EFFECT OF QUALITY OF WORK LIFE ON EMPLOYEE RETENTION IN SELECTED BRANCHES OF COOPERATIVE BANK OF KENYA

Abstract

The intent of most organizations is to keep and maintain the best talent in a bid to enhance sustained productivity. Retaining employees motivated is a daunting task since on average, employees spend twelve hours of their daily life at the workplace. The labor turnover, expressed as a ratio or percentage encompasses movement in or out of employees in an organization. Many factors contribute to labor turnover including employee age, tenure with the organization, relative amount of pay, overall job satisfaction, characteristics of the task, employee perceptions of the work environment, better prospects career move, more security, more opportunity to develop skills, better working conditions, poor relationship with manager or team leader and poor relationship with colleagues. There has been high employee turnover in commercial banks in Kenya, particularly in the Cooperative Bank of Kenya. This study purposed to analyze the effect of quality of work life on employee retention where selected branches of Cooperative bank in Kenya were considered. The study wishes to inform the management of cooperative bank to improve on their human resource policies and strategies geared towards enhancing quality of work life. The study was particularly interested in working environment, job enrichment coupled with stress management practices and employee autonomy, and how these affect the employee retention in the aforesaid bank. The Hertzberg’s Hygiene-Motivation Theory and Maslow’s Theory were reviewed to steer the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design where quantitative approach was adopted. The target population was 67 employees that were selected from the top level, middle level and lower level management. A census was adopted where all the 67 employees participated in the study. A semi structured questionnaire was used to gather first-hand information from the targeted employees. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 was used to analyze data. It was found out that all the four variable influenced employee retention. The effect of autonomy factors on employee retention was not statistically significant (t = 0.462; p > 0.05). The stress management at work had a positive and statistically significant effect on employee retention (t = 2.797; p < 0.05). The effect of working conditions on employee retention was also positive (t = 4.383) and statistically significant (p < 0.05). The study further established that the effect of job enrichment on employee retention was negative (t = -0.392) and not statistically significant (p > 0.05). The study concluded that commercial banks ought to underscore the employee working conditions and stress management programs since they are the most influential. It was recommended that banks in Kenya should critically look into the stress management programs and working conditions in order to enhance employee motivation, satisfaction and consequently improve employee retention. The banks should also enrich employee jobs and allow them to work autonomously.