The management practices used by predominantly large organisations for the purpose of retaining talented people is key to the greater success and longer term sustainability of the business. However, these organisations continue to wrestle with appropriate management practices to retain their talented people. It is therefore of critical importance that organisations are aware of the retention practices that work, and those that don’t, in the global war for retaining talent. A non-probability sampling method was used to select a sample of high potential or talented employees that either are, or have been participants of the Leadership Academy at a large South African organisation, to participate in a series of focus groups utilising the nominal group technique which enabled the quantification of qualitative data. A total of 36 highly talented employees participated in the focus groups which were split in terms of age in order to establish if different age groups had different views. The findings of the research enabled the development of a structured argument in terms of what organisations need to start doing, stop doing and continue doing with respect to the management practices employed for the retention of highly talented people. The research further enabled the identification of a number of components to an employee value proposition (EVP) geared specifically at the retention of highly talented people in a large organisation. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The turnover of call centre agents in South Africa is higher than in most other industries. The costs incurred to retain agents versus the replacement costs of an agent are massive. This research focused on inbound call centre agents and the perception of five management practises which were compared with both managers and agents in two large call centres. The five management practises tested were communication, call centre structure, performance management, recruitment and selection, and training and development. These five practises impacted on the agents’ intention to leave by 36%. A non-probability sampling method was used to select a sample of inbound call centre agents; a total of 82 agents were surveyed. Regression, stepwise selection, Wilcoxon Scores Rank Sum test, Pearson and Spearman correlation tests were some of the tools used to interpret the survey. The research concluded that communication had the strongest correlation with an agent’s intention to leave. Communication had the best combination of a matching variable to be predicted on a stepwise selection. The research further showed that the managers’ and call centre agents’ perception differs to the extent that managers believe sufficient communication is made to keep call centre agents satisfied, and this is contrary to the agents perception. Interesting to note is that 82% of the agents have considered leaving their organisation at some point, 63% of the employees do not want to be working at their current employer in the next year, and 53% had considered leaving within the past three months. This research has contributed to the body of knowledge. Organisations and managers are well positioned to direct their focus to specific management practises identified in the research which will assist them in retaining call centre agents. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

abstract: Each year school districts across the United States are faced with the task of hiring the best teachers they can for the open positions in their schools. In many urban school districts, this task can be particularly daunting. Compared to suburban school districts, urban school districts tend to have higher teacher exit rates, which places additional strain upon the districts’ schools and their resources. Research shows that there are many factors associated with teachers’ decisions to stay at or leave a school. This study aims to determine how the common attrition and retention factors that influence a teacher’s decision to stay or leave by interviewing current and former teachers at a Title I school in an urban setting. In this study, I interviewed a small, targeted sample of highly valued teachers while I was their school leader. The interview was designed to use questions that elicit teachers’ perspectives about the retention and attrition factors identified in the research in hopes of determining patterns I could use to strategically use to build a teacher retention plan. Analysis of the responses from the interviews included a comparison of composite teacher profiles, each representing a sub-group of teachers with common attributes. This process demonstrated that while factors commonly associated with retention were important, the degree to which specific factors shaped a teacher’s decision to stay or leave is dependent upon their experience and background and where they are in the phases of their careers and life. Additionally, this study identified how school leaders can strategically use a similar interview process to retain key teaching personnel based upon their personal and professional motivations / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Administration and Supervision 2020

Educating Nurses About a Nurse Residency Program by Tammy Lea Franklin MSN, Walden University, 2012 BSN, Oklahoma City University, 2010 Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice Walden University May 2019 The problem addressed in this project was the challenges related to retention of new graduate nurses. This includes Registered Nurses (RNs), Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), and Bachelor of Science Nurses (BSNs) on two medical/surgical units in an acute care facility. The purpose was to work with a project team to develop an education module and accompanying resources to present to new medical/surgical BSNs, RNs, and LPNs through a 3-month nurse residency program. The framework guiding the project was Duchscher's transition shock which guides the stages of doing, being, and knowing for new graduate nurses as they move from classroom to the bedside. The project question was: Will an educative process specifically designed to implement a 3-month nurse residency program for new graduate RNs, and LPNs in the two medical/surgical units increase retention rates when compared to data 1 year pre-intervention? The educational modules included 6 2-hour concept based sessions delivered biweekly over a 3-month period by the medical/surgical specialty coordinators. Results showed positive and statistically significant results of a 17% turnover rate of new graduate medical/surgical nurses compared to a 33% turnover rate specific to the medical-surgical new graduate nurses 1 year pre-intervention. The project contributed to positive social change by providing education that increased retention, job satisfaction, and provided professional socialization.

