Retention of high-potential employees in a development finance company

Lishani Letchmiah,Adèle Thomas

doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.924

Lishani Letchmiah, Adèle Thomas

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.924

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Abstract

Orientation: The loss of high-potential employees was a concern to leaders at a South African development finance company. The research question that guided the study was: How can high-potential employees be retained in the company?Research purpose: The objective of the study was to identify factors that positively impact the retention of high-potential employees in a development finance company.Motivation for the study: The organisation that comprised the unit of study had prioritised employee development to retain high-potential employees, thereby aiming to build a strong talent pipeline and a sustainable knowledge base. A prevalent concern was that there were no formal retention programmes for high-potential employees. Accordingly, organisational leaders could benefit from understanding those retention factors that may serve to retain such employees.Research design, approach and method: A qualitative methodology promoted a deeper understanding of a social problem through a case study. Eleven purposefully chosen highpotential employees provided insights into factors they considered to be important in their retention. A content analysis of the data resulted in clusters of themes that addressed the research objective.Main findings: The following factors appeared to influence the retention of high-potential employees: leadership and organisational culture, organisational purpose, developmental opportunities, meaningful work and collegiality.Practical and managerial implications: Leaders in the company should consider factors that could influence the retention of high-potential employees. Such factors should be built into formal retention strategies based on the intrinsic needs of employees; the strengths that the organisational culture provides could be leveraged in this regard.Contribution: The practical value of the study was the highlighting of the factors that can be leveraged to retain high-potential employees in a development finance company.

Highlights

The inability to retain high-potential employees poses a concern to many organisations (Castellano, 2013), which are at risk of losing business knowledge when an employee leaves (Ortlieb & Sieben, 2012)
The present case study focused on understanding retention factors for high-potential employees at a niche South African development finance institution with a complex business model, different from that of traditional asset-backed financiers
The question which was answered was: What factors positively impact the retention of high-potential employees in a development finance company? Five major themes emerged in this regard: leadership and organisational culture, organisational purpose, developmental opportunities, meaningful work and collegiality

Summary

Introduction

The inability to retain high-potential employees poses a concern to many organisations (Castellano, 2013), which are at risk of losing business knowledge when an employee leaves (Ortlieb & Sieben, 2012). The present case study focused on understanding retention factors for high-potential employees at a niche South African development finance institution with a complex business model, different from that of traditional asset-backed financiers. Such an institution is one that provides access to financial and support services to an underserved market with the aim of contributing to the sustainable growth of the economy (Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific, 2013). These loans carry a higher risk in comparison to those offered by traditional lending institutions in developing countries

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