To Stay or to Go! Exploring the Impact of Turnover Intention, Retention Strategies and Employee Surveys on Tourism Employee Retention in Zimbabwe

This paper discusses the importance of employee retention in Zimbabwean hotels. The paper argues that work experience and a conducive work environment are not enough to ensure employees stay in their jobs. Tourism employees prefer places of work that offer exclusive, attractive work-life balance policies that are inclusive of retention strategies. This paper, therefore, examines the relationship dynamics among the dimensions of turnover intention, retention strategies, and employee surveys. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on a purposive sample of 443 hotel employees in selected Zimbabwean hotels. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the quantitative data. The study found that talent management strategies, hotel employee behavior, and the antecedents thereof in the workplace are important for enhancing retention at the workplace. The study delivered an empirically tested tourism employee retention (TER) model for enhancing retention at the workplace. Practical interventions for organizational and industrial purposes in terms of the model were recommended. The paper contributes to the body of knowledge on employee retention in the tourism industry and highlights the importance of adopting human resources (HR) practices that attract better applicants, retain productive employees, and reduce work-life conflict to enhance customer satisfaction experience and organizational performance.