An investigation into what are the important motivation factors that help to retain Generation Y and Z employees in a mining company in Laos

Abstract

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES: Ø To assess the current retention strategies used in a mining company in Laos. Ø To provide/suggest improvements to staff retention practices in the Lao mining company. Ø To investigate motivational factors to retain generation Y and Z employee who work for a Lao mining company. Ø To determine other issues that makes generation Y and Z employees leave the company.

ABSTRACT: Mining industry has the highest employee turnover rate compared to the other industries. The staff turnover does not only imply the organisation lost its employees, but also losing skilled talent, knowledgeable and experienced that those people possess. With regard to staff turnover, the Human Resource Management (HRM) is the main source in designing and planning policies that use to motivate employees to stay with the organisation, especially the Generation Y and Z employees. The main reason for the organisation focusing on these generations more than the other groups is that these Generations are the current key driver for the organisation to accomplish goals and objectives. The older generation such as baby-boomers and Generation X are in a retired point in the workflow.

This research project uses a qualitative approach to study what are the effective approaches in retaining skill personnel of the organisation. The main research objective is to investigate into what are the important motivation factors that help to retain Generation Y, who were born in the year 1978 to 1989 and Z employees, who were born in 1990 onwards in a mining company in Laos. Assessing the current retention practices, what are the main factors that Human Resource Management should be designed and implemented in order to improve its retention program in the organisation. With regards to a data collection, the semi-structured interview uses as the main data collecting method. The semi-structured interview is conducted in Laos with twelve participants from a mining company A in Laos.

The research revealed that there are other factors that the organisation should take into account in relation to motivate employees to stay with the organisation for a longer time, especially Generation Y and Z. The findings exposed the Extrinsic rewards such as Financial reward, includes cash-out annual leave and performance appraisal. Secondly, Development rewards, consists of learning, training and development and career planning. Finally, Social rewards organisational culture, performance support, work-group affinity are the motivation factors for these Generations. Job challenges, work autonomy and technology from Intrinsic rewards are the motivation factors that these Generations take into consideration whether to stay or to leave the company. Interestingly, technology comes into a part in their decision making process when decide to stay or to leave a company.