Relationship of Human Resource Management Practices on Employees’

Retention as Perceived by College Students

Almodiel, Joana Marie J.

Berces, Gabrielle Sandrine A.
Chua, Mary Joy V.
Hernandez, Halliry Khyle Marie E.
Palcan, Angel Gabrielle C.
Pradella, James
Sta. Maria, Karlos Jose P.
Villarubia, Trisha Jane J.
Visayan, John Kenneth B.

ABM 1803, Grade 12, Practical Research 2

National University – Nazareth School
1459 Alcantara, Sampaloc, Manila, 1015 Metro Manila
September 16, 2019

Abstract
Employees are the backbone of organizations and their retention is essential to keep the organization intact, it is
needed to know how to keep employees satisfied to remain in their job. Hence, this study aimed to identify the
relationship of HRM practices to employees’ retention depending on the perception of college students. This study
was conducted on 116 students under College of Business and Accountancy from National University through the
use of purposive sampling. The data were collected through survey questionnaire consisting of indicators regarding
HRM practices and gathered data were analyzed by SPSS using Pearson-r. The perception of college students, the
HRM practices such as assessment, compensation and benefits, empowerment and training and development does
have a significant relationship to employees’ chance of remaining in their job. The findings as perceived by college
students indicated that assessing their performance is the most important for them to be satisfied and retain in the
organization. Therefore, perception of college students is different compared to perception of employees regarding
practices that may help them stay. The researchers recommend the future researchers to conduct an in-depth research
about HRM practices to identify more factors that will help retain employees.
Keywords: Assessment, Compensation and Benefits, Employees’ Retention, Empowerment,
Training and Development

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Human Resources Management plays a crucial role in an organization which strategizes

the managing of people, their workplace and environment. Employees are the backbone of

the company towards success. Thus, retention of employees is essential for the company to

be intact. Organizations having difficulties on retaining their employees results to paying

more attention to their people, improving how they manage their employees and practices

that helps retain employees were provided. However, as generation renew, it remains a

problem if these practices still correlate to today’s employees’ retention since these practices

are dynamic in nature and it impacts the retention of employees (Khan, Huda, Khalid &

Ishfaq, 2013). In addition, in previous studies of Hong et al. (2012); Haider et al. (2015);

John and Teru (2017), the gathered data and results are based from the perception of

employees since the chosen participants are limited to employees only. Thus, this study

targeted college students’ perception to determine if there is a significant relationship

between HRM practices such as employees’ assessment, compensation and benefits,

empowerment and lastly, training and development and employees’ retention. The college

students were chosen as respondents because they will be the future employees that will

contribute a lot to the success of organizations.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

This study aimed to determine the relationship between the practices of human resources

management such as employees’ assessment, compensation and benefits, empowerment and

training and development to the employees’ retention as perceived by college students; where

these practices have a vital role in the betterment of the company. Specifically, this study

aimed to answer the following;

How does the human resources management practices correlate towards the employees’

retention?

1. Is there a significant relationship between assessment and employees’ retention?

 2. Is there a significant relationship between compensation and benefits and employees’

retention?

3. Is there a significant relationship between empowerment and employees’ retention?

4. Is there a significant relationship between training and development and employees’

retention?

1.3 Research Hypothesis

The following hypotheses are tentative statements about the perception of college students

regarding the relationship of human resource management practices on the employees’

retention. This study is designed to test the following hypotheses.

: There is no significant relationship between assessment and employees’ retention.

: There is a significant relationship between assessment and employees’ retention.

: There is no significant relationship between compensation and benefits and

employees’ retention.

: There is a significant relationship between compensation and benefits and

employees’ retention.

: There is no significant relationship between empowerment and employees’

retention.

: There is a significant relationship between empowerment and employees’ retention.

: There is no significant relationship between training and development and

employees’ retention.

