THE EFFECT OF EMPLOYEE RETENTION STRATEGIES ON THE PERFORMANCE OF EMPLOYEES IN THE CASE OF COMMERCIAL BANK OF ETHIOPIA IN GURAGE ZONE

Abstract

Organizations must prioritize employee retention, especially in the fiercely competitive banking sector. Investigating how staff retention tactics affect workers' performance at the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia is the goal of this study. The main objective of this study was to examine the effect of employee retention strategies on the performance of employees in CBE,Gurage zone in central Ethiopia Region. Descriptive and explanatory research design along with quantitative and qualitative approach was employed. Cluster and simple random sampling techniques were used to select 216 employees from the branches of Gurage Zone. Primary data was collected using self – administered questionnaires and interview from branch managers. Secondary source of data was used by reviewing documents related to employee retention strategies and employee performance. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients, multiple linear regression analyses were used to analyze the quantitative data. All the quantitative data were analyzed using a Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26. Qualitative data was collected and narrated systematically using content analysis approach to support the quantitative data analyses results. The findings of the study revealed that management supervisor and employee relationship, reward and compensation, training and development, work – life balance, employee participation in decision making and communication, and employees performance level measurement have significant and positive effect on employee work performance. In general, these variables in combination have accounted 80.7% in explaining the variation inthe employee working performance. Therefore, all the independent variables played vital role on the work performance of most employees in the CBE in the study area. Hence, it is recommended that the management bodies of the CBE better to give more attention on thealready mentioned variables so as to motivate employees to uplift the productivity of the banks.