective leadership, that is, transformational leadership, emerges as a promising idea and is applicable across diverse fields. This concept facilitates the concept of adapting to varying circumstances and work environments ( Hersey and Blanchard, 1969 ). In the context of employee retention, an environment must be structured where they feel empowered, valued, and connected to their employers ( Ohunakin et al., 2019 ; Frye et al., 2020 ); thus, this leadership style is consistent with these requirements ( Kim and Park, 2020 ). Consequently, this leadership style enhances the employees’ capability and reshapes the organisational image in the marketplace ( Mwita and Tefurukwa, 2018 ; Singh et al., 2020 ). Drawing on the SLT, the current research claims the moderating role of transformational leadership on the relationship of training and development, work environment, and job satisfaction with employee retention.

Hypotheses Development

Training and development with employee retention.

Training and development is the degree to which training within the organisation is offered to the employees to foster their skills ( Delery and Doty, 1996 ). As an overarching HRM practice, it is often considered a broad collection of activities that refer to continual learning and developing general job and career-related skills ( Boon et al., 2011 ). Furthermore, training is the fundamental source of competitive advantage and employee retention ( Umamaheswari and Krishnan, 2016 ; Yamin, 2019 ). Training and development intensify the social exchange relationship between the employee and their employer ( Dysvik and Kuvaas, 2008 ), offering employees valuable abilities, skills, and knowledge ( Fletcher et al., 2018 ). This idea elicits obligations within employees to repay the organisation ( Koster et al., 2011 ).

Training and development programmes deal with the employees’ skills and competencies, enabling them to positively respond to various challenges the organisations face ( Rhee et al., 2014 ). Moreover, positive dispositions of employee growth can be achieved via motivation and modifying their skills or attitude toward organisational effectiveness ( Gope et al., 2018 ; Yamin, 2019 ; Khan et al., 2021 ). These skills and competencies are vital for their managerial positions and professional growth ( Schuler and Tarique, 2012 ; Ambrosius, 2018 ). Past studies have found a positive relationship between training and development with commitment ( Ahmad et al., 2017 ), employee performance ( Sinha et al., 2010 ), and job satisfaction ( Bibi et al., 2018 ). Others include employee retention ( Lee, 2005 ), employee commitment ( Ahmad et al., 2017 ), and employees’ intentions to stay ( Chew and Chan, 2008 ). Therefore, the hypothesis H1 is postulated as follows:

• H1: Training and development significantly and positively influence employee retention.

Work Environment and Employee Retention

The working environment concerns the availability of a conducive workplace ( Edgar and Geare, 2005 ) and is defined as the degree to which employees consider the workplace physically safe. Employees can share their views on their surroundings with their mutual consideration with organisations by assessing the environment ( Lewin et al., 1939 ; Li et al., 2022 ). Some examples of work environment indicators include supervisor support ( Stirpe and Zárraga-Oberty, 2017 ), physical working conditions ( Richards et al., 1994 ), social worker support ( Haggins, 2011 ), and helping behaviours during decision-making ( Subramaniam and Mia, 2001 ). Notably, a study found a significant relationship between work environment and employee retention ( Al-Hamdan et al., 2017 ).

Organisational rules and regulations encompass the work environment, affecting employee retention ( Yam et al., 2018 ). Consequently, an exceptional working environment increases trust among employees, which is useful for employee retention ( Candela et al., 2015 ; Ede and Rantakeisu, 2015 ). The positive energy motivates employees to accomplish their professional goals effectively, enhancing their commitment to the organisation ( Mangi et al., 2011 ; Umamaheswari and Krishnan, 2016 ). The perception of the working environment can either positively or negatively impact specific employees’ job outcomes, such as commitment, participation, and intention to stay ( Gunaseelan and Ollukkaran, 2012 ). Given these points, the discussion above drives the development of hypothesis H2:

• H2: Work environment significantly and positively influences employee retention.

Job Satisfaction and Employee Retention

Job satisfaction concerns employees’ evaluations of their jobs based on perceptions by comparing their actual job outcomes with desired ones ( Schleicher et al., 2011 ). The concept is defined as a positive state where employees share their feelings about their job ( Locke, 1976 ), ranging from moderate- to low-level satisfaction ( Locke, 1976 ; Quigley et al., 2007 ). Furthermore, the idea is considered a causal factor that promotes intentions to stay with the organisation because it is a pleasant psychological state. In this case, individuals perceive content with their work ( Fletcher et al., 2018 ). Therefore, job satisfaction fosters the social exchange between employers and employees, where satisfied employees exemplify positive experiences. This experience is supported by the social exchanges between the employee and the organisation, reinforcing their intentions to stay with the organisation ( Koster et al., 2011 ).

Employees from varying organisations, industries, and geographical locations exhibit different levels of job satisfaction ( AbuAlRub et al., 2009 ). However, job satisfaction positively affects employees’ intentions to stay irrespective of industries and region ( AbuAlRub et al., 2009 ). For instance, a multi-level study found that job satisfaction is positively related to the employees’ intentions to stay in the united kingdom (UK) ( Fletcher et al., 2018 ). Moreover, meta-analytic evidence has demonstrated that those who are satisfied at work are more likely to retain their employment ( Fishbein and Ajzen, 2011 ); therefore, the hypothesis H3 is proposed on the basis of SET as follows:

• H3: Job satisfaction significantly and positively influences employee retention.

Moderating Role of Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is considered highly effective in driving employee retention ( Kossivi et al., 2016 ; Amankwaa et al., 2019 ), in which the leaders initiate, execute, and interconnect change with the desired outcomes ( Bass and Riggio, 2006 ). This form of leadership influences employees by altering their perceptions, views, ambitions, and moral standards ( Bass and Avolio, 1996 ). Transformational leaders also offer an ideal approach to employees and exhibit the attributes of significant faith, effective communication, uprightness, trust, and innovative thinking ( Tian et al., 2020 ). These leaders promote intellectual stimulation, idealised influence and inspirational motivation, and individualised consideration. In addition, leaders can facilitate employees by understanding their issues and creating a psychologically safe environment through individualised consideration ( Iqbal et al., 2021b ).

Transformational leaders are viewed as role models and counsellors who encourage them to participate in organisational activities. Supervisor support, training, information accessibility, and counselling lead to higher employee retention ( Ooi et al., 2021 ) and higher employability ( Matsuo, 2021 ). Furthermore, healthy communication positively influences the work environment ( Denton, 2011 ) via sharing of innovative ideas and intellectual stimulation, an indicator of open communication. This approach culminates in improved work that enhances talent management ( Perlow and Kelly, 2014 ). Moreover, open communication and improving resource management in employee allocation ease employees’ adaptation to new work environments ( Castrogiovanni et al., 2011 ).

Organisational support in the form of supervisor support, rewards, and favourable working conditions are vital to stimulating organisation-related outcomes, that is, reduced withdrawal behaviours and commitment ( Rhoades and Eisenberger, 2002 ; Gillet et al., 2022 ). Supervisor support is critical to replenish employee physical and psychological resources to increase their retention probability ( Kalliath and Kalliath, 2014 ). Furthermore, transformational leaders affect employees’ behaviour resulting in high employee retention ( Sow et al., 2016 ). Leaders can develop a reward system within their organisation which is highly effective in retaining employees ( Adekanbi, 2016 ). They must also ensure sufficient resources to employees following the organisational goals. Moreover, shared vision is directly related to the employees’ engagement ( Boyatzis et al., 2017 ) and continuous improvement ( Fardazar et al., 2015 ; Iqbal and Piwowar-Sulej, 2022 ). This leadership style presents a shared vision and elaborates the underlying reasons, enhancing their participation and involvement in decision-making. Previous studies found that transformational leadership negatively impacts employees’ turnover intention ( Maaitah, 2018 ) but positively affects their knowledge base ( Fletcher et al., 2018 ). For instance, a positive impact of various factors on employee retention, that is, idealised influence, inspirational motivation, individualised consideration, and intellectual stimulation ( Jiang et al., 2017 ). Therefore, the following hypotheses, H4, H5, and H6, are proposed:

• H4: Transformational leadership significantly moderates the training and development—employee intentions relationship.
• H5: Transformational leadership significantly moderates the work environment—employee intentions relationship.
• H6: Transformational leadership significantly moderates the job satisfaction—employee intentions relationship.

With reference to the above discussion, the hypothesized model is drawn as shown in the below Figure 1 .