: There is a significant relationship between training and development and

employees’ retention.
1.4 Significance of the Study

This study aimed to have a broad and deeper insight regarding how the practices of human

resources management correlate to the employees’ retention. The researchers believed that

the results and findings will benefit the companies, employees, students, and future

researchers in the following aspects:

To Companies. The findings of this study will help the company to improve their practices

to retain their employees.

To Students. This study shall allow their thinking to be widened in such way that they will

have knowledge on how they will continue to work in their respective company in the future

and be able to have a better career planning. Moreover, for students who are aspiring to be a

businessman, and to be a part of the HR, they will have an idea of how to improve their work

for the betterment of the company.

To Future Researchers. They may use the findings as their reference in line with human

resource management practices and employees’ retention. Hence, this study may help them

explore more of the HRM practices that will lead to employees’ retention.

1.5 Scope and Delimitation

The study mainly identified the relationship of Human Resources Management practices

to the employees’ retention as perceived by college students from National University –

Manila under College of Business and Accountancy. The variables that were only included in

the practices are assessment, compensation and benefits, empowerment, and lastly, training

and development. For these are the most common practices the employees should have. For

this correlational research design, the researchers used 116 respondents as suggested by
 Lunenberg and Irby (2008). The researchers only included the perception of college student

about the human resources practices and employees’ retention. The reason of the exclusion of

employees as a respondent is that considering the age and status of the researchers, the data

to be gathered is confidential. Moreover, the respondents should be of age between 18-22

years old. The researchers believed that the chosen respondents have a wide array of different

views and perspectives about the topic. Lastly, this study did not include an in-depth

understanding of the specific phenomena; it did not attempt the qualitative approach since the

only objective of this study is to test whether the HRM practices have a significant

relationship to the employees’ retention or not.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

This part presents the conceptual literature, related studies, synthesis and conceptual

framework of the study, after the thorough and in-depth search done by the researchers to

provide the reader with the general overview of the relationship of human resources management

practices to employees’ retention. Several practices can shape and influence on the employees’

retention. One of which is how these practices shapes the perception of their retention.

2.1 Conceptual Literature

Human Resources Management

Söderlund and Bredin (2005) proposed that (1) Human Resources Management

symbolizes as an executive personnel responsibility that is highly concern about the

management activities. (2) Human Resources Management serves as a management

philosophy that is concern with people treatment. (3) Human Resources Management as
interaction between the firm and its people that is also viewed as the medium between both

aforementioned parties.

In this study, Human Resources Management practices refer to employees’ assessment,

compensation and benefits, empowerment, and training and development.

Assessment

Assessment is a process of testing and examining the performance of an employee

depends on his task to manage the choices of the development of an employee. It assesses the

contribution of an individual through his capability and performance to seek a higher position

(Gruman & Saks, as cited in Hong, et al., 2011). In the study made by Hassan, Hassan,

Khan, and Iqbal (2013), assessment is a way where the performance of an employee is

enhanced or improved. In addition, performance examination is a portion of profession

development that comprises on the criticism of the worker execution within the organization.

In this study, assessment refers to periodical evaluation and feedback of the employee’s

performance to identify their strengths and weaknesses and for their satisfaction regarding

their own performance rating.

Compensation and Benefits

The study of Irshad and Afridi (2007) considered compensation as one of the biggest

factor on the employees‟ retention. It is the company’s way to encourage their employees to

stay motivated. According to Hong, et al. (2012), compensation serves as payment for loss,

damages or injury and cash received by the employee from the employers as salary or wages

or offering to something. Life and health insurance, pension, retirement plans and allowance

are some of the examples of benefits that play an important role in large company.
 In this study, compensation and benefits pertains to employees being satisfied with the

salary, non-monetary benefits and rewards they are receiving.

Empowerment

Empowerment is having the right of employees to do the assigned tasks for them (Jarrar &

Zairi, as cited in Hong, et al., 2010). It means that the employees have freedom to decide on

their own for the company and for their own betterment. According to Naeem and Saif, as

cited in Hong, et al. (2010), employee empowerment can give them the feeling of

belongingness and ownership towards the present organization. They tend to have more

confidence and can perform better because they are given an authority in decision making.

