Employee retention by controlling expectations: understanding the psychological contract of employers in the mining sector

Abstract

This study examined employee retention by controlling expectations and understanding the psychological contract of employers in one mine in the North West Province, South Africa. The subjective research strategy was utilized to gather data for this study. Random sampling was used to determine the study population. Seven (7) employees were selected to participate in a focus group discussion and six (6) employers from the managerial cohort where chosen to participate in a one-on-one interview. The results showed that besides salary increments, employers in the mining sector are still able to retain and appoint the best-talented employees. Fair treatment, training and development, and consultation were highlighted retention strategies that employers could use for keeping employees at the workplace. The researcher had two interviews, one for the employees and one for the employers .Questions were asked by the researcher and participants where given the chance to give their views,, the researcher used a form of audio recording to capture data. This study seeks to determine the state of the psychological contract of employees in the mining sector and how employers could retain employees by controlling their expectations. Purpose sampling was used to gather information.