RESEARCH PROJECT REPORT

ON

“Employee Retention strategies during or post Covid”

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

Master in Business Administration

Submitted to Submitted By
Dr. Anju Tripathi Km. Neha Gupta
(Assistant Professor) (2000910700026)

Department of Management Studies

JSS ACADEMY OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION

NOIDA – 201301

Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University, Lucknow

(2020-2022)
 JSS MAHAVIDYAPEETHA

JSS ACADEMY OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION, NOIDA

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that “Km. Neha Gupta” has successfully completed the Research Project
Report titled “Employee retention strategies during or post Covid” as the partial fulfillment of
the requirement for the award of degree of Master in Business Administration (M.B.A.) by Dr.
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University, Lucknow during 2020-2022.

Mr Ankur Garg Dr. Anju Tripathi

Head, Department of Management Studies Department of Management Studies

JSSATE, Noida JSSATE, Noida
 PLAGIARISM DECLARATION CERTIFICATE

To the best of my knowledge and belief, this Research Project Report is my own work, all sources have
been properly acknowledged, and the report contains no plagiarism. I have not previously submitted this
work or any version in full or part of it, for assessment in any other University or institution for any
degree or diploma program.

Km. Neha Gupta

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I am using this opportunity to express my gratitude to everyone who supported me throughout
the course of this Research Project. I am thankful for their aspiring guidance, invaluably
constructive criticism and friendly advice during the project work. I am sincerely grateful to
them for sharing their truthful and illuminating views on a number of issues related to the
project.

I express my warm regards to Dr. Anju Tripathi for her support and guidance.

I would also like to thank my HOD, guide and all the people who provided me with the facilities
being required and conductive conditions for my project work.

Thank you

Km. Neha Gupta

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 1-15

Objectives, Importance and Scope of the 16-17

study

Literature Review 18-48

Research Methodology 49

Data Analysis and Interpretations 50-70

Conclusions and Recommendations 71-72

References 73

Appendix 74-75
INTRODUCTION

Every organization constantly requires efficient and stable human resources to work effectively.
To ensure the stability of the workforce, the top management should undertake specific measures
which will make the workplace more pleasing and attractive. When the workers themselves
prefer to continue with the same organization is referred to as employee retention.
When the working conditions are preferable and attractive, people will prefer to work in the
same organization or company. The top management should provide some value addition to the
employees through training and development activities.

Attractive monetary and non-monetary incentives can keep the employees loyal to an
organization. This will help to retain the high performers within the companies across India. The
methods or strategies which can be or must be adopted by an organization to retain employees
are known as employee retention strategies.

Benefits of Employee Retention:

An organization enjoys the following advantages by following employee retention:

1. Existing employee’s talent, skills, and values are well-known to the existing organization.
2. Existing employee’s culture, performance, fit, attitude, etc., are already judged.
3. Existing aspirations of employees and their expectations are clear
4. Employees’ adjustment to the climate and environment of the company.
5. Reduction in the cost of recruitment and training.
6. Even the family members get adjusted to the company’s environment.
7. Family welfare programs.
Methods of Employee Retention:
HR managers have to analyze the cause of mobility through exit interviews and questionnaires.
The management should take all measures for reducing external mobility.

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The various methods that can be adopted are as follows:
1. Offer a competitive pay package and all social security benefits.
2. Maintain interpersonal dynamics and friendly human relations.
3. Provide efficient career planning and development.
4. Use family involvement programs.
5. Meet all the increasing demands of employees.
6. Apply innovative practices.
7. Provide continuous training and development programs.
8. Emphasize succession planning.
9. Encourage maternal mobility and job charges.
10. Reduction in the grievances of employees and implement corrective measures to solve them.

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Retention Management Strategies:
An organization is in constant need to implement the following strategies to retain its employees in
the long run:
1. To offer competitive pay package benefits to every employee of the organization.
2. Providing training and development activities.
3. To maintain co-ordinal relations with the employees through employee recognition programs.
4. Providing career planning and development programs.
5. To redress employee grievances regarding their work.
6. To satisfy the esteem needs and self-actualization needs of employees.
7. Implementation of innovative practices.
8. Involving family members through welfare recognition programs.
9. Emphasizing succession planning and development.
10. Instilling a sound value system in an organization.

Unemployment is at record low levels. Great news for employees, but rough water for employers
trying to hang onto a steady workforce. Every month, about 3 million Americans quit their job in
search of something better. 31% of employees quit before making it to the half-year mark!

This kind of turnover is extremely expensive. By some estimates, it can cost an employer double
an employee’s salary to replace them when they quit. That cost varies across different industries,
but for some employers, it can be even higher.

Consider the employees you have working for you who have mission-critical skills that your
business relies on, employees who have reinvented their job or who are such a linchpin that the
thought of them leaving terrifies you. 25% of all employees are of this nature, what you might
consider “high risk” when it comes to retention.

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How do you win the employee retention battle? How do you keep from losing your employees in
this kind of job market? To keep your employees working for you, consider trying these seven
employee retention strategies:

1. Salary And Benefits Must Be Competitive

A recent Glassdoor survey of people in recruitment, HR, and hiring managers found that for 45%
of employees who quit, the top reason is salary. This reason was followed by career advancement
opportunities, better benefits, and location.

Is it always about the money?

According to a collection of recent surveys on employee retention, only 24% of “Generation X”

employees say that financial stability motivates them to stay in a job. Yet 56% of employees say
that health care and insurance concerns keep them in their job. Benefits that are actually
beneficial matter. Money matters. What you offer your employees in this area must be
comparable to other businesses in your industry in your region.

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After seeing those statistics, you’d be forgiven if you thought that the easiest fix for employee
retention concerns would seem to be to offer more money and more benefits. No doubt these are
two top issues that employers must consider, and for some employees, that would be necessary.

However, seeing this as the only option is a knee-jerk reaction that can cost your business more
than it can afford. Salary and benefits are important and should be considered—especially if you
are paying below industry standards—but there are other methods to retain employees other than
costly raises and benefits.

2. Hire The Right Person At The Start

Glassdoor found that 35% of those doing the hiring of new employees are doing so with the
expectation that more employees will be quitting in the coming year. It’s a little disheartening to
know that those doing the hiring are already envisioning over one-third of their hires walking out
the door.

If you hire a quitter, don’t be surprised if they quit. If you hire someone who’s a bad fit for your
business, don’t be surprised if they (or employees they’ve annoyed) quit.

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37% of hiring managers say that new hires would stick around longer if they were better
informed during the hiring process. A poor onboarding experience for a new hire builds a
foundation of negativity in the new job.

Make sure you’re being honest about what you expect of the new hire. Don’t hide or sugar-coat
aspects of the job just to get a person to bite. Transparency is key in finding the right employees.

3. Reduce Employee Pain

You can’t expect employees to function like robots. When an employee’s work and life balance
is out of whack, there’s pain. If your employee feels like she spends most of her life working
instead of living, the job becomes the bad guy.

Consider the aviation industry, and the struggle airlines are having with a pilot shortage. There
simply aren’t enough pilots to fill the airplanes, and a looming retirement wave of seasoned
pilots promises to make the problem worse.

Airlines have been working at several solutions, with one being fairly obvious: offer better
salaries than can be found elsewhere in the industry, and tempt pilots away from other airlines or
from corporate aviation. This, in turn leads the Air Force to increase salaries for pilots, a kind of
trickle down effect that will ultimately have the worst impact on those companies unable to
compete with such salaries.

What should a small business or company do if they are in a situation or an industry in which
competition for great employees is high, but the business can’t afford to pay a dollar-for-dollar
competitive salary?

Find the pain point.

Through employee surveys, direct feedback, or paying attention to industry trends, find out what
is a point of frustration for employees in your industry.

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For example, commercial pilots often have onerous schedules, living in one city and having to
fly to another city where they are “based.” They spend time surrounded by traveling strangers
(some who are not the most cheery) and in hotels instead of with family. That’s a point of pain
for some.

Alleviate the pain point.

Think of pain as the main thing to be alleviated.

Money alleviates pain, in a way, making the hassle worthwhile because the resulting paycheck
will make other areas of life less painful. But there are other ways to attack the pain problem that
some employees will consider being just as valuable as being paid more.

Using our aviation example, corporate aviation can sometimes offer more family-friendly
schedules even if they can’t match commercial salaries. They are revamping how they set up
flight schedules so that pilots can be home each night, or have shorter on-the-road schedules.

Conversely, airlines are attractive to corporate pilots who are tired of the full service (clean,
schedule, greet, stow luggage, plan) they have to handle on each flight; for most airlines, the
pilot simply has to show up to fly. Perhaps a corporate flight department might consider hiring
staff that would do much of the unskilled labor (cleaning, etc.) and fully combat all perceived
pain points to retain and attract pilots.

Don’t let the pain build elsewhere.

Good workers are easily taken for granted. Be on guard for employees who may not be
complaining, but are quietly feeling exhausted or frustrated about the amount of work expected
from them.

Some employees, because of their personality or nature, won’t even realize they are overworking
themselves. Perhaps you don’t expect it of them, but they have a work ethic that demands a
constant nose to the grindstone approach. These are employees who sometimes think in terms of

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an accounting ledger, and will rarely take time off because they don’t want to miss the income.
For these people, paid vacation helps. Gifting a random paid day off helps.

Perhaps organizational changes have created pain unintentionally. Perhaps you’ve created a pain
point by solving another problem but creating a new one. Whatever the case, communicate with
your staff and keep an eye out for areas that have inspired grumbling. Those are pain points.

4. Have Leaders, Not Bosses

Few people want to be leaders, but everyone wants to be the boss. Remember, though, that
people follow leaders, while they abandon bosses. A boss is a dime a dozen while leaders are
rare.

Do you want to keep your employees?

It’s worth knowing the five characteristics of effective leaders, because it’s going to play directly
into employee engagement, our next employee retention strategy.

● Clear direction towards the future. Good leaders let employees know where the company
is headed. Bosses don’t share information and leave employees wondering if there’s good
or bad coming down the pipe and if they should be concerned.
● Able to handle challenges. Leaders handle the many challenges that come their way
instead of intentionally or unintentionally offloading the stress onto the employees.
● Genuine desire to offer high quality. For both customers and employees, good leaders
offer the best products, services, and experience possible. Bosses are almost behind the
curve, scrambling to meet the minimums.
● A belief in the importance of people. Good leaders consider employees their most
important asset. Bosses are focused on numbers.
● Inspires confidence. Good leaders make employees feel confident about their ability to
lead them to a good place. Bosses tend to inspire passive-aggressive frustration as
employees question the decisions that have been made that have affected them negatively.

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How do you be a good leader instead of just a boss?
Be available for your employees.

Bosses often give lip service to an “open door policy”, but it’s not enough to simply invite
criticism and feedback. It’s not unusual for people to feel they can’t really express themselves for
fear of embarrassment or reprisal, even with open door policies in place.

This is about actively creating an open rapport with employees. You don’t have to become best
friends but taking the time to be friendly and engaged with your employees will pay off in
spades.

Be steady and structured.

Try a work scheduling app to streamline this process and save time. Have a good handbook and
stick to it, treating all employees and situations equally and fairly.

Anything less is chaotic. Employees don’t stick around for chaos and drama.

5. Keep An Eye On Your Managers

People leave managers, not companies.

Ever ask people about the jobs they hate and the reasons they left?

Chances are pretty good that one of the first things you’ll hear is griping about a manager or
boss, not the products, the customers, or other co-workers. Keep an eye on your managers.