In this study, empowerment was used as an opportunity for employees to take appropriate

action and make decisions on their own to make good use of their skills while empowering

their co-workers.

Training and Development

One of the important factors, which are the investment in employee’s training and

development, is the way to remain employee’s retention (Messmer, as cited in Irshad &

Afridi, 2000). According to Landsman, as cited in Hong, et al. (2004), he recommended that

training is an important role to enhance skills and to upgrade the employee’s performance

and that training can address in contributing to the employee’s retention, for example, the

support from the management, organization and the community. Organization with lack of

trainings’ opportunities in this manner have higher standard for dependability.

In this study, training and development refers to sufficient regular trainings and mentor

for the employees to improve and have a better career planning.

Employees’ Retention
 The word “retention” states that the employee has a choice to stay and continue to work in

your company (Tanwar & Prasad, 2016). According to Buenger, as cited in Tanwar and

Prasad (2006) retention in the company centers on keeping the employee that contribute

towards the victory of the organization, in order to maintain the success. In literature,

retention has been showed as “an obligation to continue to do business or exchange with a

particular company on an ongoing basis” (Zineldin, as cited in Sinha & Sinha, 2000, p. 146).

In this study, employees’ retention pertains to the loyalty of the employee to the company

and going beyond what is expected to assist the company better.

2.2 Related Studies

The Human Resources Management is the main department in the company that is

concerned with employees’ benefits, compensation and disciplinary. Elarabi and Johari

(2014) portrayed HRM as a procedure that has practical experience in verifying and

expanding aptitudes of individual representatives and upgrades correspondence and

collaboration between them to help hierarchical improvement. HRM practices positively

affect hierarchical advancement, execution of business methodologies, work execution,

money related returns, dealing with the authoritative clash and a feasible upper hand. Giving

attention to the Human Resources Management practices will developed the motivation,

satisfaction and commitment of their employees, which will lead to a great benefit to the

company.

As stated in the study made by Ejaz and Akbar (2015), there are numerous factors that

could help one company to improve its human resources management practices for the

employees’ retention. Providing a good training and development has a positive effect to the
employee, it could be a way to enhance each employee's skills and abilities, and to make

them more confident in solving one problem. Also, having fair employee compensation is a

great move to give the benefits that an employee deserves and to show that his contributions

are well appreciated. In addition, every company should have a proper appraisal system so

that everyone will understand one's job and responsibilities for a better individual career

growth. On the other hand, the findings of the study of Mathimaran and Kumar (2017) stated

that communication between management and employees is not doing well which results to

employees leaving the company. Therefore, their study proved that the relationship between

the employees and management has to improve since there is a high competition within an

industry that could affect the employee retention. They also stated that it will be beneficial in

the part of the management to know their employee’s mind-set towards their job and it will

be more helpful for management to identify the needs of their employees in order for them to

stay long in their organization. On the other side, some of HR department are not satisfied on

how they implement their rewards about their employees’ performance which is provided by

their organization. In agreement to these studies, the study of Haider et al. (2015) suggested

that an organization should have a competitive salary package in order to provide the right

reward and compensation of the employees, a good management for the betterment of the

company and a proper remuneration. These factors could influence the employees not to feel

too much burden of the workload but to love and retain in their jobs.

According to the study of Madanat and Khasawneh (2018), the effectiveness of the human

resource management practices has a significant impact on the employees’ satisfaction which

emphasizes the importance of HRM practices in utilizing employees in the bank. They

believe that compensation has a direct and positive impact on employees’ performance.
Study shows that compensation and benefit play a significant factor to employee's overall

performance and retention, the efficiency and productivity of the employees solely but

somehow relative to the benefit they receive. Assessment, training and development of the

employees have a high level of effectiveness wherein these findings may increase the quality

of being competitive. It stated that organization should support the employees’ involvement

in the process of achieving their goals and increase the empowerment of the employees

which will bring great effectiveness in their satisfaction and commitment. The findings of

this study have agreement with the other international study, as mentioned above.

