The aim of this study is to evaluate the implementation of the succession policy and staff retention strategy of the Joe Gqabi District Municipality (JGDM) in the Eastern Cape. Retention and succession are located within a broader understanding of administration and management, and specifically within the New Public Management theory. A qualitative research methodology was used. Semi-structured interviews were primary means of data collection, supplemented by documentary analysis. A non-probability, stratified sample of 12 senior managers, middle managers, supervisors and professionals employed by the district municipality constituted the target group. The findings reveal that both the succession policy and the staff retention strategy were hampered by severe implementation weaknesses, resulting in failure to stem the high rate of turnover and vacancies at the municipality. The study recommends a series of measures to enhance future implementation success.These include, amongst others, implementation action plans with clear deliverables andtimeframes, monitoring and evaluation; employee participation; linking execution to individual performance; and proactively addressing issues of staff satisfaction.

The objectives of the study were: (1) to determine the relationship between organisational commitment (measured by the Organisational Commitment Scale), retention factors (measured the Retention Factor Scale) and job embeddedness (measured by the Job Embeddedness Questionnaire), and (2) to determine whether employees from different gender, age, race, marital status, tenure and job level groups differ significantly in their levels of organisational commitment, retention factors and perceived job embeddedness. A quantitative survey was conducted on a purposive sample (N = 206) of medical and IT service staff in the South African client service sector. Correlational and inferential statistical analyses revealed significant relationships between organisational commitment, retention factors and perceived job embeddedness. Significant differences between gender, age, race, marital status, tenure and job level groups were also found. The findings contribute valuable insight and knowledge to the field of Career Psychology that can be applied in the retention of employees in the medical and IT industry. The study concludes with recommendations for future research and practice. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / (M.Comm. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology))

Ongoing instability in the nursing workforce is raising questions globally about the issue of nurse turnover. It is against this background that this research examines the impact of learning, advancement and quality of work-life on turnover intentions among nurses in selected hospitals from Eastern Cape. Little research has been conducted to investigate the impact of the above mentioned subjects on turnover intentions among nurses in the South African health sector. Research questions as well as hypotheses were formulated as the means to gain data on the subject. The research employed a quantitative design with a sample size of 160 nurses and 159 were returned. The data analysis consisted of both descriptive and inferential statistics. The main findings of the study showed a positive relationship among job satisfaction, work-life rewards, learning and advancement opportunities and job satisfaction. However, there were negative relationships between job satisfaction and turnover intentions; work-life rewards and turnover intentions; and also among learning, career advancement and turnover intentions. Finally, suggestions were made to the top management in the Health sector to come up with strategies and mechanisms that improve nurses’ quality of work-life and offering them training and advancement opportunities through organisational change programs.

Ongoing instability in the nursing workforce is raising questions globally about the issue of nurse turnover. It is against this background that this research examines the impact of learning, advancement and quality of work-life on turnover intentions among nurses in selected hospitals from Eastern Cape. Little research has been conducted to investigate the impact of the above mentioned subjects on turnover intentions among nurses in the South African health sector. Research questions as well as hypotheses were formulated as the means to gain data on the subject. The research employed a quantitative design with a sample size of 160 nurses and 159 were returned. The data analysis consisted of both descriptive and inferential statistics. The main findings of the study showed a positive relationship among job satisfaction, work-life rewards, learning and advancement opportunities and job satisfaction. However, there were negative relationships between job satisfaction and turnover intentions; work-life rewards and turnover intentions; and also among learning, career advancement and turnover intentions. Finally, suggestions were made to the top management in the Health sector to come up with strategies and mechanisms that improve nurses’ quality of work-life and offering them training and advancement opportunities through organisational change programs.

