Article Preview
TopIntroduction
Employees are an integral part of any organisation. An academic employee serves higher education institutions providing services that are vital to academic institutions’ existence. Studies have shown that the demand for academic employees in higher education and training institutions has been on the rise and is likely to continue to increase. This is especially true now that the South African government has decided to increase significantly its contributions to higher education, leading to the conclusion of the plan to establish two more universities in the country (Samuel and Chipunza 2013). Researchers raise concerns about the prospects for a sufficient supply of academicians in South Africa (Mubarak and Khan 2012; Netswara, Rankhumise and Mavundla 2005).
The success of any organisation depends on having the right number of employees, with the right skills and abilities. Globally, well-performing organizations have excellent working condition that produce highly motivated employees to attain success. If employees are motivated then they work towards improving the conditions within the workplaces. Workforce motivation can be obtained through satisfactory salary, job design, and internal communication (Galli 2020). Academic employees acquire specific expertise that is costly and difficult to replace. Therefore, attracting, motivating, and retaining knowledgeable employees is important in a knowledge-based and tight labour market, in which changing knowledge management practices and global convergence of technology has redefined the nature of work (Samuel and Chipunza 2013).
Higher education institutions are forced to look after their valued academic staff. Consequently, having an effective attraction and retention strategy is essential for such institutions’ existence, over and above its obvious desirability. In order to retain knowledgeable workers, organisations must ensure that they pay close attention to the individual development needs of each person (Bagraim, Cunnington, Potgieter and Viedge 2007). Previous research has reported compensation, training and development opportunities, supervisor support, and career opportunities as important retention factors, especially in the context of higher education (Deas 2017).