Research framework.

Research Methodology

Context, sample, and data collection.

In China, organisations face fierce pressure to retain employees due to the shortage of skilled and talented employees ( Fu et al., 2020 ). Statistically, 44% of the top management in organisations operating in China view this issue as a critical barrier to employee retention ( Mashiah, 2021 ). China’s manufacturing makes up two-thirds of SMEs ( Zhu et al., 2012 ; Iqbal et al., 2021c ; Xuecheng et al., 2022 ), where most operate in the northern region. Therefore, this study focuses on the SME employees in this region. Moreover, this study requires a minimum of 185 responses based on the sample-item ratio ( Hatcher and O’Rourke, 2013 ). Online survey forms were structured to collect data, comprising six sections that measure various factors. The factors include training and development, work environment, job satisfaction, employee retention, transformational leadership, and respondents’ demographics.

We adopted a convenience sampling approach for data collection, considering China’s time and financial constraints and current COVID-19 restrictions. The present study is cross-sectional in design, where data are collected at a specific time from the employees. The online survey link was disseminated via 500 email addresses with the assistance of the human resource department. Accordingly, 287 responses were received, which is sufficient, indicating a response rate of 57.40%. Furthermore, a gentle reminder was included during data collection to increase the number of responses. In this study, we also marked it mandatory to check against each item in the online survey form, ensuring no missing values in the dataset.

Measurement of Variables

We adopted measurement scales of four continuous variables in the current study. Previous studies have reported reduced quality and high cognitive ability required to collect data using a high Likert scale ( Cummins and Gullone, 2000 ; Iqbal et al., 2020 ). Therefore, a 5-point Likert scale was employed, ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. Delery and Doty (1996) have defined training and development as the degree to which organizations offer training to employees to foster their skills. We adopted the 4-item scale from Delery and Doty’s (1996) study to measure training and development. For example, one item is “We receive formal development training which increases our promotion chances within the organisation.” Similarly, Bibi et al. (2018) used an identical scale in the context of Pakistan and found it highly reliable (α = 0.918). In this study, the Cronbach’s alpha value of this scale is 0.719.

The work environment is defined as the degree to which employees perceive the availability of a safe and conducive workplace ( Edgar and Geare, 2005 ). Subsequently, 4-measurement items were adopted from Bibi et al.’s (2018) study to assess the work environment. For instance, one item is “We always feel safe working here in this environment.” In the current study, the Cronbach’s alpha value of this 4-item scale is 0.928. Meanwhile, job satisfaction is defined as the pleasurable emotional state emerging from the job appraisal as facilitating the accomplishment of one’s job values ( Locke, 1976 ; Zhang M. M. et al., 2016 ). In this case, we adopted a 3-item scale from Cammann et al.’s (1979) study to measure job satisfaction. An example of this item is “In general, I like working here.” This scale was utilised by Zhang L. et al. (2016) , who found it highly reliable (alpha = 0.870). Accordingly, the Cronbach’s alpha value in this study for the 3-item scale is 0.921.

Transformational leadership is defined as those who have idealised influence, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and individualised consideration. We adopted 20 items of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) to analyse transformational leadership. This analysis was related to the four items, namely intellectual stimulation, idealised influence, inspirational motivation, and individualised consideration. A sample of the item is “my leaders give me tasks with enthusiasm.” A previous study ( Ohunakin et al., 2019 ) indicates high reliability where Cronbach’s alpha values of its four dimensions were between 0.88 and 0.92. In this study, the Cronbach’s alpha values are in the range of 0.875–0.918.

Employee retention is defined as the effort by an organisation to keep desirable employees to fulfil business objectives ( Frank et al., 2004 ; Govaerts et al., 2011 ). We adopted six items ( Govaerts et al., 2011 ) to measure employee retention, for example, “I love working for this company.” The present study’s measurement scale was highly reliable, that is, Cronbach’s alpha = 0.794, aligning with Khalid and Nawab’s (2018) findings.

Analytical Approach

In this study, the research framework is complex due to its prediction-oriented feature and the presence of independent variables, dependent variables, and moderators. Therefore, partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was selected following Hair et al. (2020) . This approach is considered a proper analytical strategy compared to covariance-based structural equation modelling (CB-SEM) ( Ringle et al., 2020 ). The technique revolves around the assessment of the measurement model and structural model, though it requires prior evaluation of the former measurement.

Results of the Study

Data screening.

Before analysis, data screening must be conducted, which concerns missing values, outliers, data normality, and common method bias. We ensured the absence of missing values in the current dataset by marking mandatory against each measurement item in the online survey form. Moreover, univariate outliers and multivariate outliers were investigated through Z-score and the Mahalanobis distance test. Accordingly, three responses were removed in the univariate outlier because of the Z-score values greater than 3.29 ( Tabachnick and Fidell, 2007 ). Meanwhile, the Mahalanobis distance test revealed that the P -value of 15 cases is less than 0.001, a clear indicator of multivariate outliers; therefore, the 15 responses were excluded from the dataset.

The normality was assessed based on the skewness and kurtosis values, and in this study, the skewness values of all continuous variables extend from −1.307 to 1.531, which are within ± 3. However, the kurtosis values fall out of the ± 3 range ( DeCarlo, 1997 ), and thus, the data are not univariate normal. The Mardia’s coefficient skewness 0.005 and kurtosis values (β=172.761,ρ < 0.005) confirmed the multivariate normality. Nevertheless, the PLS-SEM does not require data normality; hence, non-normal distribution is not an issue. Next, we applied Harman’s single factor test and the correlation matrix procedure to examine the common method bias. Harman’s single factor test revealed that a single factor only counts for 39.41% < 0.50% of the total variance ( Podsakoff et al., 2012 ), confirming no issues with method bias. The correlation matrix exposed that no single correlation between continuous variables is greater than 0.90 ( Bagozzi et al., 1991 ); thus, the current study is free from common method bias. We have also examined the model fit of hypothesized model based on two-index strategy recommended by Hu and Bentler (1999) . In the present study, hypothesized model was found fit based on comparative fit index (CFI) (0.96 > 0.95) and standardised root mean square residual (SRMR) (0.049 < 0.09) ( Hu and Bentler, 1999 ), as compared to alternative models.

Frequency Analysis

The present study is dominated by male participants ( n = 176, 61.32%), where most participants ( n = 109, 37.98%) fall between the ages of 25 and 35, followed by 85 between 36 and 45. The most significant number of participants ( n = 144, 50.17%) in current research possessed a bachelor’s degree and nine participants (3.14%) with PhDs. Finally, more than 50% of the participants ( n = 153) acquired 5–10 years of working experience, while nine participants with more than 20 years of professional experience.

Descriptive Analysis

In this study, the mean values of training and development ( M = 4.145), work environment ( M = 4.334), job satisfaction ( M = 4.322), and employees’ retention ( M = 4.167) were found significant. Notably, job satisfaction and employee retention values were higher than those reported by a previous study among employees of multi-national enterprises (MNEs) in China ( Zhang M. M. et al., 2016 ). Regarding four dimensions of transformational leadership, idealised influence ( M = 4.132) has the highest mean value. This result is followed by inspirational motivation ( M = 4.121), individualised consideration ( M = 3.973), and intellectual stimulation ( M = 3.670). Moreover, the current descriptive analysis revealed that participants seek more idealised influence than other dimensions of transformational leadership in Chinese SMEs. In other words, a leader’s ability to exhibit high morality, ethics, and personality enables the realisation of high performance within organisations.

Measurement Model Analysis

The measurement model analysis examines the construct reliability and validity, in which the former is assessed with reference to its indicator and internal reliability. This study revealed that all indicator loadings are more significant than 0.50 and less than 0.944, which are deemed acceptable. An item has sufficient indicator reliability provided its factor loading is more significant than 0.50 ( Chin, 1998 ). Moreover, we examined the construct reliability based on Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability values. A construct has acceptable reliability, provided its Cronbach’s alpha or composite reliability value is greater than 0.70 ( Sarstedt et al., 2019 ).

Table 1 shows that the Cronbach’s alpha values of various items are greater than 0.70. These items comprise training and development (0.719), work environment (0.928), job satisfaction (0.921), employees’ retention (0.794), and individualised consideration (0.889). Other items include idealised influence (0.918), inspirational motivation (0.875), intellectual stimulation (0.882), and transformational leadership (0.885). Similarly, the composite reliability values of these variables are greater than 0.70 (see Table 1 ). Hence, it is evident that all the continuous variables exhibit acceptable construct reliability.

