Employee Turnover: Causes, Consequences and Retention Strategies in the Saudi Organizations

Abstract

Employee turnover has always been one of the challenges to the human resource managers and the respective employers in any fast growing economies including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Most of the employers in the Kingdom are not aware of why employees choose to leave their organizations and why they stay. Employees who leave the organization’s request as well as those who leave on their own initiative can cause disruptions in operations, work team dynamics and unit performance. Both types of the turnover create costs for the organization. However, retaining their best employees; managers must make sure their organizations clearly communicate expectations about rewards, working environment and productivity standards and then deliver on the promise. Having said that employee turnover being such a serious problem in Middle-East organizations, there is limited research investigating it, especially studies on causes and consequences are scanty. This paper examines the causes of employee turnover, effects and suggests some strategies on how to reduce employee turnover within Saudi business context.