Employee training, job performance and retention in the Zimbabwe Private Sector

Abstract

While globalization has created new opportunities for economic and social progress, it has also brought some costs such as the reduction of employee training programmes in the developing world and in private companies. As a result, poor employee job performance and failure to retain employees have become the norm in companies. This study explored the influence of employee training on employee job performance and employee retention in the Zimbabwean private sector. The study was quantitative in nature and it was conducted in two private sister companies namely Annualvest and Vast Africa. Stratified random sampling was used to choose the sample. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. This questionnaire comprised of four sections which measured the biographical data of the participants, employee training, job performance and retention. The training instrument was used to measure training and the individual work performance instrument (IWPQ 1, 0) was used to measure employee job performance. The turn-over intention instrument was used to measure employee retention. A statistical Software Package for Social Science (IBM- SPSS-2015) version 23 was used to analyse data. To establish the relationship between the research variables, the Spearman product moment correlation coefficient was used. Linear multiple regression analysis was performed to determine which dependent variable between job performance and employee retention is mostly affected by the independent variable (employee training). The study concluded that employee training has an influence on employee job performance and employee retention. However, a look at the different sub-scales of training shows that the availability of training proved to be the biggest predictor of job performance and employee retention of employees as compared to supervisor support and co-worker support on training. The study recommends that organisations should consider finding more resources to boost employee training. Policies must be put in place to encourage supervisor support and co-worker support on training.