Factor loadings, reliability, AVE, and mean values.

*Means multiplication/interaction of two variables.

Construct validity is formulated on the convergent and discriminant validity, where a construct has sufficient acceptable convergent validity provided its factor loadings are greater than 0.70. Furthermore, its average variance extracted (AVE) must be higher than 0.50 ( Hair et al., 2020 ). The items of all continuous variables must possess factor loadings greater than 0.70 (see Table 1 ). The AVE values of multiple items revealed values higher than 0.50, that is, training and development (0.541), work environment (0.823), and job satisfaction (0.864). Others include employee retention (0.576), individualised consideration (0.706), idealised influence (0.712), inspirational motivation (0.669), intellectual stimulation (0.692), and transformational leadership (0.677) (see Table 1 ).

Based on the above results, all continuous variables possess acceptable convergent validity. We employed Fornell–Larcker Criterion to examine the discriminant validity of the variables. This method confirms the discriminant validity of a variable provided that the square root of its AVE is greater than its inter-constructs correlation values ( Henseler et al., 2009 ). Table 2 indicates that the square root of AVE of all variables is greater than their inter-constructs correlation values; hence, these variables exhibit acceptable discriminant validity.

Fornell–Larcker criterion.

The bold value stands for the square root of the AVE value of respective variable.

Structured Model Analysis

The structural model analysis revealed that training and development significantly influence employee retention (β=0.824,ρ < 0.05) ( Table 3 ). In essence, one unit change in training and development brings 82.40% variations in employee retention, and thus hypothesis H1 is supported. Notably, the findings indicated the significant positive impact of the work environment on employee retention (β=0.274,ρ < 0.05), supporting hypothesis H2. Meanwhile, job satisfaction significantly influences employee retention (β=0.824,ρ < 0.05) (see Table 3 ). In other words, there is a 20% change in employee retention among SME employees in China for one unit change in job satisfaction, supporting hypothesis H3.

Hypotheses testing.

The effect of its interaction terms with training and development, work environment, and job satisfaction were estimated. This approach was conducted to examine the moderating effect of transformational leadership. In this case, the interaction term of transformational leadership with various dimensions does not significantly influence employee retention in SMEs in China. The dimensions include training and development (β = −0.081,ρ=0.233 > 0.05), work environment (β=0.021,ρ=0.856 > 0.05), and job satisfaction (β=0.078,ρ=0.101 > 0.05) (see Table 3 ). Therefore, moderation hypotheses H4, H5, and H6 are rejected.

The current study examined an essential topic in organisational behaviour: what factors are vital to foster employee retention in SMEs? Accordingly, a research framework was proposed and empirically tested based on the SET to analyse the impact of multiple dimensions (training and development, work environment, and job satisfaction) on employee retention. Similarly, the conditional effect of transformational leadership was analysed based on this relationship. Current findings confirmed the positive connection among the three dimensions of employee retention. However, the contingent role of transformational leadership was not supported by the proposed relationship. Only three direct hypotheses are supported in this study, and the findings are elaborated below.

The SET was applied in this study to propose the positive relationship of the three dimensions with employee retention. The data analysis purported the significant positive relations of training and development with employee retention among SME employees in China; therefore, supporting hypothesis H1. This finding aligned with previous studies ( Zheng, 2009 ; Umamaheswari and Krishnan, 2014 ; Bibi et al., 2018 ). Past studies reported a positive impact of training and development on employee retention in Pakistan’s universities ( Bibi et al., 2018 ) and Indian ceramic industries ( Umamaheswari and Krishnan, 2014 ). A similar observation can be found in the hotel industry of Bangladesh ( Rubel et al., 2021 ) and multinational enterprises in Asia ( Zheng, 2009 ).

A study among millennial employees in Bangladesh concluded a significant positive effect of green training and development on employee retention ( Islam et al., 2022 ). Meanwhile, training and development reported a significant indirect impact on employee retention through ethical climate ( Yamin, 2019 ) and employee engagement ( Fletcher et al., 2018 ). Another study reported a negative link between the practices of perceived human resource management and turnover intention among SME employees ( Reese et al., 2009 ). Deng (2018) similarly claimed that family business retains migrant workers by fostering training and development programmes. Therefore, organisations must carefully design and implement these programmes to increase employee retention.

The current research indicated a positive relationship between work environment and employee retention. The results supported this proposition, resulting in the acceptance of hypothesis H2, aligning with previous findings ( Pek-Greer and Wallace, 2017 ; Frye et al., 2020 ; Wu et al., 2020 ). Other studies echoed the current study’s results. For instance, the work environment was positively related to employee retention among generation Y ( Frye et al., 2020 ). Meanwhile, a qualitative study in Singapore suggested that a supportive work environment strongly predicts employee retention in its education sector ( Pek-Greer and Wallace, 2017 ). In China, the work environment indirectly influences employee turnover through workplace violence ( Wu et al., 2020 ) and India’s organisational engagement ( Kundu and Lata, 2017 ). Other studies supported the positive impact of the work environment on the employee turnover intention in China’s health sector ( Wan et al., 2018 ; Wu et al., 2020 ).

This study proved the significant positive effect of job satisfaction on employee retention based on hypothesis H3, leading to its acceptance, parallel to previous findings ( Tanwar and Prasad, 2016 ; Frye et al., 2020 ). A study found that job satisfaction positively affects employee retention in hospitality ( Frye et al., 2020 ). Meanwhile, a qualitative study among IT industry employees showed that employer branding vis-à-vis job satisfaction strongly determines employee retention ( Tanwar and Prasad, 2016 ). On a similar note, Liu et al. (2010) confirmed that job satisfaction is a strong predictor of employee retention in China’s health centres. Zhang M. M. et al. (2016) similarly supported this positive relationship among Chinese employees working for multinational enterprises. In the service industry, the aforementioned three dimensions are viewed as vital factors in promoting employee retention ( Mohanty and Mohanty, 2016 ).

The present study introduced the moderating effect of transformational leadership on the relationship of the three dimensions with employee retention. A transformational leader is anticipated to significantly moderate the training and development-employee retention relationship, though the findings do not support this proposition. Hence, H4 is rejected. In this context, there is no prior study on leadership as a moderating variable on the link between training and development with employee retention. However, a study suggested a green creativity climate as the potential moderator of the green practices-employee retention link among millennial employees ( Islam et al., 2022 ).

The moderating role of transformational leadership on the work environment-employee retention relationship was not supported. This result is a clear indicator of the rejection of hypothesis H5. Similarly, there is no study regarding leadership as a contingent variable on the work environment-employee retention association. Thus, the current study offers strong empirical contributions to the field of training and development followed by the work environment. Meanwhile, job satisfaction possesses substantial weightage in employee retention, and this relationship relies on the organisational climate ( Sips et al., 2015 ). The current research established the conditional effect of transformational leadership on the job satisfaction-employee retention link.

However, the present findings do not support hypothesis H6, contradicting Sips et al.’s (2015) findings. The underlying reasons are due to the leaders’ direct role in developing organisational climate rather than their immediate effect on job satisfaction. Moreover, another study revealed that servant leaders indirectly influence employee retention through job satisfaction ( Hassan et al., 2021 ). In Nigeria, a significant positive effect of various elements was found on employee retention in universities. These elements include idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualised consideration ( Ohunakin et al., 2019 ).

The current study aimed to investigate the direct effect of factors such as job satisfaction, working environment, and training and development on employee retention in China. This study also intended to examine the moderating role of transformational leadership in the relationship between job satisfaction, working environment, and training and development on employee retention based on cross-sectional data collected from employees in manufacturing SMEs in China. The current empirical findings confirm that all three factors such as training and development, job satisfaction, and the working environment significantly influence employee retention. Among these three variables, training and development have the highest positive effect on employee retention. Yet, present statistical findings do not support the moderating effect of transformational leadership on the relationship of job satisfaction, working environment, and training and development with employee retention.

Theoretical Implications

The present study significantly contributed to the extension of the theory. First, the literature is enriched by offering empirical support on the integrated understanding of the three dimensions and employee retention. Furthermore, extant literature provided contradicting findings on the relationship between the three dimensions. However, the role of transformational leadership as the conditional variable in their relationship is still missing. Second, this study augments the SET by examining the effect of training and development, work environment, and job satisfaction on employee retention. Third, the SLT is extended by providing evidence on the non-significant moderating role of transformational leadership, specifically the correlation of the three dimensions on employee retention.

