Employee Intention to Stay in Colombo Based Information Technology Industry: An Investigation on the Impact of Employee Retention Factors

Abstract

Employee Retention is considered to be a major concern any industry where the employee turnover rate tends to be higher. When it comes to the Information Technology (IT) industry (where in Sri Lanka or at global level), there is a visible trend in the employee turnover when compared to the other industries. More specifically, the employee turnover of IT industry employ has been identified as a crucial issue in the Asian context including Sri Lanka. The main purpose of this paper is to identify the impact of some selected employee retention factors on employees’ intention to stay within the IT companies of the Colombo Suburbs, Sri Lanka. A model was designed and the hypotheses were empirically tested from data collected through a survey. Correlation and multiple regression analysis were carried out to test the association and the degree of impact of the selected employee retention factors on Employees’ intention to stay. The analysis results indicated that all the three independent variables (Employee Career Progression, Organizational Culture, and Flexible Working Hours) are positively associated with the dependent variable. The findings of this research also indicate that, career progression and flexible working hours has a high degree of impact on employees’ intention to stay where the organizational culture has only a negligible impact on the employees’ intention to stay. The research results will have implications for any IT organization operating within the Colombo Suburbs. This research also opens up new opportunities for academicians in studying cross-linkages among the various key factors identified by the study.