The central objective underpinning the rationale of this research is to review the

There is no question that effective talent management implementation requires a well-defined process. Talent management includes all talent management systems that are required to optimise the workforce within an organisation. The talent management system includes: talent planning, acquiring talent, developing talent, managing talent and retaining talent. Acquired talent should be developed to mould into the organisational culture so that they support the organisational objectives. The research objective of this study was to assess talent management implementation at Metrorail. To achieve this objective a comprehensive study was undertaken on Talent Management. The study involved conducting a literature review to understand the process that is necessary for talent management implementation in an organisation. An empirical study was later conducted to investigate whether the processes of talent management have been successfully implemented at Metrorail. The survey was compared to the literature review to establish whether the findings from Metrorail agreed or disagreed with the literature reviewed. As much as the empirical results showed a case of progress towards Employee Empowerment, Employee Engagement and Talent Retention, there were areas of concern with regard to Recruitment, Compensation and Rewards, Performance Management as well as Organisational Culture.

The retention of employees, especially talented ones, is a topic that is mainly discussed between HR practitioners, but is also a cause for conversation around the boardroom table. Researchers have recommended numerous policies and best practices that should be implemented to reduce employee turnover and improve employee morale. This study was conducted to find if a relationship exists between numerous independent variables and retention rate. A quantitative study was conducted via a self-administered survey questionnaire that was sent to 6 802 HR managers, owners, senior managers and executives. Constructs identified in the literature were used to design the questionnaire survey, and data were analysed from 247 completed survey questionnaires. A positive relationship exists when HR reports to senior management and where HR has the autonomy to spend on training. The presence of an HR department, the existence of retention strategies, and the involvement of senior managers in the implementation and management of retention strategies, does not have an influence on a high retention rate. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / lmgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

M.Com. (Business Management) / The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the relationship between employees’ perceptions of their leaders’ attitudes in terms of being caring, and employee retention in an insurance organisation in South Africa. The employee turnover rate in 2012 for this organisation was 24%. Non-managerial employees for the national insurance company were surveyed. The psychometric instrument used to measure the data was the Survey of Perceived Organisational Support (SPOS). Analysis of data revealed a significant difference between the employee’s perceptions of their leaders’ attitudes toward their subordinates, and employee retention. However, the age of the employees and the number of months employed by the organisation indicated a correlation. This will allow organisation leaders to be better equipped and more proactive rather than reactive in terms of employee retention actions and plans

MBA / The Information Technology (IT) industry is currently faced with a shrinking pool of IT professionals as a result of the increasing demand for these professionals. One of the major contributors to the increasing demand is the rapidly advancing technological markets, which have resulted in a widened gap between the availability and demand of IT professionals. The increasing demand for skilled IT professionals has resulted in the war for talent as organisations fight to attract and retain individuals who possess the types of skills that are scarce. The war for talent is pressurising organisations to start devising strategies for attracting and retaining targeted employees. Standard Bank South Africa Group IT (SBSA GIT) has also been affected by the war for talent. This study was conducted in order to understand some of the challenges facing the SBSA GIT leadership regarding employee retention. This study was conducted using the interpretive, case-study research design which was conducted through interviews held with the SBSA GIT leadership. The sample of interviewees comprised of four directors and thirteen senior managers. The interviews also revealed that SBSA GIT is affected by the shrinking pool of IT professionals. The interviewees indicated that there is a shortage of the skills set for which the leadership team is looking in the industry. The research findings indicate that high employee turnover is the main contributor of the skills shortages in the SBSA GIT department. The interviewees stated that the non-existence of a proper retention strategy for SBSA GIT has made it difficult for them to identify the type of skills that are critical to the organisation and which must be retained. The absence of this strategy has made it difficult for the department to come up with the standardised way of retaining employees. As a result, there is no consistency as to what managers do in their individual units. The issue of salaries was also raised as contributing factor to high turnover of employees. The interviewees stated that employees who have been with the organisation for a long time are not paid market related salaries, and end up leaving the organisation. This iv study also identifies some initiatives that can be implemented by SBSA GIT to reduce employee turnover. The recommendations provided in this study are the proposed solutions as to how the defined objectives can be realised. These recommendations include implementing the talent management process, creating dialogue with the employees, designing the employee value propositions that will be specific to SBSA GIT, and identifying the methodology that will be implemented by SBSA to implement the employee retention strategy.

