Workplace mentorship, employee engagement and employee retention among employees of National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO)

Abstract

Abstract

The study aimed at examining the relationship between workplace mentorship, employee engagement and employee retention. The study adopted a correlation study design with a population of 300 employees from different departments. Systemic random sampling technique was used to draw a sample of 77 respondents from the population. Data was collected from respondents using self-administered standard questionnaire and through Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 23.0, data was analyzed. Descriptive statistics showed that 55.8% of the respondents were male and 44.2% were female, majority were aged between 20-30 years (54.5%). Results from Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) further indicated that there is a significant positive relationship between workplace mentorship and employee engagement; similarly, there was a significant positive relationship between employee engagement and employee retention. Lastly, there was a significant negative relationship between workplace mentorship and employee retention. Therefore, basing on the findings, mentoring programs should be flexibly designed to allow an informal (personality, affinity-based) approach to mentor-mentee matching and for the formal mentoring process; a flexible approach to goal-setting supported by good planning should inform its structure as this can easily boost employee engagement by increasing their dedication to work.