FACTORS AFFECTING EMPLOYEE RETENTION IN PUBLIC HEALTH INSTITUTIONS IN SELECTED WEREDAS OF GURAGE ZONE

Abstract

Health professionals are the most valuable assets of an organization. Their significance to organizations calls for not only the need to attract the best talents but also the necessity to retain them for a long term. The aim of this study was to assess the level of health professionals’ retention and factors affecting health professionals' retention in public health institutions in selected weredas' of Gurage zone. Descriptive and Explanatory research design along with mixed approach – quantitative and qualitative was employed. Multi – stage sampling techniques were used to select administrative towns, weredas and 298 participants. Primary data was collected through self – administered questionnaire and key informant interview, whereas, secondary data was collected through document review. Independent variables such as work environment, reward and compensation, employee engagement, work – life balance, and training and development were used to assess their impact on employee retention. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyze the quantitative data with the help of SPSS version 20. As to the qualitative data, it was collected and narrated systematically using content analysis approach. The findings of the study revealed that majority of respondents do not have an intention to stay with the institutions. This indicated that the sector employee retention problem will continue to increase, but, the sector do not prepared to mitigate this challenge. Out of the five independent variables, four variables affected the dependent variable positively, whereas, training and development had inverse relationship with employee retention. The result of the regression analysis revealed that 76.8% of the variation in the dependent variable was explained by the independent variables. Training and development was the most affecting factor which contributed 23.9% in affecting employee retention. The interview result also revealed that employee retention didn’t get the necessary attention. It is concluded that all factors significantly affected health professionals’ retention in public health institutions in selected weredas' of Gurage zone and if training and development is not supported by and integrated with other human resource management practices it will increase the intention of health professionals to leave by increasing their employability and their opportunities in other firms. Therefore; it is recommended that the sector have to work on the identified factors of employee retention and prepare a strategy to improve retention