Gender Differences in Employee Attrition at the Durban University of Technology

Abstract

Employee attrition is a critical issue facing many organisations including higher education institutions. With the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease, employee attrition rate has accelerated across universities in South Africa and Durban University of Technology is not exempted. The role of human resource management functions becomes vital at such critical time. The study examines the gender differences in employee attrition and the perceptions on the talent management strategies at DUT. The study adopted a quantitative research approach and collected data from the university’s database for the period 2018-2022. A descriptive data analysis using SPSS was conducted depicting the gender differences in the attrition rate at DUT. The findings of the study show that, (i) female employees are exiting the institution employment when compared to their counterpart, (ii) the institutions talent management strategies are work in progress.  Furthermore, the study findings gave insight into an important practical implication needed by universities for an effective implementation of retention policies and practices especially in achieving the SDG of gender balancing. The study is limited to data collected within DUT and the findings cannot be used for generalization. The study is deemed important in addressing the increasing employee attrition rates and contributes to the on-going discourse in gender related issues facing higher education institution.

Keywords: Gender; Employee attrition; Talent management; Higher Education Institution; South Africa.

JEL classifications:  I23; O15; J63