There is a severe shortage of pharmacists in the Nelson Mandela Metropole with a current vacancy rate of over 50 percent on the approved posts for pharmacists (PERSAL 31 December 2007). The metropole has struggled to retain pharmacists in spite of the urban setting. The aim of this research was to measure the level of job satisfaction amongst pharmacists working in the public sector of the Nelson Mandela Metropole. The research objective was to conduct a questionnaire-based survey of pharmacists working in public sector facilities in the Nelson Mandela Metropole in order to assess their levels of job satisfaction, and report the findings with appropriate recommendations to management. For this study, the modified JDI Index survey was used focusing on the subscales; work, pay, promotion, supervision, co-workers and patient interaction. Possible retention strategies were also investigated through the use of open ended questions. The questionnaire was administered to 30 pharmacists in full time employment within the public sector in the Nelson Mandela Metropole. A total of 25 questionnaires were returned giving an 83.3 percent response rate. The pharmacists were generally satisfied with the job, their pharmacy co-workers, patient interaction and supervision but were not satisfied with salary and promotion opportunities in the public sector. Using a score from 1 to 5, with 5 indicating a level of high satisfaction, the mean scores for the six subscales were, job (3.2), income (2.1), patient interaction (3.3), promotion (2.0), co-workers (3.4) and supervision (3.7). Financial packages (23, n=25) and fringe benefits (22, n=25) were indicated as the most effective strategies in attracting and retaining pharmacists into the public service. The majority of respondents (15, n=25) agreed that the favourable working hours, flexibility of work, regular working hours with no weekend duties were the most vii positive aspects about their job. The negative aspects mentioned by the majority of the respondents (15, n=25) included poor remuneration, unrealistic notch increases and salaries that were not market-related and uncompetitive.

To enable a business to grow and to uplift the economic and social development of its employees, it is vital that skills are provided to individuals. Businesses today strive to retain employees, as their skills learnt, prove to be a valuable asset that takes years to replace. For this reason, all means available are utilised to retain employees in the workplace. The term coaching is a relatively newcomer to the world of business and is seen to take a holistic view of the individual and focuses on work, corporate values, personal needs and career development. The main objective of this study was to identify coaching strategies that can be implemented by organisations in order to ensure the retention and development of employees. Businesses have to rely on employees to help them achieve financial growth, outperform their competitors, produce innovative products and to achieve long-term goals. These tasks would be impossible to achieve if the interests of employees were neglected. It was established from the literature survey that the coaching style of leadership involved more than simply training managers in coaching skills. A whole new coaching culture needed to be implemented in businesses in order to bring about change. Coachees rely on effective coachers to provide guidance and to demonstrate the skills needed. Based on various models in the literature survey a coaching model was formulated. The empirical survey was conducted at five selected companies in the Buffalo City Municipal area. A theoretical model for organisational coaching was developed and tested by means of a questionnaire. It emerged that employees at lower levels had not been involved in any form of coaching.

Rapid changes in the business environment as a result of globalisation, mergers and acquisitions, skills shortages and demographic changes in the workplace have led to a greater realisation of the importance of talent management and its role in ensuring a sustainable and successful organisation. Attracting and retaining talent has become one of the most important activities for organisations in order to ensure their competitive advantage. Companies must now differentiate themselves from competitors by offering current and potential employees an employment offering that they value. The employee value proposition (EVP) communicates to the internal and external workforce why they should work for and remain with a particular organisation. Identifying the attributes that employees' value is important in attracting and retaining the best talent. The aim of the study was therefore to identify the EVP drivers that a) attract and b) retain employees as well as those attributes that drive both attraction and retention. The influence of demographic variables, such as age and gender, on attracting and retaining employees was also explored. A structured questionnaire, based on the Corporate Leadership Council‟s EVP model, was developed and respondents were asked to indicate the importance they attach to each EVP attribute. A total of 204 respondents from 13 medium-sized to large-sized organisations in South Africa, participated in the study. The results showed that the quality of senior leadership, quality of managers and the organisation's reputation for managing people were the most important EVP drivers of both attraction and retention. The size of the organisation's workforce was the least important attribute for both attraction and retention. In addition, the results revealed there were no significant differences between EVP attributes that attract and retain males and those that attract and retain females. Furthermore, age plays a significant role in attracting and retaining talent. These results have significant implications for companies as they should design their EVP‟s based on what employees' value and deem to be the most important to them. Organisations need to start focusing on the generational differences that are present in today's business and adapt their EVP‟s accordingly.

