Employee retention within the Information Technology Division of a South African Bank

SA Journal of Human Resource Management

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Employee retention within the Information Technology Division of a South African Bank
 
Creator Mohlala, Joy Goldman, Geoff A. Goosen, Xenia
 
Subject Staff retention; IT professionals Staff retention; IT Professionals; skills shortage; technological change; job-for-life; reward and recognition; management style; qualitative research
Description Orientation: The information technology industry is faced with a shrinking pool of skilled employees causing demand to increase for these employees. This places organisations under pressure to devise retention strategies to retain these employees. This study was conducted in the Information Technology Division of a South African Bank.Research purpose: To understand the challenges faced by the bank’s information technology leadership team to retain employees.Motivation for the study: To understand the challenges faced in attracting and retaining information technology professionals, and how this can serve as input for reducing skills shortages in Information Technology Divisions.Research design, approach and method: An interpretive approach employing a case study strategy and qualitative methods was employed. Semi structured interviews were conducted with thirteen senior managers and four directors of the bank’s Information Technology Division, who were selected on a purposive basis. Data were subjected to Creswell’s four stage data analysis process.Main findings: Findings indicate that employee turnover is the main contributor of skills shortages within the studied division. The lack of a retention strategy is making it difficult for leadership to identify crucial skills that must be retained.Practical/managerial implications: Evidence suggests that this bank, although they would like to retain information technology professionals, is not creating an environment conducive to do this, as little attention is paid to the unique demands of this group of employees.Contribution/value-add: This study investigates a specific group of employees for which a unique retention strategy does not exist. In understanding the challenges that impact on attracting and retaining information technology professionals, this study can contribute to the development of a retention strategy for these employees.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2012-05-17
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Qualitative survey
Format text/html application/octet-stream text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.438
 
Source SA Journal of Human Resource Management; Vol 10, No 2 (2012); 11 pages 2071-078X 1683-7584
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/view/438/437 https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/view/438/491 https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/view/438/438 https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/view/438/422 https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/downloadSuppFile/438/733
 
Coverage South Africa — IT professionals
Rights Copyright (c) 2012 Joy Mohlala, Geoff A. Goldman, Xenia Goosen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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