According to Llego (2013), study shows that nearly 50% of human resources practices

have a major impact on firm performance. There are three highest influences on

organizational performance; Employees relations and communication allow employees to

know about the HRM practices, giving them a right to voice out their complains and wants to

their job. The second highest influence is the degree to which employees are given the

opportunity to decide, participate and get involved in their area of work. This enables

employees to have an empowerment to practice adaptability and be more motivated in their

work environments. This is consistent with the Herzberg two-factor motivation theory, which

proposes that employees will be more encouraging to work if inherent factors such as

responsibility, recognition and personal growth are given to employees. The third highest

influence is career planning, this creates a sense of empowerment of employees regarding

their career paths, hence encouraging employees to be more enthusiastic in achieving their

career goals that will lead to increased productivity and performance of the firm. The three

influences mentioned above are also in agreement with what was proposed in the Job
Characteristics Model of Hackman Oldham, as included in their study. In compared to the

other study, this was published in the Philippines.

In the study of Haider et al. (2015), the three human resource practices that they used in

their study, which is the training and development, compensation and organizational culture

has highly correlated with the employees’ retention. It means that the employee retention in

the organization be increase if they have a better HR practices. In contrast to the other

studies, training and development in this study showed a negative relation to the employees’

retention, which may due to the lack of commitment between the employer and employee.

Employees are consistent if the employer is helpful and if they are being properly managed,

trained and developed. The compensation has a high correlation in the employee retention,

having the most influence on the retention; this finding contribute to employees’ loyalty

toward the organization. The compensation and benefits given by the Telecom Sector to its

employees has a vital role that helps the organization’s success.

In the study of Khan, Huda, Khalid and Ishfaq (2013) show that there is significant

relation between the HRM practices and on employee retention except employee

empowerment among bank employees, that is contrast to the other studies. Results also show

that employee compensation has a lot of contribution in order to retain employees, after this

assessment contributes also and an employee training and development contributes less and

employee empowerment has very less correlation in order to retain employees. Therefore,

employers must further develop their human relations so that employees will achieve their

organizational goals. Competent employees must be well taken care of and well compensated

so they will not leave their company since they are the backbone of any organization. An

effective human resource management practices are the key factor for the success of
employees’ retention in an organization, it is no secret for every organization that human

resource practices has a significant role in the retention.

2.3 Synthesis

The gathered literature and studies allow the readers to have a clear overview definition of

Human Resources Management and their current practices provided for the retention of

employees. Furthermore, the employees are the essential part of organization towards its

success. Evidently, retaining employees is as important. The literatures indicated that

practices namely employees’ assessment, compensation and benefits, empowerment and

training and development which are correlated to their retention. All these findings in

different studies internationally and locally, the researchers found out that compensation, as

one of the factors in HRM practices, has the most influence and greater impact on the

retention of the employees. However, even if it is already proven that the practices correlated

to the retention of employees, these practices are dynamic in nature (Khan, Huda, Khalid &

Ishfaq, 2013). Also, in previous studies of Hong et al. (2012), Haider et al. (2015), John and

Teru (2017), the gathered data and result are based from the perception of employees since

the chosen participants are limited to employees only. As a result, this study targeted college

students as participants regarding their perception to determine if the practices have a

significant relationship to employees’ retention.

2.4 Conceptual Framework

Figure 1 shows the relationship of the human resources management practices, which are

the employees’ assessment, compensations and benefits, empowerment, and training and
 development to the employees’ retention. In relation of those four (4) practices of the human

resources management may lead to the retention of employees.

Human Resources
Management Practices
1. Assessment
2. Compensation and Employees’ Retention
. Benefits
3. Empowerment
4. Training and Development

Figure 1 : Relationship of HRM Practices to the Employees’ Retention as Perceived by

College Students
The conceptual framework is adapted based from the study of Hong et al. (2012), an

effective Human Resources Management practices namely the employees’ assessment,

compensation and benefit, empowerment, and training and development as the main factors

of the employees’ retention.

3. METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Design

Correlational research design was used in this study for it aimed to investigate the

relationship of human resources management practices to the employees’ retention based on

the perception of college students. As stated by Siegle (2015), in correlational research

design, it tends to at least try not to influence the one variable or another variable; it will just

test the relationship between them though data can only be “interpreted” in conclusions or

casual terms but cannot conclusively prove causality.

3.2 Context and Participants

The researchers conducted the study to 116 respondents both male and females as

suggested by Lunenberg and Irby (2008) that the appropriate sample size for correlational

research is 100-200.

The researchers used the purposive sampling method – a type of non-probability sampling

method used to accumulate participants. Purposive sampling is the chosen method for which

the participants are selected using the pre-determined criteria related for the research

questions. Considering the time and cost, non-probability sampling is much better because it

is less expensive, less time consuming, and require only little sampling skills (Maholtra,

2007).

Therefore, the criteria for the inclusion of participants are as follows:

1. The participants must be studying in National University – Manila

2. The participants must be a college student under College of Business and Accountancy.

3. The participants must be 18 – 22 years old.

The standards have been chosen by the researchers in order to set a clear parameter on

distinguishing the participants.

3.3 Research Instrument

The instrument was used in this study was questionnaire which was modified from the

questionnaire of Hong et al. (2012). The questionnaire was modified because the original

questionnaire is applicable for employees and since the participants of this study are college

students.
 The indicators were constructed using the structured type for the set of indicators are

answerable by close-ended. The questionnaire was modified from the study of Hong et al.

(2012), regarding the variables (training, performance appraisal, compensation and employee

retention) the indicators are developed by Minjoon, Shaohan and Hojung (2006) and

indicators regarding employee empowerment were developed by Short and Rinehart (1992).

Since the questionnaire was modified, the previous researchers ensured the validity and

reliability of the instrument by pilot testing that was published under International Journal of

Business Research and Management. It was made to know the consistency of questionnaire

using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to process the reliability test of the

instrument – it is important to so it can improve the questionnaire’s quality before the actual

survey (Hong et al., 2012).

The questionnaire consists of 25 indicators that are simple and suitable for the participants

to answer; it is easy to understand due to the structure of the language, it is important to

avoid any misunderstandings to prevent false data. It was divided into five (5) parts; every

part consists of 5 questions. The first part is for Empowerment, the second part is for

compensation and benefits, the third part is for training and development, the fourth part is

for assessment and the last past is for the employees’ retention. The modified questionnaire

used a five (5) point Likert-scale where the respondents will indicate how strongly agree or

strongly disagree they are with the statements provided. Wherein, 5 represents that the

participants strongly agrees with the question given, 4 that they agree, 3 if they are neutral, 2

if they disagree and 1 if they state that they strongly disagree. In addition, it includes asking

their age, gender and their current year or level as a college student.
3.4 Data-gathering Procedure

The researchers gathered data by conducting a survey between the researchers and the

participants. It was beneficial to the researchers since their participation may help them gain

more information about the topic. Before the personally data-gathering procedure or the

primary data, gathering online data or information and online resources also happened, it

serves as the supporting secondary data.

The researchers gathered the data by means of survey that contains several close-ended

questions that are needed for the study. It pursued the following data procedure; (1) the

researchers’ preparation. This included finding an appropriate place inside the university as

the setting where the survey happened; also it developed the instruments and materials which

are the questionnaire, letter of permission, and informed consent form that were used in the

survey. Also, it included finding participants who are appropriate and compatible in this

study; (2) the letter of permission was given ahead of time to have the permission of the

Dean under the said department, if he/she will accept it or not and the consent form, to

inform the participants and to know if they will accept it or not; (3) when the permission was

already approved, the researchers greeted, communicated and explained to all participants

what is the questionnaire all about, the ethical considerations that the anonymity, privacy and

confidentiality of the participants will be secured and also to ask for their permission

personally. They were also allowed to ask or to step in their main concerns; (4) the main

survey happened, at this point, the participants are already answering the questions; (5) after,

researchers had a small talk with the respondents where they are free to express their views

even if it is not related to the topic, so the researchers and participants can have their casual

talk, including the sharing of gratitude of the researchers; (6) the important data and
descriptions were collected, were saved and compiled carefully for this is the source of the

research and secure the confidentiality of the data; (7) Lastly, the researchers analyzed and

examined the data using the appropriate statistical tool.