People follow as they’re led, and a bad manager creates a negative mess all around.

So, while you’re taking the time to train your manager to deal with the technical aspects of their
positions, it’s in your best interest to include some “soft skills” as well. This means teaching your
managers how to encourage and motivate different types of people, personality traits, conflict
management, stress management, crisis management, and so on.

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6. Make Employee Engagement Possible
According to a Gallup poll, 56% of somewhat disengaged and 73% of actively disengaged
employees are actively looking for a different job.

That ought to get any employer’s attention.

Your first response, however, shouldn’t be a matter of blaming employees for their distraction as
a reason for their disengagement. Distraction is associated with motivation problems. As an
employer, you need to understand what motivates people to want to become fully engaged with
the work they do and what makes them merely punch in at the time clock until something better
comes along.

What motivates people to engage, care, and want to stick around and stay a part of the team?

Offer valuable learning opportunities.

Employees who are highly engaged in learning are also more engaged at work.

Just remember that the kind of learning opportunities I’m talking about isn’t the same as
on-the-job training. You should be helping your employees to grow and expand, not simply get
better at what they already do. If your training centers completely rely on increasing performance
in a current role, you’re missing the boat. Consider:

● Cross-training programs so employees have a broad skill set, not just a narrow set limited
to their specific job.
● Mentorship programs that encourage mentees to become mentors.
● Create a leadership ladder so employees know what they need to do to move up.

Good employees (the ones who are dedicated to your company—the ones you really want to
keep) want the opportunity to advance, not just maintain momentum.

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Make advancement possible.
Whether it’s job advancement, promotion, or some form of professional development, people
who feel like there is always a goal they can work for instead of a dead end are generally more
motivated.

Makes sense, doesn’t it?

How hard will you work if you know you’re only going to be treading water, instead of
advancing, for the foreseeable future of your job? Why wouldn’t you start looking for a new job
if you’re someone who is motivated by achievement?

Give employees opportunities for concrete success.

According to Entrepreneur, people have a “deep desire to feel they’re succeeding and that their
talents and capabilities are being used in a way that makes a difference to the business.”

It’s not enough for you to give vague (if well-intentioned) feedback. Your employees actually
want to see the results of their work. They want to have that concrete object that they can rest
their pride on. They need to see the results with their own two eyes.

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7. Be A Brand They Can Be Proud Of
This is an age of activism, with upcoming generations who want every aspect of their lives to be
part of a solution instead of a problem. Be a business known for the positives, known for your
involvement and support of:

● Charities and helpful organizations.

● The local community.
● Issues such as environment, education, or equality.
● Team-building and a family-like work environment.Find a way that your business can fit
such a reputation. You might have to turn your business reputation on its head. For
example, maybe you are an auto shop that donates to environmental activities, or is
known for your eco-friendly policies regarding your waste. Perhaps you run a restaurant
that regularly provides food for a local soup kitchen.Employees who are passionate and
care about the impact their lives have on the world will consider working for a positive
branded business a serious benefit.

While every business has to evaluate where their wages and benefits sit in comparison to
regional industry standards, those direct dollar concerns aren’t the only way to retain your
employees.

Just remember that your employees aren’t automatons, chugging along only for a paycheck.
They care about where they work, how they work, and who they work with. When competing in
a tight job market, it’s important to keep that in mind instead of getting in an unwinnable wage
bidding war that could wipe out your bottom lines.

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Retaining a Valuable Employee is Essential
The organization and management should understand the difference between a
valuable employee and an employee who does not contribute much to the
organization. Sincere efforts must be made to encourage the employees so that they
stay happy in the current organization and do not look for a change.

● An organization invests time and money in grooming an individual and make him
ready to work and understand the corporate culture.
● An employee, who resigns from the present organization, may join the
competitor.
● It is essential for the organization to retain the valuable employees showing
potential.
● The employees working for a longer period of time are more familiar with the
company’s policies, guidelines and thus they adjust better.
● Hiring is not an easy process.
● It has been observed that individuals staying in an organization for a longer time
are more loyal towards the management and the organization.

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Adverse Effects of Poor Employee Retention
Following are some of the adverse effects of poor employee retention −

● Loss of Company Knowledge − When an employee leaves, he takes with him

valuable knowledge about the company, customers, current projects and past
history.
● Interruption of Customer Service − Customers and clients do business with a
company in part because of the people. Relationships are developed that
encourage continued sponsorship of the business.
● Regaining efficiency − If an employee resigns, then a good amount of time is lost
in hiring a new employee and then training him. It is expensive and leads to a
temporary loss in efficiency.

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When a senior member decides to leave the organization, its effect can be felt
throughout the organization, which in some cases, leads to more resignations.

Retention of a positive and motivated employee is very important for the organization's success.
High employee turnover increases the expenses and also has a negative impact on the
organization’s morale. Implementation of an employee retention program is an effective way of
making sure that the pivotal workers remain employed while balancing and maintaining job
performance and productivity.

● Recruitment Enhancement − Effective retention strategies often begin during the

employee recruitment process.
● Employee Turnover Management − Employers implement retention strategies to manage
employee turnover and attract quality employees.
● Performance and Productivity Maintenance − Employee retention practices help support
an organization’s productivity.
● Cost Effective − An organization can significantly benefit from employee retention
programs because of a direct effect on an employer’s strategies.
● Increases Morale − Employees who enjoy what they do and the atmosphere in which they
work are more likely to remain employed with their organization over a longer period of
time.

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OBJECTIVES
1. To study and analyze various employee retention strategies.
2.To compare the during and post pandemic strategies that could be practised.
3.To study employee expectations from the organization.
4.To identify the top retention strategies preferred.

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IMPORTANCE AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Retention of a positive and motivated employee is very important for the organization's success.
High employee turnover increases the expenses and also has a negative impact on the
organization’s morale. Implementation of an employee retention program is an effective way of
making sure that the pivotal workers remain employed while balancing and maintaining job
performance and productivity.

● Recruitment Enhancement − Effective retention strategies often begin during the

employee recruitment process.
● Employee Turnover Management − Employers implement retention strategies to manage
employee turnover and attract quality employees.
● Performance and Productivity Maintenance − Employee retention practices help support
an organization’s productivity.
● Cost Effective − An organization can significantly benefit from employee retention
programs because of a direct effect on an employer’s strategies.
● Increases Morale − Employees who enjoy what they do and the atmosphere in which they
work are more likely to remain employed with their organization over a longer period of
time.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

Job retention (JR) schemes have been one of the main policy tools used by a number of OECD
countries to contain the employment and social fallout of the COVID‑19 crisis. By May 2020, JR
schemes supported about 50 million jobs across the OECD, about ten times as many as during
the global financial crisis of 2008-09. By reducing labour costs, JR schemes have prevented a
surge in unemployment, while they have mitigated financial hardship and buttressed aggregate
demand by supporting the incomes of workers on reduced working time. Looking forward,
governments need to be vigilant to ensure that JR schemes are not downscaled too quickly, and
allow viable jobs to be destroyed, or too slowly, and become an obstacle to the economic
recovery. When the health and economic situation improves, JR support needs to be better
targeted to jobs that are viable but at risk of being terminated and place a greater focus on
supporting workers at risk of becoming unemployed rather than their jobs.

Job retention (JR) schemes have been one of the main policy tools in many OECD countries to
contain the employment and social fallout of the COVID‑19 crisis. By May 2020, JR schemes
supported about 50 million jobs across the OECD, about ten times as many as during the global
financial crisis. JR schemes seek to preserve jobs at firms experiencing a temporary reduction in
business activity by alleviating firms’ labour costs while supporting the incomes of workers
whose hours are reduced. They can take the form of short-time work (STW) schemes that
directly subsidise hours not worked, such as the German Kurzarbeit or the French Activité
partielle. They can also take the form of wage subsidy (WS) schemes that subsidise hours
worked but can also be used to top up the earnings of workers on reduced hours, such as the
Dutch Emergency Bridging Measure (Noodmaatregel Overbrugging Werkgelegenheid, NOW) or
the JobKeeper Payment in Australia. A crucial aspect of all JR schemes is that employees keep
their contracts with the employer even if their work is suspended.

In the early stages of the COVID‑19 crisis, the overriding concern for governments has been to
help firms and workers deal with the sudden and unpredictable decline if not full shut-down in
business activity resulting from the government-imposed restrictions to contain the spread of the
COVID-19 virus. To maximise take up, many governments have modified existing JR schemes

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or introduced new ones. These schemes provide the necessary liquidity to firms to hold on to
their workers, including their talent and experience, and allows them to ramp up operations
quickly once economic activity recovers, without having to go through the process of hiring and
training new workers. However, as countries move out of the strict confinement phase, policy
makers have to strike the right balance between ensuring adequate support for jobs that are
temporarily unviable and limiting the extent to which subsidies reach jobs that would be
preserved anyway or that are viable in the long term.

The objective of this Brief is to discuss the main features of JR schemes deployed by countries
during the COVID‑19 lockdown, and how they should be adjusted as restrictions to economic
activities are gradually being withdrawn to continue to protect viable jobs without hindering the
reallocation of employment towards expanding firms and sectors.

During the early stage of the COVID‑19 crisis, countries have acted decisively to save jobs by
scaling up existing job retention schemes or introducing new ones. Across the OECD, they
supported over 50 million jobs, ten times as many as during the global financial crisis of
2008-09. In most countries, these schemes allow firms to adjust working hours at zero costs,
greatly reducing the number of jobs at risk of termination as a result of liquidity constraints and
preventing a surge in unemployment. Moreover, JR schemes tend to provide stronger support
than unemployment benefits to workers who are temporarily not working, mitigating financial
hardship for many workers and supporting aggregate demand.

Going forward, job retention schemes need to adjust their focus to targeting jobs that are likely to
be viable in the short- to medium-term and may also need to be differentiated between sectors
whose activity remains legally curtailed and those where activity is resuming. Governments have
a number of levers that they can use to adapt support as they start re-opening their economic
sectors:

● Gradually increase firms’ contribution to the costs of hours not worked as the health and
economic situation improves. This strengthens incentives to use subsidies for jobs that
are viable after the crisis and to increase working hours as soon as possible. In wage
subsidy schemes, employer contributions may be set to ensure a minimum level of
income.

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 ● Job retention support should be time-limited, but limits should not be set in stone.
Time-limits reduce the risk of supporting jobs that are no longer viable even in the longer
term. However, time-limits should not be set in stone as they may need to adjust
according to the health and economic situation.
● Align short-time work and unemployment benefits more closely by lowering short-time
benefits in countries where they are considerably more generous than unemployment
benefits. This can strengthen incentives for workers to resume normal working hours or
look for another job, particularly among workers in jobs whose survival is uncertain.
● Provide support for job search and career guidance. The mobility of workers from
subsidised to unsubsidised jobs can be promoted by encouraging or requiring workers on
JR schemes to register with the public employment services and benefit from their
support (e.g. job-search assistance, career guidance and training).
● Promote training while on reduced working hours. Training can help workers improve
the viability of their current job, including by making telework more effective, or
improve the prospect of finding a new one. Combining training with part-time or
irregular work schedules is easier when training courses are targeted at individuals rather
than groups, delivered in a flexible manner through online teaching tools and their
duration is relatively short.SCARPETTA, S. (2020).

The introduction of the report has mentioned the aim of this research. As per the introductory
part, the aim of this research paper is to examine the role of Human Resources Management
(HRM) towards the employees as far as curbing the adverse impact of Covid-19 is concerned.
The Literature Review has mentioned the theories of motivation that impacts on the retention
level of the employees, along with the studies conducted in the same domain. Some of the
studies have been included in which strategies of the companies have been mentioned to curb the
negative impacts of Covid-19. The quantitative method has been utilized for the same research in
which a total of 140 respondents have been selected on the scale of non-probability sampling.

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Descriptive Statistics and Correlation are the statistical metrics used for the same purpose. From
the analysis, it is found that HR managers should play their role in maximizing the satisfaction
level of their employees, and the major elements are mentioned in the analysis part. Workplace
Guidelines & Support and Access to Information and Financial benefits are some of the main
elements that should have been considered by the entities for maximizing their income potential
and values accordingly. Keywords: employee retention, human resources, health care, medical
supplies 1. Introduction The recent Covid-19 has started from the city of Wuhan, China and
engulfed the entire world into its fatal claws. The number of open cases and deaths has increased
heavily since March 2020. Mentioned below at figure 1, two graphs are showing the open cases
and deaths due to the recent Pandemic of 2020.It is obvious that the number of open cases has
now reached a level of 5 Million in all over the world. Likewise, the total cases, the number of
deaths from Covid-19 is also increasing on a per day basis. According to the World Health
Organization (WHO), locking down and restricting the people from Socializing is the only way
to overcome the challenge. The recent Pandemic in the form of Covid-19 has created a lot of
mess all over the world. After engulfing a lot of lives across the globe, the recent Pandemic has
left a lot of adverse impact on the economic well-being of the economies that include slashes of
jobs or reducing their salaries. The impact of this factor varies from country to country. It means
that its impact is adverse on some economies and lighter on the other. Nevertheless, most of the
economies are having a tough economic time. According to Elsafty (2018) (2019) analyzing
contextual problems for research purposes, a proposed model called a 9-element model to
analyze and define business anatomical models in business element research work. The model is
clearly presented online (Elsafty, DrAshrafElsafty Channel, 2020), and the two published papers
used the 9-element model (Elsafty, Elsayed and Shaaban, Egyptian student technical education).
For proper and effective research, you need to consider 9 factors that determine the business
structure of your context to be included in this business analysis and review. 9 elements to help
you understand and integrate all functions of business and management (Elsafty, Business
Research Methodology, 2019), which is used to analyze and present the context and the
introduction for the current research.Due to losing of jobs abruptly and mounting the debt
pressure, lots of employees across the globe are getting unsatisfied. The Human Resources (HR)
department in different parts of the world, and in Egypt, is focusing on the retention of their
employees professionally. For that purpose, they are taking a lot of measures and points into

21
consideration. The aim of this research paper is to examine the role of Human Resources
Management (HRM) towards the employees as far as curbing the adverse impact of Covid-19 is
concerned. The HR department is likely to retain the employees during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Especially during pandemics, employees are a strategic asset of any organization that has to be
managed, preserved and retained, with focus on experienced and skilled ones. When they feel
dissatisfied with their current job because of a lack of several variables. Consequently,
organizations lose their invested resources for competitors, employees' organizational
relationships are then damaged and moreover the morale goes down dramatically, which leads
directly to low level of retention. Business and Management Studies Vol. 6, No. 2; 2020 52
Using the 9 elements model (Elsafty, 2018), and conducting stakeholders’ analysis, through
meeting with employees and decision makers, several variables raised comparing retention
before pandemic versus during pandemic like covid-19, those variables related to periods before
covid-19 could be listed as follows : Training and development. Compensation plans. Career
plans. Organizational culture. While retention variables are totally different during pandemic,
the current case of covid-19, with major focus on the following variables as per contextual
analysis: Missing enough information of the management plan and reaction responding to
pandemic situation. Not enough clear guidelines on what to do and what to avoid while in the
workplace. No clear or even sudden information on financials during pandemic. No clear
support of employee health outside the company premises. Lack of communication on pandemic
from company official sources. Therefore, the major objectives of the research consist of the
below-mentioned: To explore the variables influencing the HR department to sustain a good
level of employee retention. To recommend possible steps or strategies that could be used by the
HR department to sustain employees' retention during Covid-19 To propose the focused role of
the HRM for retaining their employees during Pandemic in general The significance and value of
this research is broad because it links with two different aspects at the same time. On one hand
the research will be helpful for the HR department of different companies managing and
retaining employees during turbulent and critical times, like pandemic covid-19. While on the
other hand, the research would be an effective base for future researchers on pandemics related
HR practices and studies. 2. Literature Review Employees are the backbone of an entity and their
existence is more than essential for them. Retention of the employees is a broad topic, and lots of
companies look serious in this provision to maintain a healthy output with their employees

22
(Bisht, Chaubey & Thapliyal, 2016). The retention of the employees is associated directly with
the policies made and implemented by the HR Department of a company. It is mandatory for an
organization to provide their every employee the means to satisfy their needs professionally and
ethically. According to Al-sharafi, Hassan & Alam (2018), the retention of the employees
increases with their motivation. Motivation is then divided into two different factors which are
intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors. Both of these factors of motivation are essential in
generating lots of effectiveness and enhance their provision accordingly. According to Dhanya &
Prashath (2019), motivation is a driving force that enables an employee to become reactive,
efficient and productive. High motivation of the employees could maximize the potential and
satisfaction level of the employees that ultimately increases the values and productivity of the
companies in particular. There are certain factors that increase the motivation level of the
employees proactively. These factors have been divided into two main types which are intrinsic
motivation and extrinsic motivation. Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors are
valuable in providing maximum satisfaction to the employees. Theoretically, as defined by
Kuvaas, Buch, Weibel, Dysvik & Nerstad (2017), intrinsic motivational factors are non-monetary
factors that could increase the level of satisfaction among the employees, while the extrinsic
motivational factors are monetary factors that increase the level of satisfaction in the employees.
Some of the main examples of extrinsic motivation are bonuses, perks and competitive salaries.
The motivational factors tend to change among the companies as per the requirements. Both of
these methods are efficient as well as productive that ultimately value the organizations and
enhance the productivity level of the employees. Therefore, each of these factors should have
been considered as proactive for the value creation in particular. Bear, Slaughter, Mantz &
Farley-Ripple (2017) identified the role of the HRM towards their employees during
Medical-Based Pandemics and the Financial Slumps. Some of the main factors that define by the
author are as follows: Workplace Guideline and Support Access to Information and Updates on
Pandemic with Financial Benefits Health Related Quality of Life Communication and
Promoting Message These four factors have been taken into consideration in this research as
well. As per the views shared by Eliza Wong & Kin (2020), Workplace Guidelines and Support
during a hard time are always a sigh of relief that helps the employees to regain their confidence
and motivation. It increases the level of motivation of the employees and satisfies their needs
accordingly. Access to Information and Updates on Pandemic with Financial Benefits is the most

23
suitable and effective benefits that are provided by the entities to their end-users. Especially,
during hard times such as Pandemic, an organization should not get away in providing
provisional healthcare benefits to its employees, as it is one of the most important retention
techniques available to them. As per the opinion shared by Khoshnevis & Gholipoui (2017),
there are companies that give certain bonuses to their employees during hard times in order to
tackle the situation. The same factor is applicable in the context of this research as well in which
analysis of the Pandemic Bonuses have been discussed accordingly. It is also observed from the
previous analysis that companies cut the salaries of the employees during their hard times that
made them fully unsatisfied with the policies of the entity and ultimately increased employees'
turnover. There was research conducted in the same domain, and it was initiated by Khalil &
Hashim (2019). The researcher identified the importance and implication of different
motivational factors that are used for retaining the employees for a long span of time. The
researcher used both monetary and non-monetary benefits into the account and frequency
distribution has been taken into consideration. The researcher managed to find a significant
connection between motivational outputs and the satisfaction of the employees accordingly.
There was research conducted and presented by Kuvaas et al., (2017). The research was
conducted in the region of the United Kingdom (UK), in which the importance of intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation has been visualized. The research was conducted through the quantitative
method in which primary data collection method has been used. The data collection was through
the close-ended questionnaire in which descriptive statistics and linear regression has been
applied. Based on the applicable statistical metrics, it is found that the connection between
intrinsic/extrinsic motivations are high and positive with satisfaction of the employees that
ultimately assist them in retaining them for a certain time period. The research also idealized that
both of these motivational factors are productive in the hard economic times, such as the current
time. Elsafty, A. S. (2020). The Role of Human Resource Management Towards Employees
Retention During Covid-19 Pandemic in the Medical Supplies Sector - Egypt.

Long-term health and success of any organization depends upon the retention of key employees.
To a great extent customer satisfaction, organizational performance in terms of increased sales,
satisfied colleagues and reporting staff, effective succession planning etc., is dependent upon the
ability to retain the best employees in any organization. Encouraging employees to remain in the

24
organization for a long period of time can be termed as employee retention. It is a process in
which the employees are encouraged to remain with the organization for the maximum period of
time or until the completion of the project. Maertz & Campion (1998)[1] stated “relatively less
turnover research has focused specifically on how an employee decides to remain with an
organization and what determines this attachment…retention processes should be studied along
with quitting processes”. Zineldin, (2000) [2] has viewed retention as “an obligation to continue
to do business or exchange with a particular company on an ongoing basis”. Denton (2000) [3]
has clearly stated that employees who are happy and satisfied with their jobs are more dedicated
towards their work and always put their effort to improve their organizational customer’s
satisfaction. Stauss et al., (2001)[4] has defined retention as “customer liking, identification,
commitment, trust, readiness to recommend, and repurchase intentions, with the first four being
emotional-cognitive retention constructs, and the last two being behavioral intentions” . Panoch,
(2001)[5] forwarded the view that organizations today take great care in retaining its valuable
employees and good employees as they are increasingly becoming more difficult to find . Walker
(2001) [6] was of the view that managing and retaining promising employees’ is an important
fundamental means of achieving competitive advantage among the organizations. Cutler (2001)
[7] was of the view that one of the most important demands on management today in any
organization is keeping the most vital and dynamic human resources motivated and dedicated. It
is not important to see who the organization hires but what counts is who is kept in the firm.
Steel, Griffeth, & Hom (2002) [8] added to this view that “the fact is often overlooked, but the
reasons people stay are not always the same as the reasons people leave”. Researchers such as
Amadasu( 2003) [9]; Taplin et al.(2003) [10]; Gberevbie(2008) [11] have found that if
appropriate employee retention strategies are adopted and implemented by organisations
employees will surely remain and work for the successful achievement of organisational goals .
In the view of Acton et al., (2003) [12], the Human Resource Department plays an active role in
retaining its employees. It makes policies for employee betterment such that employees would be
satisfied with the organization and stay with the firm for a longer time. This shows that it is not
just retention of employees but also retention of valued skills.This shows that it is not just
retention of employees but also retention of valued skills. Researchers such as Cascio(2003)
[13];Heneman and Judge(2003) [14]; Gberevbie (2008) have agreed that an organization’s
inability to formulate and implement strategies capable of recruiting competent employees and