Practical Implications

The current research offered several recommendations for practitioners and policymakers. Extant literature claims that employee retention is a significant challenge for SME employees in China. In this case, the current work emphasises the three dimensions critical to enhancing employee retention within China’s SMEs. The present findings found that training and development is the most crucial element which increases employee retention within organisations. Chinese SMEs may, therefore, plan their training and development programme more effectively based on their employee’s needs.

China’s SMEs should design training and development programmes that parallel their employees’ career growth. However, previous findings focused on offering training programmes related to company-specific skills rather than general skills. Accordingly, general skills enable employees to effectuate professional opportunities outside the parent organisations. Therefore, these SMEs must evaluate their programmes and perform changes concerning their company-specific skills. Equally important, the top management should employ specific strategies to foster a conducive workplace to improve the work environment and cope with employees’ burnout. Such strategies may include special counselling sessions for stress-induced employees and enforcing flexible work schedules.

The management should centre on developing the work environment, ensuring satisfied employees, establishing open communication, and fostering ideas while offering peer support. Moreover, practitioners should work on the proper fund allocation to develop a positive work environment. The current study reported a significant positive effect of job satisfaction on employee retention. Hence, the human resource and departmental managers are advised to make incremental changes, spurring employee satisfaction, that is, providing a fair salary, rewards, and incentives to their employees. Nevertheless, the moderating effect of transformational leadership does not appear significant in retaining employees for SME management in China.

Based on the above, it is proven that transformational leaders are highly effective in designing an empowered and meaningful work environment. For instance, this form of leadership offers individualised consideration and idealised influence, stimulates intellectually, and motivates inspiration. Thus, practitioners and managers should evaluate the development of leadership. Specifically, in China’s SMEs, policymakers, and managers must critically assess the leadership development programmes in their organisations.

Limitations

The current study possesses several limitations despite the significant theoretical and practical contributions. First, this study was conducted in the northern region of China, hence, increasing the generalisation in the context of China. Moreover, the sole focus on China SMEs may not provide comprehensive information on other emerging and developed economies. Therefore, future studies can enrich the quantitative findings by assessing other developing countries, such as Pakistan and India. The survey form was distributed through the human resource management department, decreasing the chance of randomly distributing the survey form to employees. This situation will hinder the generalisation issue further, especially in a broader population.

Second, this study subjectively measured all continuous variables, and such measurement might influence the presence of common method bias. Practitioners and academicians face extreme difficulty in collecting objective data from organisations. Thus, future endeavours could overcome these limitations by adopting improved research design and employing a qualitative approach to unravel the causal relationship. Third, a direct connection was found between the three dimensions with employee retention. The upcoming research must then investigate the potential mechanisms of these relations. Finally, the current study provided multiple shreds of evidence about the non-significant moderating role of transformational leadership; thus, further examinations must be made on the conditional part of other leadership styles, such as sustainable and servant leadership.

Data Availability Statement

Author contributions.

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Identifying factors for employee retention using computational techniques: an approach to assist the decision-making process

• Research Article
• Published: 31 August 2020
• Volume 2 , article number  1612 , ( 2020 )

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• Zahid Halim   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3094-3483 1 ,
• Muhammad Waqas 1 , 3 ,
• Cedric A. Edwin 4 &
• Ahsan Shah 1  

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In the today’s competitive environment, employee retention is a challenge faced by many industries. This work aims to identify the factors that influence employee retention. This is done using employees’ feedback and various computational techniques. A survey is conducted within multiple sectors to collect data. The questionnaire is divided into two parts: the first part includes demographic information, whereas the second part contains questions pertaining to employees’ job description and their satisfaction. The questions on the second portion are based on theories like Herzberg’s duality theory, expectancy theory, social cognitive theory, and sociocultural theory. These theories are further linked with factors like motivation, recognition and reward, bullying and work harassment. Later, the frequent items mining technique from the domain of data mining is utilized to identify the frequent factors from an employee perspective toward better retention rates. A test is also conducted to ensure the reliability of the data. The obtained results indicate it to be 87% reliable. A comparison between two frequent items mining methods indicates four times quicker performance of the k Direct Count and Intersect (kDCI) method in identifying key retention aspects from the data. A tool is utilized for analysis of variance (ANOVA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) tests to find factors crucial for retaining employees. The result identifies that work environment, reward and recognition, work performance, supervisory support, and income have high impact on employee retention.

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1 Introduction

Human resource is generally the most valuable asset for an organization. Skilled human recourses enable an organization to excel and achieve its objectives efficiently [ 1 , 2 ]. To classify an employee as skillful, her experience acts as a key indicator in addition to other basic credentials [ 3 ]. Organizations prefer to retain their existing skilled employees by offering multiple perks and benefits [ 4 ]. They also try to attract skilled resources using similar measures. At times, such skilled resources are attracted by the competitor organizations. This results in the issue of employee retention [ 5 ]. The issue is dependent on the country’s culture, its economic growth, the number of companies operating in public/private sectors and the availability of skilled human resource [ 6 ]. Interestingly, today`s corporate sector has seen an increased number of employees leaving the previous job to find better opportunities [ 7 ]. Organizations facing this challenge need to adopt new strategies and identify factors to motivate their skilled resources. Human resource (HR) departments maintain an employee retention policy for this task. Such policies are highly dependent on the data from their current staff, organization’s functions, and other previous experiences. Identification of key factors that influence employee retention is an important research undertaking. These factors do depend on the study domain. Previous studies have suggested multiple reasons for an employee to leave an organization. These can be low current pay, competitor offering better career opportunity, organization’s environment, organization’s culture or employees being bullied by the coworkers. On the contrary, an organization can also ask its employees to leave their job due to poor performance, attitude issues or financial crises. All this results in affecting overall health of an organization since new human resource needs to be evaluated, hired, trained, and transferred the domain knowledge. Therefore, skilled employee retention is crucial to many organizations. If an organization fails to retain its current employees, they must invest a considerable amount of money for training new employees again and over again.

Most of the organizations strive to keep their employees satisfied to reduce their turnover rate. Loosing skilled and experienced workers reduces organization's productivity and profitability. Previous studies [ 8 , 9 ] show that to keep “employee happy,” organizations should consider some key factors like knowing the employee well, creating an interactive, innovative, and cultural environment that indirectly keeps reminding your employees to stay loyal to their organization, offering reward, and recognizing best performers. Providing workers with a better leadership also works well in retaining the staff [ 9 ]. Few of the rapidly growing sectors like telecom, information technology and higher education need to know the key factors specific to them that can assist in retaining skilled work force. The work presented here deals with this issue by utilizing computational techniques and the emerging concepts of data mining. The key aim of this study is to find the factors that can increase employee retention in various working sectors. This work uses frequent items mining (FIM) techniques from the domain of data mining to identify factors that commonly exist together to influence employee retention. Finding frequently occurring items in a transactional database is an active research problem. The problem is commonly known as market basket analysis. The applications of finding frequently occurring items range from core computer science problems to a range of multidisciplinary areas of research. The aim of market basket analysis is to find all items in a dataset that occur together above a certain frequency [ 10 ]. Later, these frequently occurring patterns are analyzed to find associations between various factors. This study is based on following research questions.

RQ1: Which factors do the computational techniques identify as crucial for retaining employees and what is the relationship between those factors across multiple sectors in the developing countries?

RQ2: Which demographic and organizational environmental factors influence employee retention across multiple sectors in the developing countries and how these factors rank against each other?

To address the abovementioned questions, this research uses a qualitative approach. The research questions are answered through a questionnaire in this work. A survey was distributed in the major cities of Pakistan such as Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Islamabad. The survey questions were built based on the factors such as recognition and reward, advancement and growth, relationship with supervisors, work conditions, income, ethical behavior, organizational satisfaction and commitment, bullying and work harassment. These factors helped to identify the features and their correlation for employee retention. The data analysis was divided into six stages: These include (a) loading raw data from the survey forms to a text file, (b) analysis of data through one-way ANOVA, (c) identification of correlating factors through frequent items mining (FIM), (d) analysis of data through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), (e) analysis of data through Pearson correlation (PC), and (f) analysis of data through regression analysis (RA). The association rule mining technique, which is preceded by the FIM method, is used to analyze and interpret the data. The ARM is a tool that identifies the frequently occurring factors in the responses with other features. The Statistics Package for Social Science Software (SPSS) is also used to analyze the data. One-way ANOVA is used to see a significant difference in data, and the EFA is used to interpret the variables. The Pearson correlation is used to observe the correlation between independent and dependent variables, and regression analysis is used to study the impact of independent variables on the dependent ones. A combinational approach is applied to the data that helps in analyzing the responses.

