Abstract

The study was aimed at examining the causes and effects of employee turnover at Gold Fields Ghana Limited. Gold Fields Ghana Limited spends huge sums of money attracting, motivating and training its employees. High labour turnover affects the company’s ability to meet its corporate vision and the morale of remaining workers. A structured survey was carried out on the mine site of Gold Fields Ghana Limited, Tarkwa to identify the causes of employee turnover in the company. The data were collected through a questionnaire, which consisted of four sections: biographic data of respondents; causes of employee turnover at Gold Fields Ghana Limited; employee's assessment of Gold Fields retention strategy; and impact of turnover on the company and employees. The study revealed that employee turnover at Gold Fields Ghana Limited was caused by three main factors namely: the fear of contracting mine-borne diseases, lack of job security, excessive work pressure and stress on employees. The study also revealed that the average turnover trend in Gold Fields Ghana Limited from 2009 to 2011 was 8%. Based on these findings, it was recommended that the number of hours worked by employees had to be reduced, the existing retention strategies has to be reviewed and more resources needed to be committed to improve the health and safety of employees.

Keywords:

Labour turnover, retention strategies,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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Copyright

The authors have no competing interests.