ASSESSMENT OF EMPLOYEE RETENTION PRACTICE AND CHALLENGES OF LOCAL NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS: -THE CASE OF SELECTED LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS IN ADDIS ABABA

Abstract

The study focused on factors influencing staff retention in Local organizations (NGOs) in selected Ethiopian NGOs using some selected civil society consortium members in Addis Ababa as cases of study. The general objective of this research was to assess and explore the phenomenon of employee retention and the retention strategy of local civil society organizations to achieve a workforce with the capability and capacity to fulfill the mission of the organization. The specific objectives of the study were to assess the status of employee retention practices in local organizations, to identify the practices and impact of employee’ retention in local NGOs and to examine challenges of retaining employees in local NGOs. The study used primary data collected through interview and structured questionnaire. The sample consisted of 84 respondents from 20 local organizations including employees, Organizational Human resource officers and Administrators. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. The data was presented in frequencies and percentages in Tables and figures, mainly pie chart and bar graph for interpretation of the findings. The research finding indicates that the local NGOs have tried to retain the staff using different retention mechanisms such as motivational and attractive working environment mechanisms. It can be concluded that local NGOs have got positive practices and processes that motivate employees to stay working with these organizations although they are challenged by the better working environment and attractive payments in the international NGOs in the country. It is recommended that, local NGOs should strive more to adopt for the market-style mechanisms like performance-related pay into the employee management of their organizations as this helps employees get motivated at the workplace like in any other business oriented private organizations and international NGOs. Moreover, local NGOs need to improve the three most important retention strategies which are identified more relevant for the employees i.e. improving the present of supportive means from management system, creating more attractive working environment and upgrading the availability of social services.