O ambiente globalizado e em constantes mudanças, previsto por pesquisadores nas últimas décadas, passou a fazer parte do dia a dia das organizações. Nesse cenário de desenvolvimento tecnológico e surgimento da era da informação, a competividade se acirrou no ambiente corporativo. As organizações encontram-se diante do desafio de, com os recursos disponíveis, garantirem a vantagem competitiva diante de seus competidores, e as áreas de Recursos Humanos passam a ocupar uma posição estratégica para garantir a implementação de estratégias de negócios das organizações. Essas estratégias, normalmente, abrangem a utilização de empregados com qualidades diferenciadas em posições chave na organização, aqueles que podem ser chamados de \'talentos\'. Pesquisas de institutos e consultorias de renome apontam que uma das principais prioridades para os profissionais de RH é a Gestão de Talentos, com ênfase no desenvolvimento de políticas e práticas que visem à manutenção do empregado na organização, a sua retenção. Considerando esses aspectos, além dos altos custos envolvidos na saída e substituição de um empregado e questões como a escassez de mão de obra vivenciada no cenário nacional, esta dissertação buscou investigar a relação dos motivos que levam os empregados a permanecerem na organização, ou seja, seus fatores de retenção, e as características pessoais, profissionais e organizacionais destes empregados. A pesquisa contou com 121.532 respondentes, atuando em 407 organizações participantes de pesquisa pública que analisa a qualidade do ambiente de trabalho. No aspecto metodológico, foram desenvolvidas análises qualitativas e quantitativas para obter os fatores de retenção e verificar suas relações com as características dos empregados. Utilizou-se a técnica de Análise de Correspondência Múltipla para visualização do mapa perceptual das variáveis em estudo. Foram encontrados 13 fatores de retenção dos empregados, sendo que doze foram identificados anteriormente em estudo norte americano - Comprometimento Organizacional, Falta de Alternativas, Flexibilidade no Trabalho, Influências Não Relacionadas ao Trabalho, Investimentos, Justiça Organizacional, Localização, Oportunidades de Desenvolvimento, Prestígio Organizacional, Recompensas Extrínsecas, Relacionamentos e Satisfação com o Trabalho - e um fator foi incluído neste estudo - Estabilidade e Segurança. Os resultados mostraram associações entre os fatores de retenção e as variáveis das características dos empregados, sendo que algumas variáveis discriminam mais, como Escolaridade, Cargo e Faixa Etária, enquanto outras apresentam menor influência, como Gênero e Avaliação de Desempenho. / The globalized and rapidly changing environment, predicted by researchers in recent decades, has become part of everyday life of organizations. In this technological development scenario and rise of the information age, the competitiveness intensified in the corporate environment. Organizations are facing the challenge of, with the available resources, ensure the competitive advantage over its competitors and the Human Resources come to occupy a strategic position to ensure the implementation of business strategies of organizations. These strategies typically include the use of employees with unique qualities in key positions in the organization, those who can be called \'talent\'. Researches from renowned institutes and consultancies indicate that a top priority for HR professionals is Talent Management, with emphasis on the development of policies and practices aimed at maintaining the employee in the organization, their retention. Considering these aspects, in addition to high costs involved in releasing and replacing an employee and issues such as the shortage of labor force experienced in the national scenario, this dissertation investigates the relationship of the reasons that lead employees to remain in the organization, that is their retention factors, and personal, professional and organizational characteristics of these employees. The survey involved a sample of 121532 respondents, working in 407 organizations participating in public research that analyzes the quality of the work environment. Considering the methodological aspect, qualitative and quantitative analyzes were performed to obtain the retention factors and verify its relations with the characteristics of employees. It was used the technique of Multiple Correspondence Analysis to display the perceptual map of the study variables. 13 employee retention factors were found, twelve were identified previously in North American study - Organizational Commitment, Lack of Alternatives, Flexibility at Work, Nonwork Influences, Investments, Organizational Justice, Location, Development Opportunities, Organizational Prestige , Extrinsic Rewards, Relationships and Job Satisfaction - and a factor was included in this study - Stability and Security. The results showed associations between retention factors and variables of the characteristics of employees, some of which variables discriminate more like Education, Job and Age, while others have less influence, as Gender and Performance Evaluation.

