Assessing employee turnover of young professionals in the wastewater sector : the East Rand Water Care case study

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South Africa, as a water-scarce country is faced with shortage of water managers andengineers. The situation is due to employee turnover caused by competition; employeemigration to cite a few reasons.The shortage results in poor wastewater works' management; the contamination of secondarysources of water like dams and rivers. Other results of the shortage are the deterioration ofcommunity health, water infrastructure and the work overload experienced by theoverstretched managers still in the system.The reduction of the reasons for employee turnover in the wastewater sector would ensure thedignity and rights of citizens are restored and respected respectively and the environmentproperly maintained. The retention of Plant managers in charge of the Wastewater TreatmentWorks (WWTW) in the country, and more specifically in the East Rand Water Care, a subsidiaryof the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM), cannot be postponed any further as it isimperative to avoid further losses of key employees. The study sought to assess the reasons for the high turnover of young Plant managers withinthe East Rand Water Care; to highlight the negative effects of the problem; to review theorganization's existing policies meant to curtail the problem and to propose measures to curbthe challenge. A vital distinction to clarify is that the research looks at voluntary turnover, notinvoluntary turnover.The case study, content and secondary data analyses were the designs used to conduct theresearch with the East Rand Water Care as the organization to be studied in order to discoverthe degree to which the wastewater sector utilises employee retention strategies to controlemployee turnover. Secondary qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysismethods, and primary data in the form of structured interviews, were used to gather data whichwere interpreted to inform the research results.A total of seven, inclusive of personal and organizational, reasons were found to be behind thevoluntary employee turnover rate. Professional perceptions were found not to be among thereasons for employee turnover within the organization. The most common reasons foremployee turnover, the research found were:• Low identification with the wastewater environment;• Economic reasons;• Poaching;• Lack of higher incentives;• Communication and• Family.• The most unique reason found, concerned the health risks associated with thewastewater industry.Weakened knowledge capture, re-use and management; financial costs and high absenteeismwere some of the negative effects caused by the turnover of young Plant managers. Mostimportantly, the poor achievement in Green Drop assessments is another negative effectbrought about employee turnover. Green Drop assessments are an annual initiative of theDepartment of Water and Sanitation that assess the quality of the final effluent of municipalwastewater and award certificates for those wastewater works that achieve the expected levelsof high quality. The research also found that all the policies meant to assist internalorganizational employee retention were not succeeding in achieving the retention of Plantmanagers. The reason for their failure was that they were not primarily meant for employeeretention. The results provide an indication that there is a need for a concerted effort by the organizationto put in place measures that would lessen the quits of valuable employees like:• Retention policy development and implementation which should be applied andmonitored to ensure the compliance with the government plan of a healthy environment.If the retention of such employees is not prioritized, the municipal obligation of providinga healthy environment to the citizens by the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipalitythrough its subsidiary would be compromised.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University