Dissertation: Drivers of Engagement Influencing Employee Retention

This dissertation investigates the drivers of employee engagement that influence employee retention, focusing on perceptions of job importance, clarity of job expectations, career advancement and improvement opportunities, regular feedback and dialogue with superiors, and quality of working relationships. The research employs a positivism philosophy, a deductive approach, a descriptive design, and a survey research strategy, with a sample of 120 employees. The study analyzes primary data using quantitative techniques, including correlation and regression analysis, to assess the impact of these five drivers on employee engagement and retention. The findings highlight the significant influence of these drivers on employee engagement, organizational productivity, and employee retention. The dissertation also includes a literature review, research methodology, findings and discussion, and concludes with recommendations for future research, contributing to the understanding of employee engagement and retention strategies.

Running head: DISSERTATION
Drivers of Engagement Influencing Retention
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Acknowledgement
Thank you to all of those who have helped listened and encouraged me throughout this study. I
am indebted to my supervisor ……………………. whose guidance, advice and patience have
been immeasurable. My sincere thanks to all members of the…………… [Mention your
university/college name], both staff and students, whose continuous support have made this
thesis possible.
I would like to thank all of the participants in the study: students, teachers and Local Education
Authorities, for the time and help given throughout. Without their participation, this research
would not have been possible. In this context, I am also thankful to them, whose research work
helped me to execute this paper well.
Finally, I thank my family, without whom this thesis would not have been started or completed!
Your encouragement and support have never faltered; thank you.

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Abstract
The aim of the research is to investigate the five drivers of employee engagement influencing
employee retention. The five drivers to be analyzed are perceptions of job importance, clarity of
job expectations, career advancement and improvement opportunities, regular feedback and
dialogue with superiors, and quality of working relationships with peers, superiors and
subordinates. Engaging the employees successfully is a major issue, as the employees tend to
lose their interest and concentration due to similar and monotonous nature of their work. Lack of
employee engagement results in increased employee turnover rate for the business organizations
due to which the productivity is hampered.
It is difficult for the business organization retain the employees due to which the business
organization loose qualified and skilful employees that serve as assets. Analyzing the impact of
five drivers of employee engagement on employee retention is important, as this enables to
identify the potential gap of of employee engagement on employee retention. Identifying the
issues in the five factors of employee engagement will help in assessing the relationship between
the five factors of employee engagement and employee retention thereby, mitigating the
challenges that are faced by the business organizations.
In order to complete this research, positivism philosophy, deductive approach, descriptive design
and survey research strategy has been used. In accordance with the aforementioned
methodological tools, the researcher has selected 120 employees has been selected as the sample
size by using random probability sampling technique. The employees have been selected as the
sample size as this has helped in understanding the key drivers of employee engagement that
influences employee retention. As a result, primary data collection process and quantitative data

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analysis technique has been used, as this allowed considering the viewpoints of the employees in
terms of numbers.
From the above regression analysis, it can be see that the value of R2 and adjusted R2 is .923
and .920 respectively. The ANOVA table shows that the p-value has come to .000, which is less
than 0.05. This indicates that the null hypothesis has been rejected and the alternate hypothesis
that has been taken up in the study has been accepted. Therefore, from the analysis, it can be
stated that the five drivers that is perception of job importance, clarity of job expectation, career
advancement and improvement opportunity, regular feedback and dialogue with superiors and
quality of working relationship creates an impact on the level of engagement of the employees
within the organization. It also increases the retention power of the organization so that the level
of productivity can be increased.

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................9
1.0 Overview...........................................................................................................................9
1.1 Problem statement.................................................................................................................9
1.2 Research aim........................................................................................................................10
1.3 Research objectives.............................................................................................................10
1.4 Research questions...............................................................................................................10
1.5 Research hypothesis.............................................................................................................11
1.6 Research rationale................................................................................................................12
1.7 Structure of the dissertation.................................................................................................12
1.8 Summary..............................................................................................................................13
Chapter 2: Literature review..........................................................................................................14
2.0 Overview..............................................................................................................................14
2.1 Concept of employee engagement.......................................................................................14
2.2 Factors affecting employee engagement.............................................................................14
2.2.1 Perceptions of job importance......................................................................................15
2.2.2 Clarity of job expectations............................................................................................15
2.2.3 Career advancement and improvement opportunities..................................................15
2.2.4 Regular feedback and dialogue with superiors.............................................................16

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2.2.5 Quality of working relationships with peers, superiors, and subordinates...................16
2.3 Self-determination theory of employee engagement...........................................................17
2.4 Impact of employee perception of job importance on employee retention.........................17
2.5 Impact of clarity of job expectations on employee retention..............................................18
2.6 Impact of regular feedback and dialogue with superiors on employee retention................18
2.7 Impact of career advancement and improvement opportunities on employee retention.....19
2.8 Impact of quality of working relationships with peers, superiors, and subordinates on
employee retention.....................................................................................................................19
2.9 Challenges encountered in ensuring employee engagement...............................................19
2.10 Concept of employee retention..........................................................................................20
2.11 Factors affecting employee retention.................................................................................20
2.11.1 Work schedule flexibility...........................................................................................21
2.11.2 Health and wellness benefits......................................................................................21
2.11.3 Rewards and recognition............................................................................................21
2.11.4 Personal development.................................................................................................21
2.11.5 Motivation and engagement.......................................................................................22
2.12 Benefits of employee retention..........................................................................................22
2.13 Challenges faced in employee retention............................................................................22
2.14 Summary............................................................................................................................23
Chapter 3: Research methodology.................................................................................................24