The South African government is currently targeting 6 per cent economic growth for the country (Mail & Guardian, 2006). The construction industry is one of the growing forces contributing to the current economic growth of South Africa. However, in the speech made by the president Thabo Mbeki, he highlighted the labour market as one of the key constraints to achieving higher and sustainable growth. It is believed that there is a skills shortage or a mismatch in the labour market (Mail & Guardian, 2006). The construction industry has seen a steady growth over the past number of years. When South Africa won the bid to host the 2010 world cup, this required more building work to be done, such as construction of stadia, hotels, etc. This has put further strain in the construction industry. As the work load increases, the companies in the industry require more resources, with the human resources being the most affected. This has seen a high rate of talented staff turnover in the industry as companies seek to increase their capacity to allow them cope with the current work load. The consulting engineering industry plays a critical role of the construction industry. The selected company is part of the electrical and mechanical consulting engineering industry which has also been affected by the high talented staff turnover. The main purpose for this research was to identify retention strategies that can be used by the selected company to reduce the turnover of their talented staff. The research also investigated methods to retain the knowledge within the company that was possibly lost due to a high talented staff turnover rate. The first step used to resolve the issues discussed above was to complete a full literature study. The literature study sought to reveal what characteristics were required in the company that ensured staff would be happy in that company and remain there for a long time. The literature study also covered what knowledge iv management methods can be used by the company to retain its valuable knowledge. Secondly, the views of current staff, ex-staff and management of the selected company on staff and knowledge management strategies were asked in an empirical study, which involved completing questionnaires and conducting structured interviews. Based on the findings of the literature study and the empirical study, the last step was to make recommendations on what strategies should be implemented to retain staff and knowledge for the selected company.

Finding and developing key talent is one of the toughest business challenges that executives face. The main problem of this study was to identify strategies that could be implemented by the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) in order to retain key talent. To achieve this objective the following procedure was followed: - Talent management strategies that were used at that time to improve retention at the BoZ were presented and discussed. Four main strategies were identified; professional scales, promotions, cash awards and flexible working hours. - Data regarding the turnover of people with key talent at the BoZ was collected and analysed. Key talent was defined and key talent at the BoZ was identified. It emerged that a retention problem was experienced among employees with a first university degree or professional qualifications such as ACCA/CIMA. The employees were mainly employed at the middle management level. - A literature study was conducted to identify talent management strategies that organisations could use to manage key talent. The literature study focused on the talent management process as a whole. Attention was focused on who should take responsibility for talent management, the importance of talent management and talent management strategies related to motivation, leadership and human resource strategies were also highlighted. The three strategies were found to be inter-related. The theoretical study formed the basis for the development of a survey questionnaire to establish the extent to which the strategies revealed in literature were utilised at the bank. The survey was administered to a randomly selected group of middle management employees at BoZ 5 and BoZ 6 levels. iv The empirical results revealed that all the strategies identified were used but that there was room for improvement in some areas. It was evident that many respondents felt that talent management was not a business priority at the bank. Many respondents felt that human resources played an adequate role in talent management but that their direct supervisors and senior management should play a bigger role than was currently the case. It was also evident from the results that most respondents felt that the leadership style of supervisors at the BoZ was effective and supportive. The extent to which some of the human resource strategies were used could lead to low morale and dissatisfaction among people with key talent. Specifically, the results revealed that most respondents felt that performance appraisals were not fairly and consistently applied or linked to incentives. On the basis of the literature study and the results of the empirical study, a talent management model was developed for the effective implementation of retention strategies. However, the effectiveness of these strategies would depend on the support of management. Managers, supervisors and employees themselves have to be involved in talent management.