25
retaining them to achieve organizational goals is one of the main challenge facing organizations
in the area of performance. Workforce Planning for Wisconsin State Government (2005) [15] has
defined employee retention as “….a systematic effort to create and foster an environment that
encourages employees to remain employed by having policies and practices in place that address
their diverse needs.” According to Olowu and Adamolekun (2005) [16], it is becoming more
essential to secure and manage competent human resources as the most valuable resource of any
organization, because of the need for effective and efficient delivery of goods and services by
organizations, whether in the public or private sector. Therefore, for an organization to realize its
goals, appropriate strategies for employee recruitment and retention are sine-qua-non for
enhanced performance. Researchers such as Kaliprasad (2006) have confirmed that despite the
fact that a company may try to bring all these factors into play to enhance employee retention, an
employee can still choose to leave the workplace because of, for example, bad management.
Kaliprasad (2006) pointed out that an organization's ability to retain its employees completely
depends upon its ability to manage them. He found four interlinked processes that can be utilized
for an effective human resource management system: the motivational process; the interaction
process; the visioning process; and the learning process. Baker (2006) stressed on the fact that
hiring new employees are far more difficult as well as costlier than to keep the current employees
in the organization. That is why the core issue in any organization is to give a continuous
ongoing effort to identify and try to keep all the best performers irrespective of their age.
Gberevbie (2008) has stated that employee retention strategies refer to the plans and means, and
a set of decision-making behavior formulated by the organizations to retain their competent
workforce for performance.Human resources are complex and not easy to understand. These are
the assets which can make as well as break an organization. Retaining them will help in the
long-term growth of an organization and will also add to their goodwill. But the most difficult
task faced by an organization today is retaining as well as satisfying these resources. Although
the research paper tried its level best to reveal the various research works done and the
contributions forwarded by various researchers in the area of employee retention and job
satisfaction, but still much scope remains for more exploration in the field of employee retention
and it by taking into consideration the factors like compensation practices, leadership and
supervision, career planning and development, alternative work schedule, working conditions,
flexible working hours etc. Needless to say that these efforts should be conducted by HR

26
professionals. Fitz-enz (1990) [19] recognized that employee retention is not influenced by a
single factor, but there are hosts of factors which are responsible for retaining employees in an
organization. Management needs to pay attention to factors such as compensation & rewards, job
security, training & developments, supervisor support culture, work environment and
organization justice etc. According to Osteraker (1999) [20], employee satisfaction and retention
are the key factors for the success of an organization. The Retention factor can be divided into
three broad dimensions, i.e., social, mental and physical. The mental dimension of retention
consists of work characteristics, employees always prefer flexible work tasks where they can use
their knowledge and see the results of their efforts which, in turn, helps in retaining the valuable
resources. The social dimension consists of the contacts that the employees have with other
people, both internal and external. The physical dimension consists of working conditions and
pay. Stein (2000) [21], Clarke (2001) [22], Parker and Wright (2001) [23] have rightly observed
that organizations must utilize an extensive range of human resource management factors to
influence employee commitment and retention. Walker (2001) identified seven factors that can
enhance employee retention: (i) compensation and appreciation of the performed work, (ii)
provision of challenging work, (iii) chances to be promoted and to learn, (iv) invitational
atmosphere within the organization, (v) positive relations with colleagues, (vi) a healthy balance
between the professional and personal life, and (viii) good communications. Together, these
suggest a set of workplace norms and practices that might be taken as inviting employee
engagement. Kehr (2004) [24] divided the retention factors into three variables: power,
achievement and affiliation. Dominance and social control represents power. When personal
performance exceeds the set standards, it represents achievement and affiliation refers to social
relationships which are established and intensified. Hytter (2007) [25] found that factors such as
personal premises of loyalty, trust, commitment, and identification and attachment with the
organization have a direct influence on employee retention. She also explained that workplace
factors such as rewards, leadership style, career opportunities, the training and development of
skills, physical working conditions, and the balance between professional and personal life have
an indirect influence. Pritchard (2007) [26] was of the opinion that training and development is
one of the important retention programmes incorporated in an effort to retain their employees.
Eva Kyndt , Filip Dochy et al.,(2009) [27] have found in their study, while investigating
employee retention that personal factors such as level of education, seniority, self-perceived

27
leadership skills, and learning attitude and organizational factors such as appreciation and
stimulation, and pressure of work are of great relevance in employee retention. Das, B. L.
(2013).

Employees have been important resources to any organization. Based on their critical character,
they can be termed the life-blood of an organization. Advancement in technology has caused
most organizations to be more and more technology driven. However, this situation does not
reduce the value of employees in an organization because technology requires human resources
to operate. With issues such as globalization, competition is becoming keener and keener in most
industries. This situation also affects the job market in the sense that organization demand in
human resources to remain competitive in their respective industries is higher. To remain more
competitive, organizations need therefore not only to attract the best talents but also to retain
them on the job for a long term. The toughest challenge that organizations encounter nowadays is
not only how to manage the B. Kossivi et al.People but also how to keep them on the job as long
as possible and how to maintain them vigorous and ambitious. This study focuses on employee
retention. Employee retention is concerned with keeping or encouraging employees to remain in
an organization for a maximum period of time [1]. Mita (2014) defined employee retention as “a
technique adopted by businesses to maintain an effective workforce and at the same time meet
operational requirements” [2]. Bidisha (2013) described it as “a process in which the employees
are encouraged to remain with the organization for the maximum period of time or until the
completion of the project” [1]. According to Workforce Planning for Wisconsin State
Government (2015), employee retention is “a systematic effort to create and foster an
environment that encourages employees to remain employed by having policies and practices in
place that address their diverse needs” [3].
The objective of this literature review study is to analyze research previously carried out in the
field of employee retention to identify determining factors that are commonly identified by
various researchers as the basis of their decision to stay in the organization.
In the course of this research which is descriptive in nature, a secondary source has been used.
The types of secondary data used are research journals and books. Many researchers approached
employee retention using a group of individual factors such as employee motivation [4], job
satisfaction [1], and organizational culture [5].However, the study analyzed retention on the basis

28
of individual factors basis.Back in the 1990s, Fitz-enz (1990) observed that employee
commitment and retention is not determined by a single issue but by a cluster of factors [6]. In
previous research a number of factors associated with employee retention have been identified.
Factors that are commonly cited are developmental opportunities and quality supervision, job
stress and colleague stress [7]; compensation and appreciation of work done, provision of
challenging work, promotion and development chances, attractive atmosphere within the
organization, relationships with colleagues, work-life balance, communication [8] and
supervision [9].
According to Ghapanchi and Aurum (2011) retention factors include remuneration and benefits,
training opportunities, fair and equal treatment, organizational culture [10]. While Allen and
Shanock (2013) stressed on relationship with colleague socialization [11], Andrews and Wan
(2009) emphasized on management style and leadership to increase an organization's retention
capability . A group of researchers led by Loan-Clarke(2010) noted autonomy, work-schedule
flexibility and social support help organizations to keep their employees for a longer period of
time [13]. Christeen (2014) identified eight retention factors: management, conducive
environment, social support and development opportunities, autonomy, compensation, crafted
workload, and work-life balance . Our analysis of individual factors is mainly based on the work
of Christeen. In our opinion,the “crafted-sculpted workload” falls under management and
leadership because it is the responsibility of management to allocate work according to the
abilities of the job holder and few studies identified it as a determining factor. However, “training
and development” was added on the basis of the papers we studied.The need for organizations to
retain their talents is crucial for their ability to remain in business.
Although this study attempted to bring forth all the factors related to employee retention, this
complex area of human resource needs further investigations. Some factors such as organization
culture, training and development, autonomy are less explored than supervision and leadership
for instance. The workforce of an organization can be classified into three categories: directors,
managers and employees. Existing research did not lay enough emphasis on the category of
employees, the sector of the economy and the type of businesses that are particularly affected by
one factor or the other, though some studies did. Further investigations to better equip
organizations with knowledge necessary to improve their retention capability are needed.Kossivi,
B. (2016). Study on Determining Factors of Employee Retention.

29
The Malaysian economy is popular as a developing economy passing through several
stages forward to higher performance. The transformation of the economy contributes
significantly to
the country exportation, gross domestic product (GDP) and employment creation at a different
level of skill (Azer et al., 2018).Recently in 2019 a percent of 22.1% dross domestic product
accounts for the Malaysian manufacturing industry (Department of Statistics, 2019a, b).
Recently, appears the concern of the environmental issues, the other Malaysian manufacturing
industry as one of the developing countries more likely toward Sustainable manufacturing
practices (Lee et al., 2017).
Several researchers stated the manufacturing industry needed sustainability
as a critical strategy to be implemented (Fatimah et al., 2013; Govindan et al.,2019; Lage and
Filho, 2012).According to a study done by the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID), the remanufacturing industries in Malaysia is contribute up to RM4
billion a year to its national economy. It is potentially increased up to RM 8 billion a year if
remanufacturing practices in Malaysia are being promoted as mature as the UnitedStates of
America and developed countries.This research paper will examine the impact of COVID-19 on
the sustainability, retention and innovation performance in the country, sustainable
manufacturing industry, and higher employee retention and lower turnover rate is a crucial
issue in the past few years. Accordingly,under the impact of COVID-19. This research paper
expects more critical situations and needs new modelling and features of the crises.
Recently,the industry created employment opportunities for 500,696 people.Understanding the
demand and supply and the reality of the excited sources is affecting the sustainability of
the production, importation and exportation in Malaysia(Humsa & Srivastava 2015).
Thus, the unsustainable consumption and production negatively affect the
manufacturing industry crucially and changes will occur on the employment rates and
total performance in the country (Mohamed, & Rasnan, 2021). 2. Research Problem
According to the department of statistics in the third quarter of 2020 the manufacturing
industry is affording the highest rate of vacancies and third higher employment rate in the
country, while before the pandemic the manufacturing industry used to have the highest
employment rate and highest vacancies. According to the department of statistics Malaysia

30
in the first quarter of 2020 there was an increase in the manufacturing industry sales of
2.6%, and 2,280,951 employees, bank negara Malaysia expect GDP growth from 4.3 in 2019
and in 2020 looking to return back the performance and production in the Malaysian
industries and the manufacturing industry is one of the most important industries in the
country. According to the ministry of finance the government planned share of the
manufacturing industry in the Malaysian GDP is 22.6 while the expected now is 7.0. referring
to the department of statistics,Malaysia in 2020 the output of the manufacturing industry in
2019 was 8% while it became -38% in 2020. Stated in Oxford economics/Haver Analytics,
2021 Malaysia is not the best country in terms of performance amongst (Malaysia,
Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia). The department of statistics, Malaysia
reported an increase in the unemployment rate and increasing inflation in the country 2021.
Specifically, there are more than 150,000 persons in Malaysia lost their jobs in the pandemic
as reported by the official Malaysian media 2021.Currently, most of the manufacturing practices
in Malaysia and other developing countries are unsustainable as the end of life products are
being discarded or landfilled by its end -user without adoption of sustainable manufacturing
practice (Ngu, Lee, & Osman, 2020).In the last twenty years, Malaysia has only published 71
Scopus articles on the topic of remanufacturing,the lack of research on this industry is causing
increasing in the issue facing this industry (Ngu,Lee, & Osman, 2020).Hence, there is a gap that
existed in this area.The current challenges and future expected opportunities should be the
researcher concern
with the current COVID-19 crisis to ensure the continuous employment chances afford by the
industry and increase the importation and exportation of the country which it refutes the country
(Ngu, Lee, & Osman,2020) The manufacturing industry shows a steady growth and has
contributed Gross Output Value from RM1.2 Billion (USD 280 Million) in 1959 to RM
1.14 Trillion (USD 270 Billion) in 2015. And in 2018 the Gross Output value increased to
1.27 Trillion (USD 300 Billion) in 2018(Department of Statistics (DOS) 2017). In addition this
industry has created a total of 60,570 jobs in 1959 and increased to 2.1 million jobs in 2015
(Department of Statistics (DOS) 2017).As of 2017, 2.2 million jobs were created from the
manufacturing industry. The increasing contribution from the manufacturing industry in
Malaysia comes from projects that are high value and high growth industries. One of the
high values and high growth industries in Malaysia is the electrical and electronic industry.