1.1 Present work aim and motivation

The employee retention is a growing problem in today's modern world, and it needs to be solved using various retention strategies to improve the employees' turnover rate. There is a demand for skilled workers in areas such as hospitals, software industry, universities, banks, and many other emerging sectors. However, unfortunately, the number of qualified employees at times remains low. Organizations are therefore in a need to find ways to reduce their turnover rate. This study aims to determine the factors that can reduce such organizational problems. Specifically, the task here is to determine what factors are used for higher employee retention in various organizations. This study is focused to find the features that influence employee retention and the relationship between independent factors and employee retention. The findings will be useful for many organizations to enhance their retention strategies. This work is motivated by the employees’ perspective rather than the organizational point of view. Therefore, the finds of this work are based on the data collected from various mid- to early-career individuals instead of taking the decisions-makers’ perspective.

The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section  2 contains a detailed literature review on employee retention and other important factors for the same. Section  3 lists the methodology utilized in this work. Section  4 contains the results obtained. Section  5 lists the policy implications. Finally, Sect.  6 concludes this work and also mentions a few of the further research directions.

2 Related work

This section covers the previous work on employee retention. The section is organized factorwise where the previous work on each factor that can help retain employees is described. The section also contains relevant theories that can help build a conceptual framework for this or other such studies. Previous studies have shown the following factors that influence employee motivation to continue working with the same organization, working environment, organization commitment, reward and recognition, work performance, supervisor support, and income.

2.1 Working environment

The working environment is a factor in an organization where employee tends to show their positive abilities and leadership skills. Authors in [ 11 ] suggest that a positive working environment can have good impact on the employees. They state that different organizations may have dissimilar working environment depending on the clients the organization deals with. Ritter et al. [ 12 ] suggest a working environment that includes a culture where it involves good communication between co-workers, leadership style, and professional growth. In retaining employees, one needs to have a healthy working environment. The good working environment requires an appreciation for others, a strong relationship between colleagues, and no harassment [ 13 ]. Christmas et al. [ 14 ] suggest retaining an employee with good professional skills by improving the organization’s working environment. In order to improve their working environment, organizations should facilitate their employees and provide them necessary equipment that can help the organization in better management. The work in [ 15 ] presents a study on employee engagement. Their aim is to find correlation between purpose and joy in a work environment among the managers and their employee engagement. The domain of study is medical profession, and the data are collected from nurses. The authors use Cronbach's alpha to gauge internal consistency in a population sample. The obtained results do not find any significant correlation between nurse manager meaning and joy in their work and the employee engagement. Their study is limited to a specific set of individuals, and the same method if applied to a different dataset may yield diverse results. The work in [ 16 ] presents a study on employees’ perception on formulation of human resource policies. They also cover the implementation of various human resource retention plans in their work. The focus domain of their work is the hospitality industry. The data in their work are primarily obtained through personal interviews of employees in a specific region within a few cities.

2.2 Organization commitment

Studies have shown that employees with higher commitment stay with the organization for a longer period, whereas those having low commitment leave the organization during early stages. The employees with higher commitment also desire to stay in the organization and work hard with a positive attitude. Previous work identifies that organization's commitment is related to employees’ turnover. Higher rate of commitment level of the organization results in lower turnover. Bashir et al. [ 17 ] represented three dimensions of organizational commitment. Affective commitment is the sense of attachment toward the organization and relation with employee’s characteristics, work performance, and structure of the organization [ 18 ]. For example, an employee stays in the organization because she knows their value in the organization [ 19 ]. Continuance commitment is the realization of a cost that is related to the organization [ 20 ]. For instance, employees will stay in the organization because they know if they leave, they have to face a higher risk of not getting a new job [ 18 ]. The normative commitment deals with an emotional feeling of employees [ 17 ].

2.3 Reward/recognition and work performance

The terms reward and recognition have high impact on employee retention. These factors are used by organizations to motivate their employees. A reward is given by the organizations to the employees for their best performance, which keeps them motivated. The work in Silbert et al. [ 21 ] suggests that organizations can offer reward in the form of cash, bonuses, promotion, recognition, or announcing a worker as an employee of the month, offer trip, and other benefits. According to the authors, organizations present reward to employees so that they keep giving their best performance. Such organizations believe that reward and recognition keep employees motivated for future performance. It is important that employee should think that their perceptions are valued by the organization when they are rewarded.

Work performance is another factor that has an impact on employees and the organization. It is a critical factor for retaining employees. Reviewing the performance of employees can help both the organization and the employees. Employees can be assisted by telling them where they stand in the organization and what are their strengths and weaknesses. In a few cases where employees are highly talented, an increased pay or other benefit does not motivate them; however, performance appraisal does. The organization implies factors like performance appraisal, leadership, reward and recognition, training, and development in order to keep employees motivated to work harder .

2.4 Supervisor support

Supervisor support is defined as a relationship between employees and managers, and it is a factor that has huge impact on the employee retention. The employees tend to stay in an organization when they have good communication skills and strong support from supervisors. When employees have a supportive environment that increases their ability and comfort level of working, they tend to produce excellent results. The authors mention that an organization should be a place where the employee tends to stay. For this, the supervisors should be trained so that they can build a comfortable working environment for the staff [ 22 ]. A study suggested that improved employee’s performance results in a tendency to improve the capabilities of their work [ 23 ].

2.5 Income-related benefits

The work in [ 24 ] stated that employees and supervisors are motivated to work effectively when they are paid and provided with other benefits. There are a number of reasons for employees to be dissatisfied with a job. In addition to an individual’s domestic issues, income is one of the reasons when employees feel dissatisfied [ 25 ]. To improve retention strategies, organizations should periodically increase income scales and other benefits such as good working environment, leadership skills, the workload that employee can bear, and flexible timings. Deery et al. [ 26 ] find other factors such as flexibility in work, learning, and training, provision of resources to employees and reward system to improve employee retention. Gevrek et al. [ 27 ] explore the Schadenfreude effect in employee retention. They study five different salary rises in their work. Their study is based on a dataset constructed over a period of five years by obtaining data from university employees. The obtained results suggest that a one-time, small increase in compensation does not influence employee retention. The work in [ 28 ] aims to identify the retention strategies that have an actual effect on the employee turnover. They present a procedure to build an uplift model for testing the effectiveness of the different strategies for the task at hand. Their uplift model is based on a machine learning classifier, i.e., random forest. It is used for personal treatment learning estimation.

2.6 Bullying and work harassment

Bullying is considered as one of the serious problems at the workplace. Studies conducted worldwide identify increased bullying factor in organizations [ 29 ]. There are direct negative effects of bullying. It is stated that violence in the workplace also increases the factors such as bullying, workplace harassment, and emotional abuse [ 30 ]. The work in [ 31 ] examines the correlation between workplace bullying and high-performance work practices (HPWPs). They also suggest a few possible solutions. The obtained results suggest a positive effect of HPWPs on employee well-being. They also observe that reduced role conflict has an influence of HPWPs and less bullying. A limitation of their work is reliance on single-source, self-reported data. This may have caused biased views.

