Factors Affecting Employee Retention of Private Companies in Cambodia by Qualitative and Quantitative Approach

Abstract

Employee turn-over is often associated with “employee retention”. Employee retention plays an important role to keep up with other companies amidst the rapid evolvement of global economic environment. The objectives of the study are to understand the importance of employee retention, assess the factors affecting retention of private employees in Cambodia such as compensation, promotion and opportunity and growth; work environment, training and development and work-life balance and job satisfaction thus provide suggestions to private companies on what to undertake to retain its employees. The researcher employed model synthesis to determine the factors affecting employee retention from previous researches. Then, the researcher applied Delphi method technique to identify the significant factors according the experts. Pilot testing was conducted with 43 sample size. After pilot testing, the researcher surveyed 420 respondents using disproportionate stratified random sampling technique equally distributed to financial services, manufacturing, tourism and hospitality industry; education, retails and others (professional services, hospital, construction etc.). However, there were only 410 samples qualified to the analysis. The research model and research hypothesis were successfully tested by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using SPSS and Amos 26. Based on the study “job satisfaction” is driven by compensation and work-life balance. They are the significant and the most influencing factors that make private employees stay in a company. Work environment, promotion, opportunity and growth; and training and development are the least significant factors affecting employee retention. However, according to the experts during in-depth interview, the factors vary from one person to another individual needs.