3.5 Data Analysis

The researchers analyzed the data by reviewing it through the help of descriptive and

inferential statistics. Each participant involved will be given an alias during the survey to

ensure their anonymity in.

1. Mean. It is used to obtain the average of each HRM practices. In order to obtain the

average of each variable, the formula for mean was used:

Where:

x mean of each variable

Σ summation

x = value of the Likert-scale

N = total number of questions

2. Pearson Product Moment of Correlation (Pearson-r). It was used to determine the

relationship of human resource management practices to the employees’ retention. It was

tested using this formula:

√[ ][ ]

Where:

r = correlation coefficient
 N = number of participants

Σ summation

x = independent variable (HR practices – training and development, assessment,

empowerment and compensation and benefits)

y dependent variable (employees’ retention)

After getting the value of the Pearson’s r, it was interpreted as follows:

Table 3: Pearson’s r Correlation Scale (Al-Samman, 2012)

Values Interpretation
± 0.80 to ± 1.0 High positive (negative) correlation
± 0.60 to ± 0.79 Moderately high positive (negative) correlation
± 0.40 to ± 0.59 Moderate positive (negative) correlation
± 0.20 to ± 0.39 Low positive (negative) correlation
± 0.10 to ± 0.19 Negligible positive (negative) correlation

3.6 Ethical Consideration

To guarantee that the study will be well conducted and executed the legitimacy, as

ethically as possible, the participants in this study will be given informed consent regarding

the overall purpose and conduct of the study beforehand. In doing so, the researchers will

ensure to put into place the dignity and well-being of the participants that will be part of our

study by means of giving them the free will to participate voluntarily or withdraw without

any punishment. It will also make sure the agreement between the researchers and the

participants. If some problems arise, the researchers will be the one who is responsible in any

of the problems.

Furthermore, the confidentiality of each participant is also highly considered by the

researchers, securing the privacy and anonymity of each personal data that may be gathered

in lieu of the Data Privacy Act of 2012. The data gathered will be kept between the

researchers, participants and the teachers involved for the sake of their privacy.
 Lastly, the researchers will make sure that the data will be collected are all real and no

biases will happen. The researchers will also give acknowledgement to the authors of the

other studies that help them to conduct the study. They make sure that the citations are

properly used using the APA format.

4. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The college students’ perception about the relationship of HRM practices to the employees’

retention were measured by 25-item indicators. It was conducted by the researchers in order to

analyze the data they get from the participants and to accomplish the study. In this part, it shows

the result and discussion from the data that the researchers collected from the participants.

4.1 Result

RQ1: Is there a significant relationship between assessment and employees’ retention?

Ho1: There is no significant relationship between assessment and employees’ retention.

Table 2: Relationship of assessment to employees’ retention

N r Interpretation p-value Decision Remark
Assessment Moderate
and 116 0.494 positive 0.000 Reject the Ho Significant
Employee Retention correlation

Table 2 shows the relationship of assessment to the employees’ retention. The table

reveals that the correlation coefficient is r = 0.494, which shows a moderate positive

correlation. A p-value of .000 was obtained, which is lower than the level of significance α

0.05. Thus, it rejects the null hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between

assessment and employees’ retention.

 RQ2: Is there a significant relationship between compensation and benefits and employees’

retention?

Ho2: There is no significant relationship between compensation and benefits and employees’

retention.