To be competitive, organisations need to ensure that all their resources are functioning at optimal level. The most important of these resources being its employees. This is because their commitment can guarantee the attainment of organisational goals. Commitment can be attained by an organisation through the payment of internally and externally competitive remuneration and reward packages, that communicate the value of the employees to the organisation. Remuneration and reward strategies are a critical tool for organisations, as they can motivate, attract and retain high performing employees. The theories of motivation, such as, the equity theory, state that employees compare their compensation with that of others and that if they perceive inequity, can be de-motivated or leave an organisation. Therefore, it is imperative for an organisation to ensure that its remuneration and reward strategy is aligned with its business strategy, to ensure clear communication of goals. In order to prevent labour turnover and to ensure commitment and retention, the employer needs to offer total rewards, which include base pay, benefits, variable performance pay, recognition and an enabling work environment. These can be effective as they meet all employee needs as in Maslow‟s hierarchy of needs and ensure the satisfaction of the organisation‟s need for goal attainment. To gain more insight, an empirical study was conducted at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. The results of the survey indicated that the NMMU‟s remuneration and reward strategy contained certain elements of the total rewards strategy. These are variable pay in the form of a service bonus and benefits plus based pay. This strategy seems to be ineffective to motivate and retain employees due to lack of clear communication and recognition. To motivate and retain its employees, the NMMU should improve its communication and engage employees and unions in defining remuneration and reward strategies through collaboration.

rhe research study investigated the factors necessary for the development of an organizational retention ;trategy for a financial organization pertaining to key equity employees. Equity employees are those employees jescribed as such in the Employment Equity Act 55 of(1998). Bussin's (2002) Total Rewards Model was used as the theoretical framework for the study. The investigation was conducted within an interpretive paradigm and employed a qualitative methodology. Thematic analysis was used in the interpretation of the three data sources gained access through the data collection process. A previously completed employee relationship audit's findings, and the data derived from nine exit interviews formed the basis for the twenty-four semi-structured individual interviews, which were conducted with a sample ofthe employees. A purposive sampling technique enabled the identification of particular employees, who were the equity participants in the study. An additional component of the Total Rewards Model, namely Talent Management was identified from an analysis of the results. Six salient factors were highlighted in the investigation. The factors identified were: A need for a short-term incentive plan, which would provide recognition above and beyond an employee's monthly salary. The need for career development opportunities. The utilization of new skills from the training initiated by the organization. The representation of women and Black people in senior management positions. The need for formal performance support. The standardization of the recruitment process, the management of unrealistic or unattainable expectations and listening to employees' concerns. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

The Port Elizabeth (PE) hospital complex is one of the public hospital groups in South Africa facing a critical shortage of medical practitioners, with reference to doctors in particular. In the quest of finding how to retain doctors in the hospital complex, the aims of this research were to survey doctors’ career intentions; to investigate factors that could be contributing to these career intentions so as to uncover some of the reasons why doctors are leaving the public sector; and to identify effective ways in which the government and hospitals might improve retention by pointing out areas that need improvement. The factors that influence doctors’ career intention included income, work conditions, risk of contracting infection, risk of injury at work, hours of work, work load, work related stress, paid leave days, resources, personal growth and development opportunities, ongoing training opportunities, advancement and promotion opportunities, relation with co-workers, relations with supervisor/superiors, and sense of meaning. Findings revealed that even though the tendency to leave’ group (43%) was smaller than the ‘tendency to stay’ (57%), the majority (85%) of those who intended to leave were younger doctors. Despite some significant differences in responses between the two groups, results revealed that both groups were dissatisfied with almost all conditions of work apart from relationships with supervisors and co-workers. To a large extent, both groups revealed that work conditions are better in the private hospitals than in their current hospitals. viii The fact that some doctors could stay in the public hospital sector despite intense dissatisfaction with conditions of work, and despite the perception that that there are better options in the private hospitals could be attributed to the fact that most of these doctors are older and are at their retirement stage . Adding to this is that most of these doctors, who indicated willingness to say, scored high in sense of meaning as a factor influencing their career intention. This research was based on the assumption that there was no retention strategy put in place to solve the problems facing PE hospital complex. However, during this research a strategy was being developed and implemented by the Eastern Cape Department of Health. Therefore, evaluation and recommendations of the strategy are provided in the conclusions of the study. These recommendations relate not only to the implementation of the strategy, but improving it to accommodate all problems currently facing the doctors and finding ways and means of making the strategy sustainable; creating private-public partnerships; focusing on creating a sense of meaning amongst the doctors (especially the younger ones) and focusing on retaining the risk group which was the younger doctors.

