Employee retention is one of the challenges facing many business organisations today. For many organisations, strategic staffing has become a concern because the ability to hold on to highly talented core employees can be crucial to future survival. This empirical study examined the current human resource management (HRM) practices of Australian organisations in the retention of their core employees. In particular, the research identified the core elements of HRM practices, which strongly influence the decision for core employees to stay. The study comprise three phases: (1) a preliminary investigation, utilising the Delphi Technique to obtain the opinions of an expert panel of thirteen, (2) in-depth interviews, involving twelve human resource managers of Australian organisations and (3) a quantitative survey of 800 employees from nine Australian organisations. The findings revealed greater insights into the HRM-retention relationship and provided empirical validation of the relationship. More specifically, the research identified eight retention factors that influence the decision of core employees to stay. These specific factors consisted of two bundles of practices: HR factors (e.g., person organisational fit, remuneration, reward and recognition, training and career development, challenging job opportunities) and Organisational factors (e.g., leadership behaviour, company culture and policies, teamwork relationship and satisfactory work environment). The outcome of the HRM-retention relationship was examined through organisational commitment and turnover intention using multiple regression analysis. The findings of this study revealed positive significant co-relationships between the eight factors and organisational commitment. Moreover, it was highlighted that commitment acted as a partial mediator of remuneration, recognition and reward, training and career development and work environment on intent to stay. Commitment fully mediated the relationship person organisational fit, teamwork relationship, culture and policies and intention to stay. The study produced a model suitable for use by human resource practitioners as a guide in determining what initiatives an organisation should adopt to retain their critical employees. This research has also made a contribution by illuminating the current employment relationships in Australian organisations and providing relevant empirical evidence to support the theoretical model of Human Resource Architecture, developed by Lepak and Snell (1999) and, as a result, creating a configuration for an Australian Human Resource Architecture model.

Background: The topical business subject, motivation, is claimed to have a positive correlation with performance, making the subject highly relevant and important for contemporary companies around the world. As capital goods industries are today changing strategies into integrated solution customer offerings, motivation at all units of the value chain is a matter of increasing importance. Being part of an integrated solution strategy, non-core units are contributing to the overall package offered to customers, but typically in less organizational focus and with lack of stability due to e.g. outsourcing trends. As their importance might at times be overlooked, what affects their motivation?Aim: The main focus of this thesis is on motivation within a non-core unit. The studied single case is an Ericsson non-core unit, SITE. The aim of this study is to contribute to an understanding of what affects motivation for employees working in a non-core unit. More closely, the authors will consider factors that can influence motivation and what ultimately affects these factors. Completion and results: With the contribution on the subject of motivating non-core employees, it is the authors understanding that employees of a non-core unit are affected by several motivational factors. Adding up the motivational factors, there are two ultimate features affecting motivation i.e. meaning and recognition. As a part of an integrated solution, and the knowledge of previously outsourced non-core units, employees need to feel that they are employed with a meaning. Further, the feature of recognition affects non-core employee motivation, and it is crucial that colleagues, other units and the organization recognize them.