Employee Retention through Employee Engagement: Observation from Telecom Sector

Abstract

Employee engagement leads to commitment and psychological attachment and reflects in the form of high retention (low attrition) of employees. The level of engagement in employees can be enhanced by identifying its drivers (influential factors) and work on them. The construct employee engagement is built on the foundation of earlier concepts like job satisfaction, employee commitment and Organizational citizenship behaviour. Engaged employees are emotionally attached to their organization and highly involved in their job with a great enthusiasm for the success of their employer, going an extra mile beyond the employment contractual agreement. The relationship between employee engagement and employee retention is examined from the response to separate questionnaires from 132 employees who are chosen based on random sampling. The study finds that the employee retention can be improved by increasing the level of employee engagement and focusing on few non-financial drivers. Organizations can design good practices in the light of findings to retain their best talent (highly skilled and specialized human resources) without much financial burden.

Keywords: Employee engagement, Employee retention, Organizational citizenship behaviour, Job satisfaction, Employee commitment.