2.7 Factors that improve retention

There are a few other factors that can improve employee retention. These have been identified by an assortment of research contributions. Past work states that retaining talented employees should be the organization's primary focus. In their work, health, success and safety are correlated with retaining the employees. The studies in [ 32 ] and [ 33 ] identified some strategies for retaining employees and improving employee productivity by including factors in organizations such as appreciating employee on a good performance, mentoring, management, morale, and employee development training. Work in [ 34 ] identifies factors such as leadership skills, utilization of skill, compensation, safety and security and professional success to improve employee retention. A study [ 35 ] conducted in five companies of India on hundred managers and staff concludes that the factors such as income, training possibilities and careful selection of employee improve job satisfaction and commitment. It also has an influence on retaining employees. Another study on middle managers of Nigeria concludes three factors: compensation, advancement growth and affiliation, to be the reason to stay within the organization [ 36 ]. A research on hotel employees discovered that employee tends to stay in an organization for a longer period if they are satisfied with their job and the environment of the organization. The communication has always been a factor through which one can understand the employees better. Studies have shown that poor communication between co-workers leads to a poor employee retention. The economic circumstances and market forces in the world have an impact on the employee’s decision to stay or leave an organization. The certainty of an employee leaving a job and finding another job is when economic conditions are better. A research study found that the better the economic surroundings, the higher are the chances for an employee to leave the organization. Somewhat similar work that utilizes computational methods [ 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ] to predict customer churn can be seen in past works. Similar computational methods [ 42 ] can be utilized to predict the retention period of a particular employee in an organization. However, for this, the historical data related to the employee and the company will be required to train the model.

2.8 Employee retention factors in the developing countries

Compensation is considered to be a key factor to retain employees in the developing countries. In this context, the work in [ 43 ] presents a case study of Hong Kong and China. The data are collected from 704 respondents to identify the important compensation components by various organizations. The study also identifies the six most important compensation components from an employee perspective. In Hong Kong, these five factors are salary, merit pay, end-year bonus, annual leaves, mortgage loan, and profit sharing, whereas for China the first three factors are the same as those for the Hong Kong and the remaining three include housing provision, overtime allowance, and individual bonus. This suggests that the employee retention factors vary between various countries and economies. Lall et al. [ 44 ] evaluate the analytical framework of the globalization–employment relationship in the developing countries. The focus of their study is on the manufacturing sector employees. It is observed in the study that globalization may cause an outflux of the talent pool from the developing/underdeveloped countries to the developed nations. Lowell et al. [ 45 ] present a report on the impact of high-skilled mobility from the developing countries. The report focuses on eight countries, namely Bulgaria, South Africa, Argentina, Uruguay, Jamaica, India, Philippines, and Sri Lanka. They identify four issues yet to be researched about. First is to evaluate the particular channels of impact generated by highly skilled emigration. Second is to study the range of feedback effects on the total emigration impact. Third and fourth are how high-skilled migration increases country trade and the need for documentation. Bhatnagar et al. [ 27 ] present talent management strategies for employee retention in a developing country, i.e., India. The author finds that low factor loadings indicate low engagement scores at the beginning of the career. However, high factor loadings at intermediate stages of employment are indicative of high engagement levels. A key finding is that good engagement results in higher retention in the developing countries. The work in [ 46 ] utilizes a new Cultural Intelligence (CI) measure to empirically study the evidence on several key antecedents of CI across five countries. The measure is named as Business Cultural Intelligence Quotient (BCIQ). This or a similar measure can be adopted for employee retention.

Based on the abovementioned literature survey, the conceptual framework developed for the current study is demonstrated in Fig.  1 . As evident from this literature review, a detailed study that identifies key employee retention factors and correlates them with each other using a computational technique for the developing countries is needed. This work aims to bridge this gap.

Conceptual framework of the proposed work

3 Methodology

This section describes the methodology used to collect and analyze the data. Moreover, the section also describes the research design, area and population selected for the study, its sampling procedure/size, and the data collection procedure. This work presents a quantitative research that will answer questions asked from multiple organizations. The queries are related to factors such as work environment, work performance and motivation, organization commitment, and satisfaction, reward and recognition, income, supervisors support and bullying, and work harassment.

3.1 Research design

For the current research study, a quantitative research mechanism is carried out via questioner distribution to a targeted population. The responses were measured through the statistical instrument. Quantitative research is to be carried out for a huge number of population, and they are tested by mathematical and statistical instruments. On the contrary, qualitative research is not appropriate for this research study as qualitative research deals with data related to observation and a specific style. It does not statistically describe findings. The exploratory research answers the “why” and “how” questions, whereas descriptive research focuses on four Ws, namely “what,” “where,” “when,” and “who.” Therefore, the exploratory research methodology is also not applied here because of the close-ended nature of the questioner.

3.2 Theoretical framework

The concept of employee retention falls under the theoretical framework of leadership, motivation theory and practice. The theoretical framework of this research is specifically based on the work of Latham [ 47 ]. Latham’s theory not only provides a chronological history of motivation theory and practice, but also presents an “insider view” on leadership and motivation. He presents six distinct eras of how motivation theory and practice has evolved over the past 110 years. The first era, according to Latham, presents the birth of behavioral theory in management and motivation. Industrial and Organizational (I/O) psychologists in this era were not interested in studying inner motivations and considered money to be the primary motivator at the workplace. The second era is marked with the trend of measuring the impact of attitudes on work and employee motivation. This era placed emphasis on the decision-maker and revealed the importance of identifying variables in building theoretical frameworks. The first and second eras are deemed obsolete for the current research due to their unidimensional approach toward measuring employee motivation. However, both these eras are fed into the proposed work indirectly. In the third era, the focus turned toward assessing and forecasting factors that influence employee motivation. This era had the strongest impact on organizational practices in the developing countries. The fourth era introduced the notion of scientific theories and methods in leadership and motivation research. The present research is based on the leadership and motivation theories of the third and the fourth era due to their relevance in the developing countries. According to Latham, we are currently in the fifth era and this period is marked with putting the practitioner at the center and devising frameworks that proactively and holistically aid in taking well-informed decisions. However, the sixth era is the era of the future. Latham predicts that the future of leadership and motivation theory will take deeper roots in psychology and consider the emotions and beliefs of employees. This research aims to provide crucial lessons for practitioners in the fifth and sixth eras.

3.3 Geographical zones

This study is carried out in four major cities of Pakistan, namely Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Islamabad. The choice of these sites is made based on their population and availability of larger number of public and private organizations. Karachi is one of the biggest business hubs and also has many other service-oriented companies. Lahore is one of the known cities of the Punjab province, the populationwise largest province of Pakistan, where people are struggling to be retained in their organization, and most of the research data were collected from this zone. Islamabad, which is the capital city of Pakistan, has many organizations, and data were also collected from here. Figure  2 shows an overview of the general research design.

Overall research design

3.4 Population of the study

For this study, the target group was all categories of sectors where we could get a significant number of employees. This was done to analyze the factors which are generally applicable to all possible working classes instead of focusing on just any particular group. The organizations in which this study is carried out are large appliances venders, corporate sector, schools, universities, banking sector, government organizations, hotel industry, information technology companies, hospitals, professional engineers, and telecommunication sector.

3.5 Sampling size and data collection

The sample size is an illustration which tells about the targeted population in the research. To carry this research, a target of 1000 was set and 853 responses were received. However, to achieve more responses, the targeted population could have been increased. For the current study, enough samples were received, i.e., 85.3% turnout rate; therefore, the target was not further increased. Figure  3 lists an overall summary of the data collected. Both primary and secondary methods were used for data collection. It is important for the researchers to test the result of hypothesis, and it is also important to collect data through secondary methods to save time.

Summary of the collected data

3.5.1 Primary data collection

Primary data collection is a method of collecting genuine data. Questioners are the primary data source in this research. These were developed based on existing theories on employee retention. The collected data help to analyze patterns through FIM technique and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Questioners are the best way to gather data, and it is the most effective and efficient mechanism through which one can measure various factors. This study was conducted on many individuals in diverse organizations. Firstly, all forms were distributed in multiple organizations and within one-month the forms were returned. The data were recorded in a Microsoft excel sheet for further process. Moreover, data analysis was performed through FIM and SPSS.

3.5.2 Secondary data collection

Secondary data collection method was used for reviewing theories and literature from many sources such as research papers, articles, and thesis reports. These sources were used to relate the factors that influence employee retention and learn employee retention strategies.

3.6 Hypothesis

Properly formalized hypothesis enables to guide the research toward appropriate simulation and experiments in order to answer key research questions. For this study, seven initial hypotheses were formed. These are listed as follows:

H1: Better work environment will result in higher employee retention.

H2: Higher organizational commitment results in higher employee retention.

H3: Increase in reward and recognition system results in higher employee retention.

H4: Increase in the individual’s work performance results in increased employee retention.

H5: Higher support and supervision by managers result in higher employee retention.

H6: Increase in employee income results in increased employee retention.

H7: Higher rate of bullying and work harassment results in lower employee retention.

