Factors Affecting Employee Retention in Zimbabwean Companies

The decline of the Zimbabwean economy characterised by the high inflation rate has rendered it difficult for Zimbabwean manufacturing to retain talented employees. The quantitative research methodology was adopted in this paper. The sample size of the study comprised 100 respondents who were randomly selected from the manufacturing companies in Zimbabwe. The sample size of the study was made out of 10 managing directors 10 managers 10 supervisors and 70 employees drawn from the 50 manufacturing companies that were randomly selected. It was established that the companies are failing to retain talented employees and a lot of the employees are leaving the organisations. Retrenchments and restructurings have become the order of the day. The study recommended that employees needed to implement employee retention strategies to remain viable.

How Much Is the Lack of Retention Evidence Costing Trial Teams in Ireland and the United Kingdom?

BackgroundEvidence to support the use of many retention strategies in clinical trials is lacking. Despite this, trial teams still need to have some form of retention strategy in their trials to try and avoid high attrition rates. This study aimed to estimate how much this lack of retention evidence might be costing trials in Ireland and the United Kingdom.Methods We selected the top ten most routinely used retention strategies by Clinical Trial Units in the United Kingdom and made assumptions as to how each of these strategies was most likely to be conducted and the costs involved. We applied our costing model to a hypothetical trial scenario in both Ireland and the United Kingdom as well as to three published trial protocols. We developed the costing model and calculated the costs in Microsoft Excel.Results Retention strategies can be extremely expensive, some of the costliest interventions included “a timeline of participant visits for sites” (with integrated participant reminders) (€1,418.44 - €108,471.99), “routine site visits by CTU staff” (€777.67 - €14,753.48), and “data collection scheduled with routine care” (€900 - €32,503.25). Others such as “telephone reminders for questionnaire response” (€34.58 - €568.62), “inclusion of pre-paid envelopes” (€93.44 - €942.50), and “targeted recruitment of sites/GPs” (€30 - €1,620) were less costly compared to the other interventions. DiscussionThe resources invested in the use of some retention interventions may outweigh known or imagined benefits on retention. Where benefits are imagined, evaluation should be a priority. Conclusion More evaluation of the effectiveness and cost of trial retention strategies is needed to avoid widespread use of strategies that are both expensive and ineffective.

A Web-Based Self-Management Intervention for Veterans With Chronic Conditions and Their Caregivers: A Pilot Study

Web-based Self-management Using Collaborative Coping Enhancement in Diseases (Web-SUCCEED) is a dyadic intervention for patients and their caregivers designed to improve self-management through improving dyadic stress coping, dyadic relationships, and positive emotions. Veterans Affairs (VA) patients with one or more chronic conditions and positive screen for self-management distress were recruited with their informal caregiver from VA Palo Alto. Of the 17 patients and 16 caregivers recruited (62.3% of eligible), 8 patients and 8 caregivers (48.5%) completed the intervention and assessments. Twelve participants withdrew mostly citing the stress of the pandemic as their reason; 5 did not respond to multiple outreach efforts. Veterans were 66□18 y and caregivers were 58□16 y. Veterans and caregivers who completed the program rated it high on usability and acceptability. Pre-post t-tests across a psychosocial battery did not reveal significant differences; results were limited by incomplete post-intervention data. Further testing with modified retention strategies is recommended.

Unique Opportunities and Challenges From Two Online Psychosocial Randomized Clinical Trials

Research aimed at testing readily delivered online psychosocial interventions for addressing the needs of custodial grandfamilies (CGF) has been scarce. This symposium reports on two NIH-funded randomized clinical trials (RCT) involving fully online interventions: Study 1 (S1)-dyadic social Intelligence training for custodial grandmothers and their adolescent grandchildren, and Study 2 (S2)-4 week resourcefulness training with daily journaling intervention for grandmothers only. We presented here on the unique advantages and challenges of online RCTs as they apply to CGFs and similar hard-to-reach populations. First, in a cross-study collaboration, Jeanblanc et al. report data from both studies on how COVID-19 influenced coping habits, grandchild’s remote learning, household conflict, uncertainty, and finances. Second, Castro et al. investigate how baseline positive and negative affect were reported in daily diaries completed by both grandmothers and grandchildren across 14 days at pretest in S1. Third, Musil et al. describe the challenges and benefits of using an entirely online design for the distribution and collection of longitudinal data, as exemplified by 4 weeks of qualitative daily journals from S2. Lastly, Webster et al. report on the benefits and challenges of recruitment and retention strategies encountered across S1 and S2. As discussant, Rachel Pruchno considers how the specific methodological advantages and disadvantages of online RCTs covered in the above papers apply to family caregiving research in general.

Comparisons Between Recruitment and Retention Strategies for Two Online RCTs

Custodial grandfamilies (CGF) comprise a small, diverse group of the US population which can make samples difficult to recruit and retain. Two online RCT studies (S1 & S2) for CGF used a variety of recruitment strategies with varying success. S1, for grandmothers (GM) only, successfully recruited from Facebook (47.95%) and community flyers (17.73%). S2, dyadic study for GM and adolescent grandchildren (AGC), recruited through emails to high school counselors (43.29%) and community (30.94%) and professional (17.13%) kinship support organizations. The advantages of online RCTs for hard-to-reach populations include expedited administration, buffering against social distancing, nationwide enrollment (S1-42 states; S2-43 states), and generalizability of findings. Challenges of online RCTs are establishing rapport and building trust with participants who are not comfortable with technology and designing screenings to identify false participants. Overall, these studies highlight the advantages of an online RCT, especially for hard-to-reach populations like custodial grandfamilies.

