Employee Participation, Training, and Performance Appraisal as Determinants of Employee Retention: An Empirical Analysis of KSA Universities

Abstract

The rising labor mobility and competitive nature of employment have resulted in employee retention being an issue that is be‐ coming a challenge for higher education institutions. Despite the past studies that have been conducted to explore the linkage between human resource management practice (HRM Practices and employee retention), there is scant empirical evidence in the higher education institutions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, specifically on the joint impact of employee participation, training, performance appraisal, teamwork, and in‐ formation sharing. Based on the Social Exchange Theory, this paper explores the effect of these HRM practices on employee retention within the university. Quantitative research design was used, and a structured questionnaire was used to gather data on 110 academic and adminis‐trative employees who work in Saudi universities, and a random sampling technique was used. The scales used in measurements were those n that had been tested and used before, and the reliability was measured using Cronbach’s alpha, with a range of 0.675 to 0.934, which showed a satisfactory level of internal consistency. Pearson correlation and linear regression were used to analyze the data in SPSS. The findings indicate significant positive relationships between HRM practices and employee retention, including employee participation (β = 0.694, R² = 0.482, p < .05), training (β = 0.658, R² = 0.432, p < .05), performance appraisal (β = 0.572, R² = 0.327, p < .05), teamwork (β = 0.547, R² = 0.299, p < .05), and information sharing (β = 0.457, R² = 0.209, p < .05). The above findings indicate that participative management, ongoing skill training, equitable assessment procedures, teamwork workplace, and open communication habits of an organization are more prone to retain employees. The research paper is valuable to the HRM literature by offering both empirical data in the Saudi higher education sector, as well as extending the use of Social Exchange Theory in the explanation of how HRM practices contribute to employee retention. The findings are also useful to univer‐sity administrators who want to come up with effective HR practices that would minimize employee turnover and improve organizational stability.