3.7 Research instrument

When large amount of data is needed for a study, a survey seems the most effective way to do the needful. The questionnaire for this study was designed using Google forms Footnote 1 , and also a few instances were printed in the hard copy. The survey form was divided into two sections: the first section asked for the demographic information such as gender, age, experience (overall), experience (with the current organization), organization name, organization category, and monthly income range, whereas the second section asked for the factors affecting employee retention. Moreover, the second section was comprised of 54 questions and these questions were measured by a five-point Likert scale ranging from one to five, where 1 showed strongly agree, 2 showed agree, 3 indicated neutral, 4 showed disagree, and 5 showed strongly disagree. The questions contained in the survey are listed in “ Appendix .”

A few constraints and problems were faced while conducting this study. Some companies refused to fill the survey because they thought that the survey was a bit lengthy and it will take their time. Few did not return the required number of forms requested from them. There were a very few people who did not understand English. For such individuals, questions translated into their local language were used.

4 Results and findings

This section presents the experiments conducted and their results. These experiments are mainly conducted using SPSS as a tool and FIM as a data mining technique. The demographic profile utilized here includes gender, age, overall experience, experience with the current employer, marital status, and income. The experiments are conducted mainly to answer the following questions.

Using computational techniques, which factors are crucial for retaining employees and what is the relationship between those factors across multiple sectors in developing countries?

Using computational techniques, what is the impact of motivation, recognition and reward, advancement and growth, commitment and satisfaction, work environment, individual’s performance, support and supervision by managers, employee income, bullying and work harassment on employee retention across multiple sectors in developing countries?

How do these factors improve the organization’s overall environment and increase the rate of retaining employees?

4.1 Demographic profile

Getting key information about the respondents is important before drawing conclusions about any finding. For the current study, 36% of the participants were female and 64% were male. For this study, age was categorized into five ranges: less than 20 years, between 20 and 30 years, between 30 and 40 years, between 40 and 50 years, and greater than 60 years. According to this categorization, the highest response was obtained from the 20–30-year bracket, whereas the second highest response was from 30–40 category. Based on experience, the highest number of responses came from those who had work experience of less than five years and the lowest number of responses was from individuals having work experience greater than 10 years. Among the respondents, 45.6% were single and 54.1% were married. The highest response rate, i.e., 17.5%, was from the individuals working in the higher education sector. From the salary perspective, maximum responses were from those having annual income between 4329 and 8658 USD and the lowest response rate was from those respondents who had an annual income greater than 16,500 USD.

4.2 Factor analysis

This study focuses on various factors such as working environment, organization commitment, reward and recognition, work performance, supervisor support, income, bullying, and work harassment for employee retention. Table 1 lists the mean, standard deviation, and significant difference between male and female respondents using one-way ANOVA for the employee retention factors. When both male and female were asked about the working environment in their organization, the mean for males was 1.75 and for females, this was 2.10. This indicates that male agrees on working environment to be important for employee retention, whereas females neither agree nor disagree. There was no significant difference between male and female considering organization commitment. Considering this factor, the mean for male participants is 2.52 and for female it is 2.55 indicating their disagreement. The reward and recognition factor has a significant difference. The male participants have a mean of 2.00, and females have a mean of 2.34 which lies in the agreeing range. The factor work performance has a significant difference where the mean value for males is 2.45 indicating their agreement and females have a mean of 2.90 that shows they neither agree nor disagree. When questions related to the supervisor’s administration were asked, the results indicate no significant difference between males and females. For the factor of income, there is a significant difference observed in the male and female groups, where the mean for men is 2.44 and for women it is 3.21, indicating their disagreement.

Table 2 lists the results when considering all factors and grouping these by age. The results show the highest mean for bullying factor and work harassment, considering the age-group greater than 60. The work environment has the lowest mean, i.e., 1.41 for the age-group of 40–50, whereas the highest standard deviation of 1.672 is for the factor work performance considering participants having age less than 20 years. The lowest standard deviation is 0.840 for the factor work environment within the age-group of 40–50. A significant difference is observed for the factors of working environment, reward and recognition, supervisors support, and income within the various group of ages. As shown in Table 3 , all single and married respondents have the highest mean and standard deviation in bullying and work harassment factors and the lowest mean and standard deviation in working environment factor.

Table 4 lists the results grouped professionwise. The factor work environment here got the highest mean in the domain of medicine, and the lowest mean is obtained for the individuals working in telecommunication sector. The highest standard deviation is for hotel industry, while the lowest standard deviation is for the vender category. The organizational commitment has the highest mean value in the education sector (schools) and the lowest mean in the banking sector. However, the highest standard deviation is noted in government employees and the lowest standard deviation is observed in employees of the professional engineering companies. The reward/recognition being the third factor has the highest mean and standard deviation in hotel industry, and that has the lowest mean and standard deviation in telecommunication sector employees. The factor work performance has the highest mean in medicine sector and professional engineering, while it has the lowest mean in the field of education sector (schools). The highest standard deviation of work performance is observed in the hotel industry, and the lowest standard deviation is in the professional engineering sector employees. The highest mean and standard deviation of supervisor support are also for the hotel industry, and the lowest mean and standard deviation are that of the telecommunication department. The highest mean of income is observed in the telecommunication department, whereas the lowest mean is observed for the individuals working in the hotel industry. The income factor has the highest standard deviation in medicine domain and the lowest standard deviation in the government employee. The highest mean of the factor bullying and work harassment is observed in the education sector (schools), and the lowest mean is observed for the hotel industry. There is no indication of a significant difference in factors except for bullying and work harassment.

Table 5 lists the results grouped salarywise. The work environment factor has the highest mean between those respondents who earn more than 27,166 USD annually and the lowest mean for those respondents who earn between 8767 USD and 16,235 USD. The exploratory factor analysis is used here to uncover the underlying patterns. By applying EFA on two categories of experience, the results show that these factors can further be divided into three groups. Table 6 summarizes the results of this.

4.3 Hypothesis

To test the hypothesis formed in Sect.  1 , a correlation between various employee retention factors is computed (see Table 7 ) and the regression analysis is performed (see Table 8 ). Based on these, the formed hypothesis is either accepted or rejected.

4.3.1 H1: Better work environment will result in higher employee retention

The findings for hypothesis H1 indicate that the working environment is positively correlated with employee retention, which means a better working environment in an organization results in higher employee retention. The p value is less than 0.05 which means that there is a significant relationship between working environment and employee retention. The working environment`s B value is 0.294, which means that this factor has 29.4% of an impact on employee retention. The t value also shows that it has high impact on employee retention. Based on these results, H1 is accepted.

4.3.2 H2: Higher organizational commitment results in higher employee retention

The results in Tables 7 and 8 indicate that organizational commitment is slightly correlated with employee retention. The p value for this suggests that there is no significant relationship between organizational commitment and employee retention. The organizational commitment`s B value is 0.034, which means that this factor has 3.4% influence on employee retention. The t value also shows that it has low impact on employee retention. Therefore, H2 is rejected.

4.3.3 H3: Increase in reward and recognition system results in higher employee retention

The findings in Tables 7 and 8 for hypothesis H3 indicate that reward and recognition is positively correlated with employee retention. The p value for this is less than 0.05, which means that there is a significant relationship between reward/recognition and employee retention. For this factor, B value is 0.330, which means that this factor has 33% impact on employee retention. The t value also shows that it has a significant impact on employee retention. Therefore, this results in accepting H3.

4.3.4 H4: Increase in the individual’s work performance results in increased employee retention

The findings for hypothesis H4 indicate that work performance is positively correlated with employee retention. The p value is less than 0.05, which means that there is a significant relationship between work performance and employee retention. The work performance's B value is 0.311, which means that this factor has 31% of an impact on employee retention. The t value also shows that it has significant impact on employee retention. Based on these figures, H4 is accepted.

Accepted or rejected hypothesis

4.3.5 H5: Higher support and supervision by managers result in higher employee retention

The findings for hypothesis H5 in Tables 7 and 8 indicate that supervisor support is positively correlated with employee retention. The p value is less than 0.05, which means that there is a significant relationship between supervisor support and employee retention. The B value of supervisor support is 0.253, which means that this factor has 25.3% of an impact on employee retention. Therefore, H5 is accepted.

4.3.6 H6: Increase in employee income results in increased employee retention

The findings for hypothesis H6 indicate that income is positively correlated with employee retention. The p value of this factor is also less than 0.05, which means that there is a significant relationship between income and employee retention. The B value for income is 0.299, which means that this factor has 29.9% impact on employee retention. The t value also shows that it has high impact on employee retention. Based on these figures, H6 is accepted.