31
The electrical & electronics (E&E) industry is the leading sector in Malaysia’s manufacturing
sector, contributing significantly to the country’s manufacturing output (26.94%), exports
(48.7%) and employment (32.5%).In recent decades, “sustainable manufacturing” had been an
increasing interest topic due to the growth of public awareness with the end-of-life products and
its unsustainable disposal method. Sustainable manufacturing was derived from the concept of
sustainable development. It was first introduced in the 1980s to resolve the economic,
environmental, and social concerns simultaneously in the human development
process(Ibrahim & Ali, 2019). Today, there is no standard definition of sustainable
manufacturing among scholars and literature as different researchers Defined sustainable
manufacturing in a different perspective of view (Raminder, 2017).Although various
researchers had defined the concept of sustainable manufacturing in a different perspective
of view, the three fundamental dimensions of sustainable manufacturing
(economic,environmental, and social) and its benefits in human development are well accepted
by all researchers (Chang &Cheng, 2019;Al-Suraihi, et al., 2020).The design of human and
industrial systems to ensure that humankind’s use of natural resources and cycles do not lead
To diminished quality of life due either to losses in future economic opportunities or to adverse
impacts on social conditions, human health, and the Environment (Melhem, 2016;
Alaarj,Mohamed,Bustamam, 2016).Employee retention concept started to appear in business
in the 1970s. Employee retention means the ability of an employer to retain employees in
the company(Melhem, 2019).Employee retention is a process to encourage employees to
remain in the organization for the maximum period of time (Ibrahim, Ali, & Zumrah, 2019).
Employee retention is one of the cost saving measures for the company. Retaining
existing employees helps to save company costs. Employee retention is the important
backbone asset for the company. According to the previously mentioned studies the employment
rate is important as well because any decrease in the unemployment rate is due to the increase in
employee turnover.Powerful recognitions are needed to retain talent. This theory
emphasizes that performance management is contributed by employee retention, which
engagement and retention improve and boost the company performance.Retaining talent
d, skilled, and expert’s employees would be reflected on the total performance, quality,
efficiency, effectiveness and productivity of the firm (Alaarj, Mohamed, & Bustamam, 201

32
7). The organization's performance is dependent on the health and productivity of the employee
individually (Hee, & Rhung, 2019).Ibrahim, I. (2021). The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on
Sustainability, Employee RetentionandInnovative Performance in The Malaysian Manufacturing
Industry.

The fight against COVID-19 is ongoing and will require a great deal more effort and
coordination through local and global initiatives. It is clear that the outbreak will have a lasting
impact on healthcare investments and delivery models for many years to come.1The COVID-19
pandemic has driven the world into another recession. For 2020, it will be worse than the global
financial crisis of 2008.2 The economic damage is mounting across multiple sectors and across
the globe. In Oman, the first two cases of COVID-19 were reported on 24 February 2020 in the
capital city Muscat, linked to travel to Iran.Therefore, equipped with lessons from the pandemic,
health leaders and health-policy-makers should be urged to proactively argue the economic case
for continuing to increase investment in healthcare. The following lessons are early reflections
from the pandemic to help strive for better health systems.

Strengthening health systems and rapidly reorganizing service delivery are the first lesson
learned from the pandemic. However, health systems require financial resources to accomplish
their goals.4 There was a major need to access additional funds to cater for the pandemic surge in
spending and urgent requirements to control the crisis. This included an excessive need for
testing kits, sanitation, face masks, gowns, and ventilators. Also, the need to sustain essential
health services in the suspense of the routine supply-chain channels with local and global
lockdown. The launch of Oman’s first endowment fund dedicated to public healthcare services
could not have come at a better time.5 The new endowment fund offers a non-traditional option
to help sustain the financing of the public healthcare sector in Oman during the COVID-19
pandemic. It will continue to be a long-term add-on of financial support for the healthcare sector.

An integrated healthcare system and realizing the goals of healthcare integration are the second
lesson. Health facilities need to adopt a high degree of congruence of services at different levels
and sectors. This includes triggering the transformative role hospitals play6 to end the division
that imposes increasingly counter-productive barriers between hospitals (referral care) and
primary care. The time for disciplinary medical specialty ‘silos’, strict hierarchies, and rigid
categorization by the level of care must be addressed and rectified. Care coordination and

33
integration across health pathways are critical, especially for the swiftly growing number of
elderly suffering from multiple chronic diseases.7 With the COVID-19 pandemic, the joint and
shared responsibility of disease control across all levels of care, elevated integration.

Enhancing technology use to control COVID-19 pandemic8 and to sustain short- and long- term
essential health services are the third lesson. Oman launched a powerful technological solution
(Tarassud Plus) to track the movement and spread of COVID-19.9 It ensured patient compliance
with isolation measures to contain the disease in the country. In addition, globally and locally,
there was a major rise in the use of telemedicine clinics. This increased access to medical
consultations for multiple patient groups, especially for the follow-up of patients with chronic
diseases. This was an important step to reach out to patients who have been impacted by the
suspension of elective health services during the pandemic.

Talent management and employee engagement are not a luxury, it is what drives productivity,10
and it is the fourth lesson of the pandemic. We must remind health workers how vital the work of
their healthcare facility is. We must remind each employee that their work and contribution are
important. Employee engagement is driven by conscious, direct contact between leaders and
employees.10 While employee engagement might not be at the forefront of your mind during
this crisis, productivity and employee retention should be. Employee engagement is the most
powerful driver of productivity and creativity. With the pandemic, frontline health and wellbeing
became a priority area for workforce management and engagement.

The power of community involvement and the importance of developing effective housing and
labor regulations are the fifth lesson. The role of the community in controlling disease spread
through simple, effective measures such as social distancing and quarantine became one of the
most compelling actions for disease control. The immediate lesson learned here is that we are all
public health practitioners. Where we live, what we eat, and our social distance has a direct
impact on our health beyond the boundaries of a health service.11 This is what helped save our
health system to date, collective, and shared community responsibility.

Agile leadership is critical in times of crisis, and it is the pandemic’s sixth lesson. Four
fundamental agile leadership competencies were valuable before, during, and will continue to be
relevant post-COVID-19.12 Humility is a fundamental competency of agile leadership, it
removes the need for leaders to have all the solutions and be humble enough to revoke decisions

34
as the needs arise. At an individual level, it is about being adaptable by being open to new ideas
and changes of opinion or direction during the unpredictability of the pandemic crisis. Having a
clear vision, even in the face of short-term uncertainty, is an important part of leadership
competency. Agile leaders need to be engaged, but they also need to find ways to keep their
teams engaged, particularly when the path becomes challenging or ambiguous.12

In conclusion, although the COVID-19 pandemic remains front and center for healthcare leaders,
it is never too early to learn lessons that can be applied to better deal with this crisis. Especially
during a global pandemic, lines of communication from health system leaders to providers,
support staff, and others must remain open, and the information shared must be accurate. In
addition, it is important to consider the above lessons moving forward which can be part of a
vision for a better health system. Although there might be some variation on which lesson is a
priority, the order of the above lessons is not intended to reflect importance. All are important
lessons with no exception.Fannah, J. A. (2020). COVID-19 Pandemic: Learning Lessons and a
Vision for a Better Health System.

Covid-19 or Coronavirus: Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging
from the common cold to more severe diseases|such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome
(MERS- CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). A novel coronavirus
(nCoV) is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans. HRM: Human
Resources Management; WHO. The human capital in any organization is the real asset because
it’s the heart beating which drives to success when compared with other resources like financial
or intangible resources. So all other resources than HR make things possible but only human
capital makes things happen [1]. The importance of HRM ``Human Resources Management ''
has been elevated recently especially with the outbreak of coronavirus as employees’
performance has been affected accordingly, and HRM describes all these policies, systems, and
practices which could adjust employees’ attitudes, behavior and performance [2]. However, most
of these policies and practices have been made for managing people at workplace, not at home as
[3] refers that HR is all about managing people at work with policies, procedures, systems and
rules as well as [4] refers that HRM is the leadership of people within an organization by using
different systems, methods and procedure which could enable employees to achieve their own
goals which in return enhance employees’ positive contribution in achieving organization’s

35
goals. Therefore, the HR policies and practices should be modified to adapt with the new
requirements such as working from home, social distance and supporting employees more than
ever to maintain positive contribution and overcome the critical period of Covid-19 pandemic.
The pandemic outbreak elevates many concerns for both employees and employers but the
questions here are: What are the most important concerns for employees? (1) What are the most
important for the HR debarment? (2) What are the most suitable strategy to be adapted (3). A
survey has been done by Josh Bersin, MIT Sloan Management Review and CultureX, to explore
the top concerns of employees’ mind and HR departments’ mind The result of the survey shows
that the top concern for HR heads is the health and wellbeing of the employees with 41% then
managing the remote work in the second place with 39% whereas the results of survey of the top
concern of employees is the financial security with 81% then in the second place the health and
wellbeing with 56%.As a matter of fact, the financial security is more a concern for the
employees than the personal and family health because of the unstable economy around the
world, the uncertainty and the increasing unemployment rate. Therefore, the HR strategy should
take employees’ concernintoaccountfirsttogetherwiththehealth of employees asit is very
important as well. Employees’ mental health The first priority of HR professionals since the
beginning of Coronavirus pandemic is the health and wellbeing of the employees as per the
survey of Josh, Sloan and CultureX and the mental health of the employees is a very important
aspect as its affecting the performance and achievement of the employees’ contribution in
organization goals. Employees’ mental health could be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic
because of job insecurity and financial loss [8] as well as Infobesity and the Unknown [9]. As a
matter of fact, many industries around the world has been affected by the outbreak of
Coronavirus as the pandemics lead to the closure of many workplaces [10] which increases the
anxiety of the employees and the level of unemployment [Therefore, the different consequences
of the pandemic has a very negative impact employees especially financially due to the loss of
income [12] which leads in results to a mental health issue as employees who stopped working
due to Coronavirus outbreak showed worse health indicators and distress [13]. Employees’
retention model Employees’ retention is a very important issue while planning the human
resources strategy and many companies give this aspect a priority because employees are
considered the most valuable asset and the backbone of an entity [14]. As per the Analytical
Study of Psychological Contract and its Impact on Employees Retention on 2016, the results

36
show [15] that the increasing complexity in the organization has forced management to
concentrate on employees’ retention as well as the importance of the relationship between the
psychological contracts of the employees and the period of employees staying in the company.
Therefore, to maintain the employees’ retention, a suitable HR Strategy should be implemented
in accordance with the new challenges of Covid-19 together with high concern on the
Psychological contracts of the employees and taking into consideration the affected employees
mental health as well as reducing the complexityoftheHRpracticesbybeingmore flexible
instead.The aim of this article is to analysis the latest update of human resource management
strategies and practices during the pandemic of Covid-19 and specify the new challenges and the
top issues faced not only by HR professionals but also by employees. As well as reviewing the
mental health of employees and the model of employees’ retention. The findings of the general
literature review and the latest updates show that the financial security is more a concern for the
employees than the personal and family health because of the fear of the unstable economy
around the world, the uncertainty and the increasing unemployment rate. which leads to a mental
health issue between employees especially who stopped working due to the Coronavirus
outbreak which showed the worst health indicators and distress. Therefore, human resources
employees’ retention strategy should be adapted with the top concerns of employees and the new
challenges of Coronavirus, taking into account the psychological contracts of the employees by
reducing the complexity of the HR practices and increasing the flexibility.Mala, W. A. M. (n.d.).
How COVID-19 Changes the HRM Practices (Adapting One HR Strategy May Not Fit to All).

At the beginning of 2020, due to the sudden unexpected rapid spreading of COVID-19 virus
throughout the world, all the businesses and government activities around the world have been
halted completely or partially and asked employees to stay at home. However, service-based
industries, like information technology (IT) sector organizations have been continuing their
operations based on the concept of work from home (WFH) using Internet connectivity
(Manickam, 2020). Based on the Nasdaq trading summaries, majority of the IT sector companies
have posted profits on their operations in the first quarter of the 2020 financial year, despite most
of the non-IT sector companies are struggled with huge losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic
and economic shutdowns throughout the world (Zacks Equity Research, 2020). According to
news reports, the majority of the workforce prefer the continuation of the WFH concept even

37
after containing the deadly COVID-19 virus, as a preventive action to minimizing the risk of a
second wave of the virus (Janyala, 2020; Miles, 2020). In addition to that, most of the employees
have worried about lack of training and development as one of the main issues that they have
been facing since the forced WFH concept implementation due to the pandemic and subsequent
global lockdown initiatives (Manickam, 2020).

Meantime, since the latter part of the last decade has seen a rapid transformation in the
workforce demographics, as Generation-Z employees (born from 1994 to 2010) (the newest
generation that enters into the workplace dynamics) have been taking over the workplace
responsibilities due to the retirements of Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) (Andrea
et al., 2016). According to Koulopoulos and Keldsen (2014), Generation-Z society has grown up
in an environment which considers the Internet as a basic human need. Furthermore, they have
been experiencing effects of climate change, extremism, financial crisis, rainbow and me too
(feminist) moments since their childhood.

According to Chillakuri and Mahanandia (2018), Generation-Z employees and their way of
thinking and working patterns are remarkably different from previous generations. Berkup,
(2014) has identified that Generation-Z employees have very much less loyalty towards being at
one workplace, otherwise they have opportunities to contribute for organizational objectives
from their skills and knowledge. Gomez et al. (2019) have discovered from their survey that
more than 50% of the Generation-Z employees would consider leaving the present employer; if
the employer does not concern employees' training and development plans with employees'
preferences which may benefit the organization and Generation-Z employees’ career succession
in future. According to Schawbel (2014), 34% of the Generation-Z employees believed that
having good opportunities for advancement with the organization are the best incentives that may
motivate them to work hard and stay a longer time with the existing workplace.

However, gradual entering of Generation-Z employees into the workforce occurs; organizational
HRM practices have not been evolved to address the Generation-Z concerns, causing a higher
employee turnover ratio among the Generation-Z employees (Chillakuri and Mahanandia, 2018).
Moreover, the vast majority of Generation-Z employees end up in the IT sector, as it would be
the dominant industry in the Industry 4.0 world (Gunasekaran et al., 2018). Storey et al., 2019

38
described the IT sector where salaries are higher than traditional companies and employee
movement from one to another firm is also very commonly happening compared to other
industries. Moreover, due to the technological advancement and higher return on investment for
the investors by investing on IT sector, more and more start-up companies are booming across
the IT domain rapidly since that sector is experiencing an intensified competition throughout the
world, and eye-catching jobs offers are made to attract employees from rivalries at any cost have
intensified and deepened the issue of retention in IT-related organization (Jayathilake, 2019).

In the time of the pandemic, retention is very much important for organization surveillance. As
an employee leaves the organization when there is health crisis like COVID-19 pandemic
undergoing, it will be very difficult to recruit and train a new employee or difficult to ask other
existing employees to overclock the vacant job role responsibilities; it would be lead as an extra
burden or stress for them when they have been stuck at their home for a longer period (Arora and
Dhole, 2019). Further, it would deteriorate the organizational performance as well by having less
engaged employees on the work (Muduli and McLean, 2020).

Therefore, by combining those two contemporary issues that would be destabilizing the future of
the IT firms in post-COVID-19 era has been taken as the rationale of this article to focus on
identifying approaches that are very much relevant for Generation-Z employee development as
well as to retain them by having good organizational performances. To conclude, this paper aims
to conceptualize framework on modifications for the employee training and development
practices of the HRM function which address the self-actualizing needs of the Generation-Z
employees (as a function of generational cohort) to stay longer period at the existing organization
in a post-COVID-19 new normal environment.

This study has adopted the satisfaction of a mutual needs with respecting to the social-exchange
perspective based on Maslow's hierarchical needs theory to identify the modifications
(democratize learning, reverse mentoring and entrepreneurship) those parallelly satisfy the
intentions of Generation-Z employees, in terms of their self-actualization needs and employers
intended to achieve sustainable growth in organizational performance and keep the employee
retention higher to reduce the total cost pool on resignations and other unnecessary cost pools
that aroused due to the lack of knowledge and skill development of employees. Those reciprocal

39
intentions were considered as the outcomes of this article based on the definition of social
exchange theory which explains that all social relationships in the work settings are formulated
with the basis of exchange of mutual benefits on each node in the relationship (Yan et al., 2016)
Therefore, from this conceptual framework illustrate that organizational HRM practices
modifications to improve employee development would reciprocate with increasing
organizational performance and employees' intention to stay.

The paper is constructed with following sections: as the first section emphasises the behaviours
of the Generation-Z employees and other contemporary market behaviours those evolved with
COVID-19 crisis; the second section highlights the theoretical foundation and enablers that can
use to tackle the concurrent evolving market dynamics; the third section presents the
methodology that adopted to compose this study; the fourth section explains the conceptual
framework along with the hypotheses development on each proposition; under the fifth section,
discusses on advantages of the enablers using on WFH culture that came as new normal to keep
the employees' engagement with organizations' operations and ways to implement employee
development through the enablers found from the literature review. Finally, in the sixth section
illustrates the limitations of this study and guides future research scopes to direct with this paper
found.
Based on the literature review and secondary data, this conceptual paper has been constructed
and consists of some limitations that create opportunities for future research. Conceptualisation
has been grounded on motivational theories (self-actualization needed under Maslow's
hierarchical needs theory and social exchange theory). In a pandemic situation and
post-pandemic situation, as an organization must continue its employee development activities
despite the setback due to the pandemic because employee development is one of the key
influential areas on employee retention and organizational future performances, which will give
the insight on the future existence of the organization in this contemporary business world.
Employee development can improve knowledge and skills that matter for future competition.
Since this is a conceptual paper with a proposed framework, it needs to be validated empirically.
The proposed framework needs to be tested on the Generation-Z employee sample to identify the
impact from modifications (democratize learning, reverse mentoring and intrapreneurship) on
their development and how that development will improve the retention of employees and

40
organizational performance. However, in the future researchers can find out different
modifications other than the modifications that have been found in this paper such as learning
climate, corporate universities, etc… that may suit employee development on Generation-Z. This
framework is designed on Generation-Z employees (homogenous sample) without considering
the influence of national or regional or geographical preferences (Arora and Dhole, 2019).
Therefore, to find out the employee development requirements that matter for the Generation-Z
employees based on the geographical boundaries which would be helpful on identifying
improvements that need to be placed to attract, retain and get the best out from that employee
cohort would be a notable contribution on IT sector companies, which are going to attract the
employees around the world to identify the different aspects that care by different geographically
located employees on their development. Employee development (base as one of the HRM
function that links to deliver the self-actualization needs under the Maslow's hierarchical needs
theory) is taken as the central element of this conceptual framework; nonetheless, other HRM
functions or practices (rewards, employee relations, employee maintenance and staffing) that
may affect the employee retention and organizational performances can be utilized to find of the
modifications that may suitable to address the Generation-Z employees to fulfil their different
needs under the Maslow's need theory.

In addition to that, this proposed conceptual framework may or may not be very much relevant to
other generational employees such as Generation-Y or Generation-X to fulfil their
self-actualization needs. So, it can be researched as future work by conducting a comparative
analysis in a heterogeneous sample base including different generations with Generation-Z
employees. Simultaneously, there may be a moderating effect from controllable variables such as
gender, material statutes, income level, educational level, etc…, over the outcome of this
framework (Naim and Lenka, 2018). Since Generation-Z employees are very much new into the
workplace environment, there are very limited studies that have been carried out to identify their
generational profile and desires. Moreover, most of the available studies which described the
generational profiles of Generation-Z are based on the student population. Henceforth, there is an
obligation to research on the working Generation-Z community as well as in the new business
environment which is poised with a new health emergency crisis concerning the COVID-19
pandemic.

41
Daud, D. (2021). Employee development and retention of Generation-Z employees in the
post-COVID-19 workplace: a conceptual framework.

The pandemic of COVID-19 has imposed an unprecedented challenge to the health-care sector.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 (also known as coronavirus) as a
pandemic or global disease outbreak on 11 March 2020 (WHO, 2020). The health-care
employees’ (e.g. workers, nurses and professionals) well-being and health-care organisations’
sustainability have become the topmost priority to overcome this pandemic situation. The
unprecedented crisis of COVID-19 has posed an enormous challenge for health-care
organisations to find strategies to deal with their survival. In the pursuit of improving employee
well-being and organisational sustainability, health-care organisations need to embrace new
strategies and demand more responsibility in their leadership approach to overcome the
pandemic situation of COVID-19 (Hamouche, 2020; Leite et al., 2020).

Extending the role of responsible leadership (RL) (Haque et al., 2019b, 2020), this paper
provides a multi-level conceptual model to overcome the ongoing and the post-pandemic crisis
of COVID-19 and promotes the well-being of health-care employees (e.g. workers, nurses and
professionals) and organisational sustainability. The model contributes to the need for a detailed
and contextualised understanding of COVID-19 in the health-care sector in several ways. First, it
helps to understand the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic and the need for RL for the
health-care sector. Second, this proposed model helps to clarify the interventions of RL into an
organisation’s strategic management to thrive COVID-19 pandemic from the health-care
perspective. Third, it formulates five propositions, including COVID-19 pandemic, strategic
climate aligning RL, employee well-being and organisational sustainability. Finally, health-care
employees are the frontline soldiers to fight against COVID-19 pandemic. This model is a step
forward to not only explore the future research avenue for the impact of COVID-19 on
multi-level consequences but also it will help the health-care policymakers to take responsible
initiatives to increase employee well-being and uphold organisational sustainability. The notion
of strategic climate originated from organisational psychology and commonly referred to
employee’s perception about their organisation’s strategic policies, practices and procedures

42
(Schneider et al., 2000). It helps employees to be more focussed on their organisational strategies
and to achieve their targeted objectives effectively for higher sustainability (Schneider et al.,
2000). Hence, a strategic climate of continuous improvement becomes effective by engaging
employees to perform in ways that fulfil the strategic goal to overcome crisis periods such as the
COVID-19 pandemic (Schneider, 1975; Ostroff and Bowen, 2000; Veld et al., 2010).

Organisation’s strategic climate is consistently conceptualised as employees’ shared perceptions

of an organisation’s strategic policies, practices and procedures (Patterson et al., 2005). Scholars
claimed that the health-care sector struggles to have a culture of continuous improvement for
employee well-being and organisational sustainability (Radnor et al., 2012; Hamouche, 2020).
Both the concept of organisational culture and climate are closely related thoughts, as they
describe employees’ experiences regarding strategic management; however, the climate can be
considered as the overall manifestation of culture (Schneider, 1975; Patterson et al., 2005).
Previous studies explored the significant associations between strategic climate and employee
behaviour such as well-being, organisational commitment and job satisfaction (Schneider et al.,
1998; Parker et al., 2003; Veld et al., 2010).

Following Patterson et al. (2005), this paper considers the three dimensions of strategic climate
such as quality (i.e. emphasis to continuous professional improvement), innovation (i.e. new
ideas to improve work-life and well-being) and efficiency (i.e. importance for efficiency and
productivity for higher sustainability). This paper includes strategic climate into the conceptual
model for the following reasons. First, the dimension of quality will motivate the health-care
employees to deliver the best quality service for COVID-19 patients. Second, the dimension of
innovation in the strategic climate will enhance health-care employee’s life expectancy, including
well-being and job satisfaction. Third, the dimension of efficiency in strategic climate will
promote health-care organisation’s efficiency and productivity of higher sustainability.
Accordingly, the proposed multi-level framework (Figure 1) incorporates both the employee
level (e.g. well-being) and organisational level (e.g. sustainability) into strategic climate to
overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.The concept of sustainability in an organisational context
includes societal, environmental and economic systems within which a business operates
(Boudreau and Ramstad, 2005; Colbert and Kurucz, 2007). As a result, the definition of

43
organisational sustainability has been described in several ways. For example, Boudreau and
Ramstad (2005) defined sustainability as “achieving success today without compromising the
needs of the future”, and Colbert and Kurucz (2007) referred to it as “keep the business going”.
From the leadership perspective; sustainability is the managerial initiatives that play an essential
role in the modern organisational strategy (Jackson et al., 2011; Howieson et al., 2019).
According to Howieson et al. (2019), “the pursuit of sustainability will require leaders to expand
their boundary-spanning role(s) to embrace a wide range of internal and external stakeholders”
(p. 689). Hence, in addition to financial stability, organisational sustainability refers to the
creation of meaningful values that shape strategic decision-making and building a culture for all
the stakeholders to ensure a desirable performance and outcome for an organisation (Jackson et
al., 2011; Howieson et al., 2019; Cornell, 2020).

COVID-19 has unleashed extraordinary challenges that threaten to limit the health-care
organisations responding to the sustainability imperative. Many health-care organisations,
including hospitals, now find themselves in a problematic situation for workforce and resources
(e.g. financial and medical equipment). Moreover, COVID-19 has caused a tremendous financial
burden for many health-care organisations, which did not have enough capital or cash flow to
meet their liquidity problems to carry out their daily health-care services. For example, there is a
growing health-care concern regarding the adequacy of resources to treat COVID-19 infected
patients such as separate hospital beds, ventilators and ICUs (intensive care units).

The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed an enormous threat to organisational sustainability for the
health-care organisations as the global trade is affected by numerous trade and order
cancellation. For example, in China, the Shanghai Stock Exchange recorded 7.7% drop where
3,527 (out of 3,859) stock prices declined owing to COVID-19 closure from 24 January 2020
and reopened on 3 February 2020 (Shan and Tang, 2020). As a result, businesses, including
health-care organisations, are forced to cut wages and benefits to avoid bankruptcy (Shigemura
et al., 2020; Ripp et al., 2020). In this situation, sustainability for a health-care organisation is
threatened, and medical service for COVID-19 patients seems to be at the highest risk. Hence, it
is critical for health-care organisations to be sustainable so they can continue their roles for both
the internal customer (e.g. health-care employees) and external customers (e.g. COVID-19

44
patients). They are solely dependent on job employment and lifesaving medical services. Here,
executives and managers have a responsibility to lead their health-care organisations to
overcome the pandemic situation and survive with their business through sustainability. In
addition to professional commitment and health-care services, health-care organisations need to
stay and get a hold on their sustainability. Therefore, COVID-19 creates not only the short-term
crisis for vulnerability, but it also causes unique challenges to overcome the long-term
sustainability for health-care organisations.Haque, A. (2021). The COVID-19 pandemic and the
role of responsible leadership in health care: thinking beyond employee well-being and
organisational sustainability.

The idea of studying employee engagement from a business stance and its relationship with
organizational performance may be traced far back in 2002 [7]. It has been recognized that
employee engagement stages correlate with the level of involvement and commitment employees
devote to their organization, values and beliefs [8]. According to Ilyasa et al., (2018) [9]
employee engagement and knowledge sharing have a direct and positive impact on employee
work innovation. However, the amount of such collaborative and knowledge sharing activities
remains limited in higher education [54]. Employee engagement and organization performance is
widely discussed in the literature, but studies on measuring the relationship between employee
engagement and the organization’s performance with knowledge sharing as a mediator variable
are rarely available. Practically, this kind of study is not yet tested in the context of higher
education in Pakistan. This section explains in detail the methodology implemented for this
study. A quantitative research strategy was used in this study, where the positivism research
approach was used. Quantitative information accumulation strategies are considerably more
organized than qualitative information-gathering methods [42]. The population frame of this
study was higher education staff of public sector and private sector universities located in
Karachi, Pakistan. A Non-Probability approach and convenient sampling technique were used in
this study. The questionnaire was adopted from the past published research. Employee
engagement and organizational performance were measured with the help of a questionnaire
used by Paluku, (2016) [43]. While knowledge sharing was measured through the questionnaire
used by Aslam et al., (2013) [44]. For the data collection, an online survey was conducted with
the help of google form. Total of 400 faculty members of 9 higher education institutions of

45
Karachi were targeted. The response rate through Google Forms was 16%, therefore, the authors
decided to collect the data through a printed questionnaire, another 150 hard copies of the
questionnaires were distributed to the faculty members of the 9 private and public sector
universities located in Karachi, 91 filled questionnaires were received. The response rate of the
distributed questionnaire was 60.6%. Researcher discarded 7 questionnaires because he felt the
respondents have followed some pattern in filling the form.

A structural equation modelling technique was used to test the model. Data were examined with
the help of statistical software SMART-PLS Version 3. This software is widely used in social
sciences [56–57]. The scale reliability was assessed by using an internal consistency approach
through Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability (CR). Past literature suggested that if the
value of the Cronbach’s alpha is 0.7 then it is acceptable but if it is more than 0.9 it is considered
strong reliability [45]. To check the validity, convergent validity and discriminant validity
approach was used. The PLS method is a proven method for estimating the path coefficients of
structural models. It is increasingly used in social sciences research because of its ability to test
the model under non-normality conditions with small to medium samples [46]. The PLS
algorithm defines the significant loadings, weighs and path coefficients, and its bootstrap method
determines the significance level of the hypothesis and mediation, therefore a two-stage
approach was used in this study, in the first stage the measurement model was assessed and in the
second stage, the structural model was assessed. Prioritizing employee wellbeing has been a key
component by many organizations to the current pandemic, and they have created the workplace
into a virtual workplace, also called as work from home. This pandemic is increasing challenges
for the HR department, especially in recruitment and selection, training and development, layoff
because of the low productivity of the organizations. One of the biggest challenges for HR
managers is how to engage employees effectively. In the current situation the organization’s
production process and services are also affected by COVID-19 pandemic. Organizations are
also thinking to move towards innovation to serve the customer in a better way. Employees are
working from home, therefore engaging them in a unique style can increase organization
performance. Employees are the assets of the organization as they have knowledge, skills and
abilities which can make a difference in the current competitive environment.

46
Pandemic is destroying global economies, but at the same time it's bringing different
opportunities for organizations also. Now organizations have to think about how to avail the
opportunity. Knowledge sharing could be a possible way to engage the employees in the current
situation. If employees are sharing the knowledge, and organizations are storing it in databases
and visualizing through an artificial intelligence system, this could help organizations to bring
innovation in services and products. Recently researchers Abukhait et al (2019) [52] concluded
that knowledge sharing practices have a strong and positive impact on employee innovative
behaviour. Similarly, researchers found a significant and positive association between employee
innovative behaviour and organization innovation [53], therefore this study concludes that
knowledge sharing inside the organization can create a pool of new ideas which will lead to
product and service innovation. Empirical evidence of this study predicted that employee
engagement has a significant and positive impact on organizational performance, similarly it is
also predicted that employee engagement has also a significant and positive impact on
knowledge sharing which further affects organization performance. Therefore, to maintain the
high performance of the organization, employee engagement and knowledge sharing could be the
best solution to meet the current HR challenges.

A remote workplace cannot only lead towards low productivity of the organization, if HR
managers engage employees effectively then remote work would be a future of an effective
working system, as employees would be connected to the family and there would be no
psychological pressure from their bosses, hence this can lead towards high productivity. The
remote workplace is also important for higher education institutes, faculty and staff members
could be more productive from home, as they will have no more psychological pressure, and
staff are more flexible towards their working activities. Hence, the HR department has to play a
leadership role inside the organization. There is also a need to change the organizational culture,
simply employee’s layoffs policy can’t save the organization from bankruptcy, as after a
pandemic, the organization might face problems hiring talented employees immediately. The HR
department should also focus on online recruitment and selection process, training and
development and should focus on employee’s health and safety issues, all these efforts can lead
towards organization performance sustainability during the current pandemic.

Limitation

47
Most of the studies, no matter how good they are, face some limitations. However, these
limitations are considered beneficial because they provide a guideline for future research.
Limitation of this study is that data were collected from 9 higher educational institutes of
Karachi, if the data were collected from the other cities the results might vary from the current
study. In this study only three variables were used, two exogenous variables and one endogenous
variable, other predictors such as leadership, learning culture and artificial intelligence in
knowledge sharing, employee engagement and organizational performance enhancement can be
analyzed in future.Ahmed, T. (2020). Impact of employee engagement and knowledge sharing on
organizational performance: Study of HR challenges in COVID-19 pandemic.

48
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the problem. It may be understood as a

science of studying how any research has been conducted.

Research Objective: Research was conducted to study and analyze various employee retention
strategies and to know employee expectations from the organization.

Research Design: Descriptive and exploratory research methodology has been used to conduct
the analysis.

Data collection: For the primary data, a well formed questionnaire was used to analyse the
views of employees and what they expect from their organisations. The questions asked were
both multiple choice and open ended and were deemed to be necessary for the research. The
secondary data was collected through the Internet and books.

Sampling Frame

Sample size: 100 units

Sample Unit: Employees of Udaan, Hyperverge,

Sampling Technique: Snowball Sampling

Tools used-Google forms, MS Excel

49
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Q1) Years of experience

INTERPRETATION-

1) Maximum employees have worked for more than 3 years.

2) Few employees are quite experienced.

3) The distribution of employee experience provides a good distribution for correct data analysis.

50
Q2) Gender

INTERPRETATION-

1) 50% of the employees are females.

2)40% of the employees are males.

51
Q3)Do you feel comfortable working with your teammates and supervisors?

INTERPRETATION-

1) There is a slight skew of employees towards uncomfortability

2) This uncomfortability leads them to change their job from time to time
3) This result proves to be a great aspect to study retention policies and increase the
comfortability of employees.

52
Q4 ) Do you always get feedback from your manager, peers, or subordinates?

INTERPRETATION-

1) Considerable percentage of employees have never received feedback from their managers
2) Majority employees receive feedback though not that regularly
3) Lack of feedback from peers often results in an uncomfortable work environment which
forces people to go to a place where they feel responded to and get criticism to improve.

53
Q5)Do you have a clear understanding and happiness about your career path and
promotion plan?

INTERPRETATION-

1) Many employees don’t have a clarity on the path which they want for their career or an
end goal which makes them switch organisations for materialistic reasons such as big
offices, more money, greater benefits etc.
2) It was found that the employees who have a clear goal tend to stay longer in an
organisation and work towards their goals.

54
Q6)Will you work here in the next 5 years?

INTERPRETATION-

1) Maximum employees preferred to remain neutral about their decision of working in the
same organisation.
2) This reveals that they are likely to leave the organisation and go to one which
compensates them more if there is one such opportunity available.
3) Organisations have to be employee-centric in order to retain them for a longer period of
time.

55
Q7) What is your view on the policies and procedures of the organisation?

INTERPRETATION-

1) Out of the total employees, more than 50% of them categorised their policies of the
organisation between worst to average.
2) Companies need to focus on their policies as most of the employees are not satisfied.
They should consider feedback from employees on what would have ensured them to
stay.
3) This will have a significant impact on the employee attrition rate.

56
Q8)How likely would you be to refer someone to work here?

INTERPRETATION-

1) This graph goes in accordance with that since the policies are not so good and the
manager doesn’t give the employees feedback, the majority of the employees won’t refer
to their organisation as a place to work.
2) With social media and internet a very easy place to access, these negative reviews about
an organisation, prevents good talent from entering the company and thus, organisation
finds themselves at a loss of suitable workpower
3) Considerable improvements in the policies and treatment to the employees will not only
ensure the talent to stay in the organisation but also invite candidates with expected
potential to work with them.

57
Q9)How enthusiastically would you reapply for a job here?

INTERPRETATION-

1) As studied earlier that employees will not recommend others to join their
organisation, A similar pattern could be seen here where a considerable
percentage is sure not to re-apply here.
2) A great percentage of people are in doubt of re-applying here due to lack of
employee reviews in other organisations.
3) This means that many of them are not satisfied with their workplace and their peer
group and would try not to cross paths with them again.

58
Q10) If you received a job offer today, to what extent would you consider
accepting it?

INTERPRETATION-

1) A very small percentage of people are unlikely to accept a new offer. The ratio of people
who are likely to accept another offer is almost 2:1 which is liable to cost a lot on the
training side for the organisation
2) A very high number of people will take time to ponder on the other offer as they would
be doing their research on the employee’s satisfaction in the other organisation as well
before taking a call.
3) Significant corrections in the direction of employee retention will change the nature of
the graph and will not only impact productivity but also prevent cost burn for training and
lack of workpower.

59
Q11)How secure do you feel in your current role?

INTERPRETATION-

1) Majority of the people are quite insecure about their job i.e. they believe they will be laid
off by their organisations or they lack stability.
2) Providing stability both in terms of financial as well as emotional is quite necessary in
this pandemic.
3) Highly secured employees are quite less and they would prefer to stay in the same and
will trust their organisation for quite long.

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Q12)Do you get timely promotions?

INTERPRETATION-

1) Lack of timely promotion/appraisal is often demotivating to employees which leads them

to quit the organisation to somewhere where there efforts will be recognised
2) Performance appraisal should be done frequently in the organisations in order to ensure
satisfied employees who feel valued.
3) Rather than focusing on the quantity of work to be extracted from the employees, the
organisation should focus on its human resource practices.

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Q13)How likely are you to stay at this organisation if you were to receive a 10%
salary increase from another organisation?

INTERPRETATION-

1) It can be interpreted that most employees do not seek an increase in salary from their
organisations.
2) The observation is that employees seek overall satisfaction in their workplace, exploiting
them continuously for long hours or not providing them with a good working
environment results in losing the employee's interest.
3) The organisation should follow and keep the working environment and free policies to
keep their employees happy.

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Q14) Please rate:

Legend-

1) Is your management transparent?

2) Do you agree that you are rewarded periodically for your performance?

3) Does your job utilize your skills?

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4) Do you have the tools you need to efficiently perform your job?

5) Does your company promote innovativeness and creativity?

6) Are you satisfied with the opportunity to expand my career in this company?

7) Are you encouraged by your supervisors to be your best?

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 8) Do you get opportunities for personal growth by updating your skills?

9) Do you feel your efforts are valuable?.

INTERPRETATION-

1) Most employees have strongly agreed about their organisation’s transparency, receiving
rewards, and usage of their skills in job.
2) Many employees have the tools required to perform their job, innovation is promoted,
and quite few agree about the satisfaction of expanding their career in the organisation.
3) Others employees have agreed that they are motivated by their superiors, personal
growth, and their efforts are being valued.

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Q15) Please rate:

Legend-

1) Work culture

2) Workplace hygiene

3) Compensation

4) Resource management

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 5) Diversity

6) Acceptance

INTERPRETATION-

1) Work culture and hygiene of the organisations is quite good for all the employees and
only a few rated it as excellent.
2) Compensation is rated average by the employees and resource management is also on the
same rating.
3) Diversity and acceptance of employees in the organisation seems to be satisfactory.

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Q16) Please rate

Legend-

1) Is work life balance supported by your organisation?

2) Have you interviewed for another job in the last 3 months?

3) Are you encouraged to participate in training to improve your skills and competencies?

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INTERPRETATION-

1) Most employees have agreed about the work life balance in their organisation while there
are few who are not satisfied or are unsure. This may lead to employees leaving their
organisations.
2) Employees are equal in number for both job change and no job change.
3) Many have agreed that they are encouraged to enhance their skills through various
training sessions.

Q17) What changes will make you sure about staying with this organisation?

INTERPRETATION-

1) The employees are not satisfied with their work culture and less salary is also a concern
for them.
2) Transparency and better compensation is the preferred change.
3) Work Life balance and more focus on technology is also put forward in response.
4) Organisational structures are preferred to be liberal hence flatter hierarchical structure is
in high demand.

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Q18)What are the 3 factors that would lead you to improve the quality of work?

INTERPRETATION-

1) The employees would prefer to be recognised for their work, promoted to a higher
position and various initiatives taken by organisations in improving their skillsets.
2) Respect, time to time incentives, and better work understanding would help in retaining
the employees.
3) Equality will promote more enthusiasm.

Q19) If you were to give notice and leave your organisation, what would the
primary reason be?

INTERPRETATION-

1) The reason for leaving would be salary or lack of higher monetary benefits.
2) Employee exploitation in terms of working hours, less salary, and no advancement in
current portfolio.
3) Work life balance is also the reason for leaving or any other better opportunity.

Q20)Have you worked in any other organisation previous to this? If yes, for what
reason did you shift to this company?

INTERPRETATION-

1) Many of them were freshers.

2) Salary was the motive behind leaving their previous organisation.

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CONCLUSION

Employee retention strategies differ from organisation to organisations. These strategies help an
organisation to retain their employees for a longer period of time. These further help in saving
various costs involved in recruitment process, training, development, resources, as well as time.
Recurring costs would lead to decrease of available funds which otherwise would have been
utilised for the development of the business. Retaining good talent is a must for organisations in
order to succeed in the long run. Small organisations will not be able to afford to lose any talent
and look for the candidate again and again. Effective strategies are thus required to ensure good
talent is retained. This research project has helped me to know more about the retention
strategies followed by the various startups in India. The employee expectations and various
measures followed by the organization in order to retain the employee for the long run is quite
essential. I have incorporated the strategies practiced during the pandemic and suggested what
should be followed in order to keep the employee satisfied. Moreover, organizations must
maintain a healthy work culture and should not exploit the employee and keep his interests
above. This work is based on the extensive research done with the help of questionnaires,
websites and books and was not possible without the help of my faculty members.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

1) During this pandemic, organisations must focus on organizational socialization on

weekends via online mode. This will help in increasing interests and remove boredom
from the daily monotonous work and promote work culture.
2) The second is experiential learning ,i.e. Employees should be given an option to
experiment whatever they have learnt through their training sessions in the organisation.
This will help them to retain information and perform more efficiently, further creating
more work satisfaction.
3) Better compensation structure will boost the morale of an employee and would promote
them to work more and give good quality results.
4) Work life balance at home during these times is quite ignored by the managers but this is
quite important. Taking care of an employee's overall well being will help him to retain
for more time.
5) Appreciating small achievements will make employees feel valued and more focussed to
work for the organisation.
6) Flatter hierarchical structure should be promoted in order to give access to the lower level
employees to communicate with the managers and there is no leader who would exercise
his authority.

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REFERENCES

SCARPETTA, S. (2020). Job retention schemes during the COVID-19 lockdown and beyond.

Elsafty, A. S. (2020). The Role of Human Resource Management Towards Employees Retention During
Covid-19 Pandemic in the Medical Supplies Sector - Egypt.

Das, B. L. (2013). Employee Retention: A Review of Literature.

Kossivi, B. (2016). Study on Determining Factors of Employee Retention.

Ibrahim, I. (2021). The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Sustainability, Employee

RetentionandInnovative Performance in The Malaysian Manufacturing Industry.

Mala, W. A. M. (n.d.). How COVID-19 Changes the HRM Practices (Adapting One HR Strategy May Not
Fit to All).

Haque, A. (2021). The COVID-19 pandemic and the role of responsible leadership in health care:
thinking beyond employee well-being and organisational sustainability.

Ahmed, T. (2020). Impact of employee engagement and knowledge sharing on organizational

performance: Study of HR challenges in COVID-19 pandemic.

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APPENDIX

Q1)Name
Name of the company
Q2)Years of experience
Gender
Q3)Do you feel comfortable working with your teammates and supervisors?

Q4 ) Do you always get feedback from your manager, peers, or subordinates?

Q5)Do you have a clear understanding and happiness about your career path and promotion
plan?

Q6)Will you work here in the next 5 years?

Q7) What is your view on the policies and procedures of the organisation?

Q8)How likely would you be to refer someone to work here?

Q9)How enthusiastically would you reapply for a job here?

Q10) If you received a job offer today, to what extent would you consider accepting it?

Q11)How secure do you feel in your current role?

Q12)Do you get timely promotions?

Q13)How likely are you to stay at this organisation if you were to receive a 10% salary increase
from another organisation?

Q14) Please rate:

10) Is your management transparent?

11) Do you agree that you are rewarded periodically for your performance?
12) Does your job utilize your skills?
13) Do you have the tools you need to efficiently perform your job?

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 14) Does your company promote innovativeness and creativity?
15) Are you satisfied with the opportunity to expand my career in this company?
16) Are you encouraged by your supervisors to be your best?
17) Do you get opportunities for personal growth by updating your skills?
18) Do you feel your efforts are valuable?.

Q15) Please rate:

7) Work culture
8) Workplace hygiene
9) Compensation
10) Resource management
11) Diversity
12) Acceptance

Q16) Please rate

1)Is work life balance supported by your organisation?

2)Have you interviewed for another job in the last 3 months?

3)Are you encouraged to participate in training to improve your skills and competencies?

Q17) What changes will make you sure about staying with this organisation?

Q18)What are the 3 factors that would lead you to improve the quality of work?

Q19) If you were to give notice and leave your organisation, what would the primary reason be?

Q20)Have you worked in any other organisation previous to this? If yes, for what reason did you
shift to this company?

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