Current challenges that New Zealand small: Medium sized enterprises face in retention of employees: With a focus on the landscape industry

Abstract

Employee retention is a growing concern in Human Resources. Poor employee retention results in businesses incurring increased expenses. Businesses have to search for, recruit and retain employees when job vacancies occur. This is a costly process; therefore businesses are taking a greater interest in human resources and the retention of employees. There is very little literature focusing on employee retention in the landscape industry, so research collected was broadened to other industries with similar attributes to create viable results. The study investigates what factors influence employee retention in small to medium-sized enterprises with a focus on the landscape industry in New Zealand. Research is done on employee retention influencers in similar industries due to the limited amount of research on employee retention in the landscape industry. No research on large businesses was used as the principles of a large organisation would not be compatible with small – medium-sized enterprises. No primary research was used as there was only an available candidate pool of four people and it was believed this would not give viable results or insight into the topic. It was found that employee retention improved in businesses when the business’ organisational culture, values and beliefs matched those of the employees. It was found that when there was a mismatch between culture and employees, employees did not identify with or connect as well with the business, and this caused conflict and resulted in employees wanting to leave the organisation. Leadership was another key influencer on employee retention. Poor leadership causes misunderstanding, miscommunication, and therefore conflict and poor productivity, and has negative effects on organisational culture, resulting in worsened levels on employee retention. Career advancement was another significant influence on employee retention. When employees see a path to both develop and move forward within the business, this is firstly a highly motivational factor but also a factor that improves employee retention. When employees see that the business promotes internally, employees will feel there are greater opportunities at that particular business. Remuneration/ Rewards are the reason employees work in the first place. In industries such as the landscape industry where the hours are long and tiresome, improved remuneration package/rewards improve employee retention, as employees’ most desired need is being better satisfied. The final factor influencing employee retention is employee engagement, which can be improved to better retain employees. This can be done by giving employees more opportunities to take on responsibility and more challenging tasks. This will improve employee engagement as the work employees do gains more variety, and employees are actively challenged and pushed to work at their best