Nurse managers are stakeholders in creating a culture of nurse retention. The purpose of this staff education project was to identify evidence-based best practices that promote nurse retention and to educate nurse managers about these strategies. Knowles's theory of adult learning was the theoretical framework for the project. The practice-focused question addressed whether an education program for nurse managers would increase their understanding of evidence-based strategies to create a culture of nurse retention. The education program centered on 4 themes: professional development, communication and relationships, culture and work environment, and organizational structures and support. The concepts of 5 domains-- status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness (the SCARF model)--were used to educate nurse managers about the conceptual foundations of individuals' engagement within their environment. Education was delivered using a presentation software program with a follow-up question-and-answer session. A reference toolkit was included in the program. Twenty-seven nurse managers completed a 7-question post presentation survey to assess their level of understanding related to creating a culture of nurse retention; all reported excellent and good levels of understanding based on the program. The nurse manager toolkit and education program can assist nurse mangers in developing leadership strategies supporting nurse retention and positive social change in the culture of the organization.

Volunteer firefighters make up almost 75% of the U.S. fire service. Fire service leaders face challenges in retaining volunteers, as evident by the 12% decline in volunteer firefighters since 1984. The purpose of the study was to explore what strategies fire service leaders have used to retain firefighters in the United States. The conceptual framework of this single case study was Freeman's stakeholder theory, which states that leaders can maximize the organization's performance by meeting the needs of those with a stake in the future of the organization. Face-to-face, seminstrucutred interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 5 fire service leaders from Somerset County, New Jersey who had successfully implemented strategies for volunteer firefighter retention. Interview transcripts and supporting documents were explored using a modified Van Kaam model as a basis to analyze and create common themes for coding. Through methodological triangulation, 6 volunteer firefighter retention strategy themes emerged: a) schedule accommodations, (b) nonwage benefits, (c) opportunities for employee success, (d) recognition, (e) family, and (f) recruitment. From these 6 themes, 2 of the most successful retention strategies used by fire service leaders were identified as restructuring requirements for schedule accommodation and offering professional development. Specific recommendations from the research findings for retention include offering training, flexible scheduling, providing uniforms, family inclusion, and employee recognition. Implications for positive social change include offering strategies needed to improve the retention of volunteer firefighters, which may lead to the retention of public service employees to foster a high-quality workforce to serve the public

The goal of this paper is to understand the emergence of racial disparities in college student departure trajectories during the first year of college. Race, social class background, precollege academic preparation, expectations, integration into the university, and method of tuition payment are all variables used to explain three types of student departures. During the first year, students either remained at their initial institution, transferred horizontally, reverse transferred, or dropped out. The bivariate results from the multinomial logistic regression demonstrate that Black students have nearly twice the odds of dropping out compared to White and Asian students. This racial disparity is fully explained after controlling for differences in academic preparation. In fact, once academic preparation was accounted for, Black and Hispanic students had lower odds of dropping out. The results of this study demonstrate the importance of social context when explaining retention outcomes in higher education.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Alternative splicing is a regulatory mechanism that generates multiple mRNA transcripts from a single gene, allowing significant expansion in proteome diversity. Disruption of splicing mechanisms has a large impact on the transcriptome and is a significant driver of complex diseases by producing condition-specific transcripts. Recent studies have reported that mis-spliced RNA transcripts can be another major source of neoantigens directly associated with immune responses. Particularly, aberrant peptides derived from unspliced introns can be presented by the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules on the cell surface and elicit immunogenicity. In this dissertation, we first developed an integrated computational pipeline for identifying IR-induced neoantigens (IR-neoAg) from RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) data. Our workflow also included a random forest classifier for prioritizing the neoepitopes with the highest likelihood to induce a T cell response. Second, we analyzed IR neoantigen using RNA-Seq data for multiple myeloma patients from the MMRF study. Our results suggested that the IR-neoAg load could serve as a prognosis biomarker, and immunosuppression in the myeloma microenvironment might offset the increasing neoantigen load effect. Thirdly, we demonstrated that high IR-neoAg predicts better overall survival in TCGA pancreatic cancer patients. Moreover, our results indicated the IR-neoAg load might be useful in identifying pancreatic cancer patients who might benefit from immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy. Finally, we explored the association of IR-induced neo-peptides with neurodegeneration disease pathology and susceptibility. In conclusion, we presented a state-of-art computational solution for identifying IR-neoAgs, which might aid neoantigen-based vaccine development and the prediction of patient immunotherapy responses. Our studies provide remarkable insights into the roles of alternative splicing in complex diseases by directly mediating immune responses. / 2023-08-16

Retention of students having academic difficulties continues to be a very popular intervention, even though many studies suggest that retention of students does not improve their academic success or their social and emotional attitude towards school. This study was based on an analysis of 10,875 Seminole County students that had been retained at least one time in their educational career. The study used 2006-2007 FCAT Reading and Math scores to determine the success of their retentions. Students were grouped by the categories of gender, age, race, grade retained, ESE status, ELL status and SES and their success evaluated. The study supports the conclusions of the critics of retention and, based on trends found in the data, makes some recommendations that may improve the retention process. Specifically, the study recommends (a) for students in the high risk categories alternative interventions instead of or in addition to the retention whenever possible; (b) retention in the first grade rather than in kindergarten; (c) earlier ESE screening of students at risk for retention; (d)continued progress monitoring and intervention after the retention year; (e) continued on-level math instruction for students retained for poor reading achievement; and finally, (f) getting the parents of the retained students more involved in the process.

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