Multigenerational Employee Expectations And Retention In Safaricom Limited, Kenya

ABSTRACT

The modern workforce is made up of age diverse generations of employees with different cultural backgrounds, work styles, work expectations and so on. This often raises conflict and tension. Organizations, therefore, need to be strategic at motivating and retaining these employees, without which they become dissatisfied, unsettled, disengaged and ultimately, may leave. This case investigated the influence of multigenerational employee expectations as the independent variable and retention as the independent variable, in safaricom limited in Kenya. The study hoped to help create awareness about this modern phenomenon, particularly as a human resource management concern. The study specifically set out to; evaluate the effect of workplace flexibility on retention, assess the effect of total reward on retention, identify the effect of communication style on retention and investigate the effect of work-life balance interventions on retention. Stratified sampling was used where the 1,186 target population was split into the four main departments at Safaricom Headquarters. Simple random sampling was applied to pick 10% from each stratum, making a sample size of 120 members. A Descriptive research design was used, coupled with correlation and regression analysis to test the relationships between the independent variable and the dependent variable. From the 59.17 response rate recorded, the typical characteristics of a multigenerational employee workforce, that is, age, marital status, and level of education were indicated at Safaricom Limited, including the existence of the multigenerational expectations which were the variables. The study found that there was a significant relationship between each of the independent variables; work place flexibility, total reward, communication style and work life balance, on retention at Safaricom. The study concluded that Safaricom’s ability to retain its multigenerational employees was related to the reported declining rate of staff turnover. The respective findings for each of the multigenerational expectations investigated supported this. There was evidence that Safaricom had adequately addressed each of the respective multigenerational expectations investigated. The study, therefore, recommended that Safaricom, and other modern organizations ought to be alive to the modern multigenerational employee expectations, and to address these as part of their overall strategic human resource management. This study recommended further investigation of the multigenerational employee phenomenon, for instance, using a bigger target population and sample. This may increase the generalizability, unlike this current study which used one case.