4.3.7 H7: Higher rate of bullying and work harassment results in lower employee retention

Finally, the findings for hypothesis H7 indicate that bullying and work harassment is slightly correlated with employee retention. The p value for this factor is not greater than 0.05, which means that there is no significant relationship between bullying and work harassment and employee retention. Therefore, H7 is rejected. Figure  4 pictorially represents the acceptance or rejection of the seven hypothesis.

4.4 Frequent items identification

The FIM technique [ 48 ] from the domain of data mining is utilized here to find factors that frequently occur together to influence employee retention. The FIM is used over transactional databases to find all those items that occur together above a certain frequency, known as the minimum support. In order to utilize FIM in this work, first all responses were converted in a database transaction format. Each row of the database represented all responses from a unique respondent. This formed a dataset with 853 records. Later, this dataset was partitioned into various categories to identify frequently occurring job retention factors for a specific group. This categorization was done for the following attributes: gender, marital status, overall experience, job description (organization), and income. Table 9 lists the results of this experiment. There are a number of algorithms available to extract the frequent items from a dataset. The output of all these algorithms is the same. However, they consume different amounts of execution time. From an application point of view, it does not matter which FIM algorithm is utilized as long as the dataset size is not extremely large. This work utilizes the AIM Footnote 2 (Another Itemset Miner) implementation of the FIM technique to extract patterns. For the sake of completeness, Fig.  5 shows a comparison of time consumed by AIM against another FIM algorithm, i.e., k DCI ( k Direct Count and Intersect) for various minimum support (minSup) values. The figure indicates that k DCI is quicker that AIM in finding the frequent itemsets.

Performance comparison between kDCI and AIM in finding frequent items

4.5 Reliability test

A reliability test was conducted before any other test to make sure that the data are reliable. The Cronbach’s Alpha test was performed for the reliability of the data, and results indicated that the collected data were 87% reliable. Table 10 lists the results of this. The value of Cronbach’s alpha ranges between 0 and 1. A Cronbach’s alpha value greater than 0.6 is considered reliable. As shown in Table 10 , the value obtained for the collected data is 0.874 indicating the reliability of the collected data.

4.6 Comparison

This section presents a qualitative comparison between the present work and past contributions regarding the identification of factors that influence employee retention. The comparison is based on seven factors, i.e., has the work considered multiple sectors, are the data mining methods utilized, is there the use of computational methods in drawing conclusions, what is the sample size, what is the geographic location of the study, is the study employee centric or organizational centric, and does the survey contain open-ended questions. The choice of comparison methods is made here due to their closeness to the task at hand and recency. Table 11 lists the quantitative comparison. It can be observed that the present work utilizes data mining methods and covers multiple domains as compared to the past works. Additionally, the majority of the past work utilizes the computational methods to gain insights about the employee retention. The table also indicates that the use of open-ended questions is rare while collecting the data. A few works have not mentioned their sample size; therefore, this field is left blank in the table.

5 Policy implications

Labor laws in many developing countries are at a nascent stage. Debates on employee rights, such as medical cover [ 49 , 50 ], provisions of sabbaticals, data protection, diversity management, investing in human resource through training and development programs, etc., are still isolated practices only functional in a handful of multinational organizations in the developing world. This research provided an in-depth understanding of the impact of demographics on employee retention across multiple sectors, which will enable policymakers to (a) develop retention strategies in the backdrop of severe competition, (b) improve organizational long-term sustainability, (c) improve organizational brand name through providing better working conditions to employees, and (d) understand the dynamics of employee retention across multiple sectors and industries.

Increased global competition has inevitably led to a severe competition in talent acquisition and retention. Organizations, today, are not only competing for customers, but also for employees. Thus, losing a resourceful human talent can be devastating for an organization. If an organization is facing quick turnover, this can adversely affect its long-term sustainability. Talented employees are not only hard to find; they exist in clusters. Therefore, if an organization loses a dissatisfied employee, a bad word-of-mouth gets spread about the specific organization, which may then find it extremely hard to attract talented employees. Conversely, if an organization has a low employee turnover, the organization shall be able to contest and survive in highly competitive markets, ensure long-term sustainability, and celebrate a good brand name.

For policymakers, this research provides the basis to understand and re-evaluate the systems and practices of motivation; recognition and reward; and advancement and growth, by placing a strong emphasis on organizational justice. Policymakers shall be able improve their decision making through this research by considering numerous variables, which may impact employee behavior, specifically retention. This work enables policymakers to systematically diagnose and comprehend organizational structures and communicational channels in light of employees’ relationship and authority dynamics with the supervisor, thus redefining organizational esprit de corps in the developing world across multiple sectors. Through this research, policymakers shall be able to decipher the complexities of work conditions and highlight aspects which contribute to or pose a challenge to employee retention. Policymakers are interested in developing customized policies for clusters of employees who have similar ethical behavior and income level. This research dived deep into how ethical behavior and income level impact employee retention and how policymakers should distinguish between employees of varying ethical behaviors and income levels. Another policy implication of this research is that it shall enable policymakers to develop policies and practices which place emphasis on organizational commitment and satisfaction. The results revealed a strong relationship between organizational commitment and satisfaction, and employee retention. Policies and practices addressing organizational commitment and satisfaction shall not only ensure that talented employees are retained in the organization, but shall also attract new and budding talent more effectively and efficiently. Finally, bullying and work harassment has become a serious concern for several organizations in the developing countries. Gender discrimination discourages several women in the developing countries to either quit or switch their workplace. Bullying, harassment and gender discrimination are not only severely unethical, but also bring the organization in the limelight for the wrong reasons. Thus, this research provides policymakers with the insight and tools to develop proactive policies to discourage bullying and work harassment and encourage fair and equal treatment of all employees.

In a nutshell, at a microlevel, this research delivers policymakers with the right variables and tools to assess the state of employee retention in an organization. At the macrolevel, however, this research provides an in-depth analysis of trends and patterns of employee retention across multiple sectors. The research sheds light on how policymakers can encourage organizations to improve employee retention through training and development programs, medical cover, sabbatical, flexible working hours, etc. Through these techniques, policymakers can benchmark best practices for employee retention. Moreover, this work highlighted which sectors are severely suffering from low employee retention, thus allowing policymakers to target specific sectors/industries on a high-priority basis.

Like any other research, there were a few limitations of this study. The aspect of training and development was not considered in this work. Another limitation was that few respondents thought that survey forms were too lengthy and even some organizations rejected to fill out these. This study was only limited to the boundaries of Pakistan. The findings may be different if applied to a different country or may vary if considered different demographic variables.

6 Conclusion

Retaining skilled employees has always been a major concern for any organization across the globe. Organizations spend a significant amount on their training and development programs for this purpose. This work presented computational methods to identify factors for employee retention using their feedback collected through a questionnaire. The focus here was to identify factors to improve employee retention strategies based on the computational methods. A survey was conducted mainly within four sectors, namely health care, business, academics, and banking sector, to collect the data. The survey was divided into two parts: the first part included demographic information and the second part contained questions pertaining to employees’ job description and their satisfaction. The questions on the second portion were based on theories such as Herzberg's duality theory, expectancy theory, social cognitive theory, self-determination theory, social bonding theory, and sociocultural theory. The findings showed that the factors such as work environment, organization commitment, reward and recognition, work performance, supervisor support, income and bullying and work harassment have an impact on demographic profile. When these factors were correlated with employee retention, the statistical tests illustrated that, except organization commitment and bullying, all variables were identified to be strongly linked with employee retention. These factors have tended to have a power through which organization can improve the working environment and facilitate not only their client but also the employees.

From the extension point of view, there are many other factors that can be used for employee retention other than those utilized here. These may include training and development, medical cover, sabbatical and paid leaves, to name a few. This research can extend to multiple countries, and the effect of various cultures on the employee retention can be studied. The survey form can also have a few open-ended questions so that the investigation can better identify what an employee feels like when given an option to mention any factor of her choice.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

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Halim, Z., Maria, Waqas, M. et al. Identifying factors for employee retention using computational techniques: an approach to assist the decision-making process. SN Appl. Sci. 2 , 1612 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-020-03415-5

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Received : 10 April 2020

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-020-03415-5

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