Talent retention management: a case study of Registrar of companies and Intellectual Property (ROCIP) in Botswana

Abstract

The focus of this study was on talent retention management. The objectives of the study were-to use theories of motivation to identify those factors which organisations use to retain employees; to determine the underlying reasons why employees in the civil service in general and in the Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property(ROCIP) in particular decide to leave their civil service employment; to determine if there is any strategy in place to retain staff in the ROCIP, and to recommend how such retention strategies can be implementation at ROCIP. The study adopted a mixed approach involving both qualitative and quantitative inputs from study participants. A questionnaire was used as the research instrument and was distributed to about 120 employees in various divisions at ROCIP. A total of 89 questionnaires were completed and returned to the researcher. A statistical tool (Statistical package for Social Sciences, Version 20.0) was used to capture and analyse the responses from ROCIP employees through frequency tables, bar charts, means and standard deviations. The key findings were that poor pay and benefits impact on ROCIP' s bid to retain talent within its structures. Other factors which resulted in migration of skilled employees to other sectors were lack of career development within government structures, lack of induction and training, lack of job flexibility, dissatisfaction with line management and unfair treatment. The study recommended that the Botswana government should come up with clear strategies to nurture and retain talent especially at departments like ROCIP. Such strategies should include raining salaries and benefits especially for skilled employees within government departments. Experts on human resources should be roped to help in this aspect and should reach out to all stakeholders such as employees, ROCIP management, supervisors and government representatives.