The harsh realities currently facing public hospitals such as budget cuts, understaffing and poor working conditions, have resulted in nurses experiencing low morale and finding it increasingly difficult to stay in the public health sector. The obvious targeting of South African nurses by recruitment agencies with job offers to work overseas is causing a massive skills’ drain that the country cannot afford. The situation is further compounded by the fact that the government is freezing posts of those nurses who have resigned. Consequently, nurses who are currently working in these hospitals have to cope with unreasonable workloads. Public hospitals are nowadays faced with the challenge of delivering quality health care within the constraints of gross staff shortages, and an increasingly competitive global health environment. The main objective of this study was to identify strategies that can be implemented by hospitals in order to reduce turnover, thereby enhancing retention of staff. Interviews were conducted with the matrons-in-charge of the hospitals under study to investigate strategies that are in place to improve retention. Secondary data regarding staff turnover in the hospitals under study was collected and analysed. It emerged that there are no concrete strategies in place to lower turnover. Hospitals are indeed experiencing staff turnover and posts that were vacated by those nurses that have resigned are frozen. The literature survey revealed three strategies that can be utilised to retain employees, namely, motivation strategies, effective leadership strategies and human resources strategies. Based on various literature reviews, it was concluded that the three strategies are interrelated. The empirical survey was conducted at the three selected hospitals, to determine the extent to which the retention strategies identified in the literature survey are being utilised. All three are invariably used in the hospitals. It is evident that the leadership behaviour in these hospitals affects the level of motivation of employees. The extent to which some of the human resources strategies are utilised invariably leads to low morale and dissatisfaction among employees. Lastly, research findings were assessed with the aim of drawing conclusions so that appropriate recommendations could be made. Recommendations focused on the retention strategies that can be implemented to boost morale of employees and enhance retention.

There is no question that effective talent management requires a well-defined process. Talent management includes all talent processes needed to optimise people within an organization. The processes include: attracting, recruiting targeted selection, performance management, succession planning, talent reviews, development planning and support, career development, and workforce planning. The hired employees should be developed to mould into the organization culture so that they support the vision and mission of the organization. Retention of key employee is critical to the long term success of business as it ensures customer satisfaction, product sales, and satisfied co-workers, reporting staff, effective succession planning and a deeply embedded organisational knowledge and learning culture. iii The research problem in this study was to investigate how successfully Talent Management and Employee Retention strategies been implemented at the Bank of Zambia. To achieve this objective a comprehensive study was undertaken on talent management and employee retention. The study involved conducting a literature survey to understand the processes that are necessary for implementation of talent management and employee retention in an organization. An empirical study was later conducted to investigate whether the processes of talent management and employee retention have been successfully implemented at the Bank of Zambia. The survey was compared to the literature review to determine whether the Bank of Zambia complied with the findings in the literature review. The main findings from this research are that for talent management to be successful, the initial step of planning right from the strategic point of aligning to talent goals to business goals through to succession planning should be well conducted. This process needed special attention. As much as the empirical study showed a case of progress towards engagement, there was concern raised regarding job security. Some employees perceived that they were insecure in their job. Compensation and rewards were also perceived to lack equity in their distribution and that promotion and career progression were below expectation for may employees The final observation from the investigation was that the organizational culture was not well adopted by respondents. . Employees perceived that the culture did not support innovation and the rewards system did not provide incentives for better performance.