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3.0 Overview..............................................................................................................................24
3.1 Research outline...................................................................................................................24
3.2 Research philosophy............................................................................................................25
3.2.1 Giving reasons for using positivism philosophy..........................................................25
3.3 Research approach...............................................................................................................26
3.3.1 Giving reasons for using deductive approach...............................................................26
3.4 Research design...................................................................................................................27
3.4.1 Giving reasons for using descriptive design.................................................................27
3.5 Research strategy.................................................................................................................28
3.5.1 Giving reasons for using survey research strategy.......................................................29
3.5.2 Questionnaire................................................................................................................29
3.5.3 Questionnaire development..........................................................................................29
3.6 Target population and sampling..........................................................................................30
3.6.1 Giving reasons for using random probability sampling technique...............................30
3.7 Data collection process........................................................................................................30
3.7.1 Giving reasons for using primary data collection process............................................31
3.8 Data analysis technique.......................................................................................................31
3.8.1 Giving reasons for using quantitative data analysis technique.....................................31
3.8.2 Pilot testing...................................................................................................................32
3.9 Ethical considerations..........................................................................................................32

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3.10 Limitations.........................................................................................................................33
3.11 Summary............................................................................................................................33
Chapter 4: Findings and discussion...............................................................................................35
4.0 Introduction..........................................................................................................................35
4.1 Correlation analysis.............................................................................................................35
4.2 Perception of job importance...............................................................................................36
4.3 Clarity of job expectations...................................................................................................37
4.4 Career advancement/improvement opportunities................................................................39
4.5 Regular feedback and dialogue with superiors....................................................................41
4.6 Quality of working relationships with peers, superiors, and subordinates..........................43
4.7 Regression analysis..............................................................................................................44
4.8 Summary..............................................................................................................................45
Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendations...............................................................................47
5.1 Conceptual framework.........................................................................................................47
5.2 Implications of the research.................................................................................................47
5.3 Investigation of objectives and limitations..........................................................................51
5.4 Recommendations for future research.................................................................................52
References......................................................................................................................................54
Appendices....................................................................................................................................62
Appendix 1.................................................................................................................................62

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Survey questionnaire.............................................................................................................62
Appendix 2.................................................................................................................................65
Demographic factors..............................................................................................................65

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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.0 Overview
Employees are the key pillars of the business organizations that represent the company in the
business market and in the eye of the customers. As mentioned by Saks (2006), it is the hard
work and effort of the employees that enables the business organizations to achieve
organizational goals and objectives along with ensuring increased productivity. Higher employee
engagement provides competitive advantage for the business organizations, as the companies are
able to retain their highly qualified and skillful employees and en-cash their strengths for
standing out among the competitors. Successful employee engagement can be achieved by
developing a clear perception of job importance, having clarity of job expectations, providing
career growth opportunities that mitigates stagnancy for the employees, effective communication
in terms of regular feedback and dialogue with the superiors and positive and quality relationship
with the fellow colleagues (Macey 7 Schneider, 2008).
There are various drivers of employee engagement that affects employee retention out of
which five key drivers of employee engagement are studied and analyzed in the research that
influences employee retention. Thus, be it small, medium or large, employee engagement is
important for retaining employees for all business organization.
1.1 Problem statement
Engaging the employees successfully is a major issue, as the employees tend to lose their
interest and concentration due to similar and monotonous nature of their work. Lack of employee
engagement results in increased employee turnover rate for the business organizations due to
which the productivity is hampered. As the employee lack engagement, it is difficult for them to

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be retained due to which the business organization loose qualified and skillful employees that
serve as assets for the companies. In addition to, increased employee turnover rate results in
additional financial expenses for the business organizations, as the companies have to recruit,
select and train the new employees for fulfilling the employee gap that is also time and effort
consuming (Crawford, Lepine & rich, 2010).
1.2 Research aim
The aim of the research is to investigate the five drivers of employee engagement
influencing employee retention. The five drivers to be analyzed are perceptions of job
importance, clarity of job expectations, career advancement and improvement opportunities,
regular feedback and dialogue with superiors, and quality of working relationships with peers,
superiors and subordinates.
1.3 Research objectives
The objectives of the research are:
 To understand the concept of employee engagement and employee retention
 To analyze critically the five drivers of employee engagement
 To assess the relationship between the five drivers and the employee retention
 To provide suitable recommendations for improving the five drivers of employee
engagement that help in employee retention
1.4 Research questions
The questions of the research are:
 What do you understand by employee engagement and employee retention?
 What are the five drivers of employee engagement?

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 What is the relationship between the five drivers and employee retention?
 What are the suitable recommendations for improving the five drivers of employee
engagement that help in employee retention?
1.5 Research hypothesis
The research hypotheses are:
Hypothesis 1:
H0: Perception of job importance does not affect employee retention
H1: Perception of job importance has an impact on employee retention
Hypothesis 2:
H0: Clarity of job expectation has no impact on employee retention
H2: Clarity of job expectation has an impact on employee retention
Hypothesis 3:
H0: Career advancement and improvement opportunity has no impact on employee retention
H3: Career advancement and improvement opportunity has an impact on employee retention
Hypothesis 4:
H0: Regular feedback and dialogue with superiors has no impact on employee retention
H4: Regular feedback and dialogue with superiors has an impact on employee retention
Hypothesis 5: