An investigation into the retention strategies of two large banks towards affirmative action employees in Kwazulu-Natal.
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Date
2000
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Abstract
Affirmative Action has been around in South Africa for about two
decades. Recently, the government decided to impose Affirmative
Action through the Employment Equity Act. Organisations are
anxious to transform their demographical composition across job
categories, particularly into management. One of the problems
organisations faced in the past and may continue to face in the
future is the perceived short tenure ('Job hopping") of black
employees. The impression has been created that black employees
are taking advantage of the favourable employment market and
constantly keep moving on to jobs that offer better packages.
The aim of this study is to investigate how organisations are trying
to manage this problem . Five Human Resources systems/criteria i.e.
selection, training and development, career management, pay and
socialisation were identified in the theory as instruments with which
employees could be retained.
in-depth case studies were conducted at two large banks (A and B)
in Kwazulu Natal to establish and compare the relationships that
these human resources criteria might have with the retention of
black employees. To obtain this information, a structured interview
schedule with open-ended as well as closed-ended questions was
used. Face to face interviews with a senior Human Resources
Practitioner from each bank as well as two current and two exemployees
from each bank were conducted. The resulting data was
captured onto a computer and analysed statistically.
The results of the research showed that the bank that scored the best
(bank A) on the implementation of these five retention-related
criteria also had the highest turnover of black employees. This was
contrary to what was anticipated. The research also found that
there was little uniformity in practice between the two banks regarding which criteria they were emphasising within their
respective organisations. Furthermore, current and ex-employees
bad different perceptions to management regarding how well these
criteria were being implemented.
The findings suggest that when employees are developing they are
content and tend to stay longer. They further indicate that in order
to reduce black employee turnover, management should recruit
individuals with potential and develop them, rather than purchasing
skills from the outside. The findings also show that whilst
management might have good Human Resources systems at it's
disposal, the implementation thereof needs to be of a high standard
and well-controlled in order to optimise retention.
Description
Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2000.
Keywords
Banks and banking--KwaZulu-Natal., Bank employees--South Africa., Banks and banking--South Africa--Personnel management., Banks and banking--Employment--South Africa., Blacks--Employment--KwaZulu-Natal., Affirmative action programmes--KwaZulu-Natal., Theses--Industrial, organisational and labour studies.