TITLE:
The Influence of Medical and Life Insurance on Employee Retention in Private Zambian Schools
AUTHORS:
Swithan Kaunda, Jackson Phiri
KEYWORDS:
Employee Retention, Medical/Life Insurance, Private Schools, Organisational Commitment, Zambia
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.12 No.6,
November
20,
2024
ABSTRACT: Employee turnover is a significant challenge for many organizations globally. Turnover leads to enormous operations costs, including lost productivity, decreased customer loyalty, recruitment expenses, diminished competitive edge and demotivation among remaining staff. Employee turnover in private schools in Zambia’s education sector is estimated at 18.7%. This study aimed to investigate the influence of medical and life insurance on employee retention in private schools, as literature has identified these benefits to be significant for retention in studies from America and Tanzania. The cross-sectional case study employed the pragmatism philosophy to identify factors influencing turnover and adapt a model for assessing the influence of medical and life insurance on employee turnover. Cochran’s formula was used to calculate the sample size of 385 but only 228 semi-structured questionnaires (59%) were retrieved and 5 interviews of key respondents in the selected organizations. Ordinal Logistic Regression (ORL) in SPSS and content analysis were used to analyse quantitative and qualitative data respectively. The study found that compensation, job satisfaction, organization commitment, work structure and education level were statistically significant factors influencing employee retention at 5% level of significance. The study further established that medical and life insurance does not individually influence employee retention unless paired with pay and pension in a comprehensive compensation package. The study recommended that employee retention strategies in private school institutions should be designed around effective compensation and practices that promote job satisfaction, career development and work-life balance.