Table 3: Relationship of compensation and benefits to employees’ retention

N r Interpretation p-value Decision Remark
Compensation and Low positive
Benefits and 116 0.260 correlation 0.005 Reject the Ho Significant
Employee Retention

Table 3 presents the relationship of compensation and benefits to the employees’

retention. The table reveals that the correlation coefficient is r = 0.260, which shows a low

positive correlation. A p-value of .005 was obtained, which is lower than the level of

significance α 0.05. Thus, it rejects the null hypothesis that there is no significant

relationship between compensation and benefits and employees’ retention.

RQ3: Is there a significant relationship between empowerment and employees’ retention?

Ho3: There is no significant relationship between empowerment and employees’ retention.

Table 4: Relationship of empowerment to employees’ retention

N r Interpretation p-value Decision Remark
Empowerment Low positive
and 116 0.377 correlation 0.000 Reject the Ho Significant
Employee Retention

Table 4 indicates the relationship of empowerment to the employees’ retention. The table

reveals that the correlation coefficient is r = 0.377, which shows a low positive correlation. A

p-value of .000 was obtained, which is lower than the level of significance α = 0.05. Thus, it

rejects the null hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between empowerment and

employees’ retention.
 RQ4: Is there a significant relationship between training and development and employees’

retention?

Ho4: There is no significant relationship between training and development and employees’

retention.

Table 5: Relationship of training and development to employees’ retention

N r Interpretation p-value Decision Remark
Training and Moderate
Development and 116 0.419 positive 0.000 Reject the Ho Significant
Employee Retention correlation

Table 5 shows the relationship of training and development to the employees’ retention. The

table reveals that the correlation coefficient is r = 0.419, which shows a moderate positive

correlation. A p-value of .000 was obtained, which is lower than the level of significance α

0.05. Thus, it rejects the null hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between training

and development and employees’ retention.

4.2 Discussion

RQ1: Is there a significant relationship between assessment and employees’ retention?

It indicates that there is significant positive relationship between employees’ assessment

and employees’ retention. It also shows that assessment is moderately positive correlated to

employees’ retention.

Compared to compensation and benefits, assessment showed the highest correlation as

perceived by college students because they prioritize more the quality of their work or

performance and they give more attention to something that helps them to identify their

strengths and weakness which may help them improve personal growth. Meanwhile,

according to Sheridan (1992), the performance dimensions which represents assessment is an

important practice since it is a standard to check overall employees’ performance and

provides information to the employees regarding how they work so the employees will be

aware.

RQ2: Is there a significant relationship between compensation and benefits and employees’

retention?

It indicates that there is significant positive relationship between employees’

compensation and benefits and employees’ retention. It also shows that compensation and

benefits is weakly positive correlated to employees’ retention.

Compensations and benefits correlate to employees’ retention, the same with the study of

Haider et al. (2015). The findings of their study states that compensation and benefits has the

most influence to employee retention for it supports employees’ organizational growth which

results to employees being motivated to commit to stay in the organization. However, based

from the perception of college students, compensation and benefits has the lowest value

among the four practices but it still has positive correlation to the retention maybe because

since they are not employed yet, they did not prioritize the salary because they give more

importance to their assessment or the way how they perform. Compensation and benefits has

an impact to the retention because it may encourage more the employees to work harder and

to improve the quality of their work. In addition, according to the study of John and Teru

(2017), compensation such as direct money being used to push employees to stay is not

effective in fact it decreases employee retention unlike benefits such as non-monetary.

RQ3: Is there a significant relationship between empowerment and employees’ retention?

 It indicates that there is significantly positive relationship between employees’

empowerment and employees’ retention. It also shows that empowerment is moderately

positive correlated to employees’ retention.

It shows that empowerment has an impact to employees’ retention; for college students, it

is important if they have their own freedom to decide and take appropriate action for the

good of the company to remain in their jobs. According to Lin (2002), having an

empowerment may result to have an empowering leaders and it can help the employees’ self-

management. To support, employees’ empowerment which helps employees to improve self-

management process is a massive factor to help retain employees stated in the study of Akbar

(2014). However, according to the study of Hong et al. (2012) employees’ empowerment

does not correlate to the retention of employees possibly due to culture distinction of

participants. It was not considered as one of the important factor because they stated that

employers are the ones who manage or arrange the important tasks to the employees it is due

to the paternalistic leadership style traditional Chinese firms. On the other hand, in this study,

as perceived by college students, learning from your own and having your own rights and

freedom may enhance your leadership skills which is important for them to be motivated to

stay in their jobs.

