Factors influencing employee retention: A study of manufacturing company

The rapid global economic situation has provided an opportunity for foreign investors to start business in Malaysia as well as provide job opportunities for the communities. Thus, people who have relevant knowledge, skills and abilities have choices in determining their career. In this study, three factors namely career development opportunities, compensation, and workplace flexibility (flexible working hours) have been identified that may encourage employees to make a choice in determining their career and perhaps main factors of employee retention for company. The objective of this study is to determine the relationship between career development opportunities, compensation workplace flexibility (flexible working hours) and employee retention. This study examine if career development opportunities, compensation workplace flexibility (flexible working hours) are influencing employee retention among employee in a solar panels manufacturing company which located at Kulim, Malaysia. In this study, questionnaires were distributed by self administered and total response was 193 employees. The collected data were entered and coded into dataset using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software version 22. The survey results were analyzed, generated and précised into statistical analysis which consist of descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis. Results of regression analysis showed that 36.6% of the factors in this study contributed to the employee retention. The result indicated that career development opportunities, compensation, and workplace flexibility (flexible working hours) has significant relationship with employee retention. As such, it is important for the company to improve and implement their retention strategy by providing better working style, good pay and career progression opportunities to the talented employees