Abstract:
The objective of this study was to explore the impact of selection practices on employee
retention in the apparel industry in Kegalle, Sri Lanka. The general objective of the study was
to evaluate the impact of selection practices on employee retention. The independent
variables studied were job specification, job incentives, personal attributes, and interview
orientation. The dependent variable was employee retention.
The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population consisted of 174
employees from the apparel industry in Kegalle, Sri Lanka. Stratified random sampling was
used to select a representative sample population of 120 respondents.
The researcher conducted through a survey consisting of a structured questionnaire. 120
questionnaires were randomly distributed among the newly recruited employees of the
organization. There were 30 questions related to four specific factors affecting employee
performance. In-depth interviews were conducted asking 10 questions to 10 employees. In
this research qualitative and quantitative data were analysed as the researcher adopts a mixed
method. Qualitative analysis was done by narrative analysis and IBM SPSS statistical
software was used to analyse the quantitative data.
The study proved that the employment incentives and individual attributes were critical
factors in influencing employee retention. The employment incentives are the most important
factor for employee retention among all the factors. Although the job specification is more
important factor of recruitment and selection process, the researcher identified it has less
impact on the employee retention. The study further recommended that managers should
focus on making jobs more appealing to the one who are interested, by creating different type
of financial and non-financial incentives.