RQ4: Is there a significant relationship between training and development and employees’

retention?

It indicates that there is significant positive relationship between employees’ training and

development and employees’ retention. It also shows that training and development is

moderately positive correlated to employees’ retention.

 Training and development contributes to the retention of the employees. In the study of

Tangthong, Trimetsoontorn and Rojniruntikul (2014), training and development correlates to

employees’ retention for training and development makes employees feel motivated to be

locked in the organization. Moreover, when training and development is implemented as a

practice and well presented, employees will have a sense of emotional dependency to the

organization. On the other hand, in the study of Villegas (2006), training and development

makes the employee feel that they are being taken care of but it is not enough to retain

employees for the employees need more the support of their supervisor rather than the

training. In contrast to the study of Ldama and Bazza (2015), the effect of training and

development serves its purpose to improve the skills of employees which makes them

commit to remain in their organization. It is the same with the perception of college student

that training and development is relevant to stay in a company, for it helps to enhance and

improve the skills of the employee which may result to have a good effect in the company.

5. CONCLUSION

5.1 Summary

The study shows how do Human Resources Management practices correlates to employee

retention as perceived by college students. It indicated that practices such as employees’

assessment, compensation and benefits, empowerment and lastly, training and development

positively correlates to their retention. The first practice that showed the highest correlation is

the assessment because they prioritize more the quality of their work or performance, while

training and development showed second the highest correlation to their retention for it helps

to enhance and improve the skills. Empowerment which helps employees to improve self-
management process showed second to the lowest correlation among the practices.

Meanwhile, compensation and benefits that supports employees’ organizational growth

showed the lowest correlation to their retention.

5.2 Conclusion

As a result of the study, Human Resources Management practices are significantly related

to retention positively as perceived by college students. The results proved that HRM

practices contribute a lot on how the employees will decide whether to stay or not in an

organization. Thus, focusing on improving the practices is a must.

Prior to the result of this study, the researchers concluded that in terms of the relationship

of HRM practices to retention, employees and college students have the same views. On the

other hand, the perception of college students regarding which HRM practices stands out the

most is different from the perception of employees. Compensation and benefits such as

money and non-monetary are on the least of their priority. Instead, they look out more for

their performance since they are college students and are not yet employed, they view

assessment more important, because they are curious and conscious on their own

performance, and specifically if they are doing their job well.

5.3 Limitation of the Study

In this study, researchers encountered a few limitations but the researchers managed to

face and overcome these problems to assure that the research is done on time.

The limitations that the researchers encountered are single source respondents, limited

timeframe and respondent’s perception. Single source of respondents since in this study, only
116 college students coming from the same university and department were asked to

participate. Hence, it was hard to generalize the result from larger population. Limited

timeframe since this study was only conducted in 10-12 weeks which challenged the

researchers. Researchers were able to gather, interpret, and analyze the data in a very short

period of time. Lastly, respondent’s perception, the participants are limited to the perception

of college students who are not yet employed only and the researchers were not able to ask

the participation of employees. Having professional employees as participants in this topic,

considering the age and status of the researchers, is confidential. Also, during the process of

data gathering procedure, some conflict arises that resulted to limit the researchers to having

students as participants only.

5.3 Recommendation

The researchers would recommend the possible beneficiaries to:

For organizations/companies and aspiring businessman/businesswoman to focus on

improving their practices that may help retain their employees, also to help them achieve the

success of their company now and in the future.

For future researchers to conduct an in-depth research regarding the practices that may

help retain employees, with more than one source of participants and enough period of time.

Moreover, to conduct the survey having employees as participants and provide more

practices that could possibly be related to retention since in this study there are only four

practices.