Engaging Underrepresented Older Adults in ADRD and Aging Research: A Scoping Review

The rapidly aging and diversifying U.S. population coincides with increases in prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) and other aging-related disorders. Unfortunately, older adults and racial and ethnic minorities are often underrepresented in research studies. The differing barriers that underrepresented older adults face in research engagement indicate that results from studies conducted on younger and majority populations may not maintain external validity outside of those groups. Therefore, efforts to engage diverse older adults in research is imperative. The goal of this scoping review was to summarize findings of the current state of National Institute on Aging (NIA) sponsored research, identifying extant literature on engaging diverse older adult populations in aging and ADRD research. Among 566 articles screened for inclusion, 436 were included in the final analysis. Results showed that African Americans were represented in over half the studies (63.5%), but Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and American Indian or Alaska Native populations were not well represented. Community- and convenience-based recruitment and retention strategies that have demonstrated prior success in research engagement were widely utilized. Racial, ethnic, and income status breakdowns were not included in 30.0%, 57.1%, and 53.4% of studies respectively, making it difficult to assess the applicability of findings for particular groups. Inclusion of Alzheimer’s disease patients or those with mild cognitive impairments was also poorly defined in most studies. Findings highlight gaps in existing literature that can be used to inform future research, and recruitment and retention strategies for engaging racial and ethnic minority older adults in research.

Dynamics of Employee Retention Among SMEs in a Developing Economy

The purpose of this study was to understand the challenges SME managers in a developing economy such as Ghana face in retaining their employees and how the situation could be mediated. This is because Ghanaian small and mediumsize enterprises are overwhelmed with the issue of how to retain their employees. Using a quantitative approach, data was collected from a sample of 300 SME managers and employees in fifteen small and medium firms in the manufacturing, financial, hospitality, IT, retail and service industries, it was found that the firms’ HR practices significantly impact negatively employee retention. It is therefore concluded that the best retention strategies available to SMEs in Ghana is the need to adopt a flexible workplace practices and work family support policies as well as focusing on good reward management practices.

Strategies to Enhance Retention in a Cohort Study Among Adults of Turkish Descent Living in Berlin

Retention is important for statistical power and external validity in long-term cohort studies. The aims of our study were to evaluate different retention strategies within a cohort study of adults of Turkish descent in Berlin, Germany, and to compare participants and non-participants. In 2011–2012, a population-based study was conducted among adults of Turkish descent to primarily examine recruitment strategies. 6 years later, the participants were re-contacted and invited to complete a self-report questionnaire regarding their health status, health care utilization, and satisfaction with medical services. The retention strategy comprised letters in both German and Turkish, phone calls, and home visits (by bilingual staff). We calculated the response rate and retention rate, using definitions of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, as well as the relative retention rate for each level of contact. Associations of baseline recruitment strategy, sociodemographic, migration-related and health-related factors with retention were investigated by logistic regression analysis. Of 557 persons contacted, 249 (44.7%) completed the questionnaire. This was 50.1% of those whose contact information was available. The relative retention rate was lowest for phone calls (8.9%) and highest for home visits (18.4%). Participants were more often non-smokers and German citizens than non-participants. For all remaining factors, no association with retention was found. In this study, among adults of Turkish descent, the retention rate increased considerably with every additional level of contact. Implementation of comprehensive retention strategies provided by culturally matched study personnel may lead to higher validity and statistical power in studies on migrant health issues.

Priorities for family physician and general practitioner recruitment and retention in Singapore: a PRIORITIZE study

Background A shortage of primary care physicians has been reported in many countries. Primary care systems are diverse and the challenges leading to a decline in workforce are at times context-specific and require tailored solutions. Inviting frontline clinicians to share their insights can help identify optimal strategies for a particular setting. To determine priorities for family physicians’ and general practitioners’ recruitment and retention in Singapore, we invited primary care physicians to rank pertinent strategies using PRIORITIZE, a transparent, systematic priority-setting approach. Methods The study advisory board, consisting of representatives of Singapore’s key primary care stakeholders, determined the criteria for prioritising of general practitioners (GPs) and family physicians (FPs) recruitment and retention strategies in Singapore. A comprehensive list of GPs and FPs recruitment and retention strategies was extracted from a recent systematic review of the relevant literature. A questionnaire listing the strategies and the scoring criteria was administered online to doctors practicing in public and private sector in Singapore. Respondents’ scores were combined to create a ranked list of locally most relevant strategies for improving GPs and FPs recruitment and retention. Results We recruited a diverse sample of 50 GPs and FPs practicing in a variety of primary care settings, many with a range of additional professional responsibilities. Around 60 and 66% of respondents thought that there was a problem with recruitment and retention of GPs and FPs in Singapore, respectively. Strategies focusing on promoting primary care by emphasizing the advantages and enhancing the status of the profession as well as training-related strategies, such as sub-specialisation and high-quality rotations were considered priorities for improving recruitment. For retention of GPs and FPs, improving working conditions by increasing GPs’ and FPs’ salary and recognition, as well as varying or reducing time commitment, were seen as the most important strategies. The ranking between physicians working in public and private sector was mostly similar, with nine out of the top ten recruitment and retention strategies being the same. Conclusion Primary care physicians’ ranking of recruitment and retention strategies for GPs and FPs in Singapore provide important insight into the challenges and the solutions as seen by the members of the profession themselves. This information can guide future policy and decision making in this area.