EMPLOYEE RETENTION IN THE SERVICE INDUSTRY IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

According to a Hewitt study, Malaysia's voluntary employee turnover rate has been constantly rising since 2008. Making a lot worse when Malaysia's economy has suffered the consequences of the Covid-19 outbreak and the mobility restrictions imposed
because of the pandemic's spread. Covid-19 outbreak and the mobility restrictions implemented as a result of the pandemic's spread have had a negative impact on Malaysia's economy since the first case of the virus was reported in January 2020. The
most affected is labour force, they faced with a challenging situation in June 2021, when government continuously implemented the full movement control order whereby only certain sectors are allowed to operate which are essential economic and services sector. Hence, Malaysia’s unemployment rate increased to 4.8% in June 2021, affecting 768,700 persons, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) announced in the Statistics of Labour Force, Malaysia.

However, there are solution that can be helped is organizations creating a nice and healthy work environment in order to assist employees in executing their jobs (Judeh, 2021). Moreover, the organizations should promote a work-life balance as a way to overcome voluntary turnover rate and by maintaining its employees are able to reduce stress and burnout in the worksite (Schick, 2020). Additionally, according to Oduntan (2020), there are several significant variables to consider while retaining employees in any organization, for example, work environment, family support, rewards, recognition, training and development, organization size, culture, and career growth are all vital and key factors in employee retention.

Therefore, the objective of this research is to identify the elements that influence employee retention in the Service industry in Malaysia. The study focuses on the relationships established uniting the three independent variables (work-life balance,
working environment, and reward and compensation) to the dependent variable which is employee retention. This research will be using quantitative method by distributing 4000 questionnaires to employee within the Service industry in Malaysia.