Workers’ retention factors: a study on plant workers among small manufacturing firms

Abstract

Human assets play a very important in the survival of small firms. There are prominent studies from developed and developing countries exploring the human resource practices among small firms. From the perspective of Resource Based View, human resources are regarded as potential assets that are indispensable for sustainability of all firms. Studies concentrating on human resource practices from small and large firms' perspectives are abundant. Still there are fewer studies which view the importance and factors for fostering workers retention from the purview of plant workers of small firms in developing countries. The objective of the study is to explore workers retention factors among plant workers and whether it differs significantly sector wise. The study confirms that human resource retention factors are important for retaining plant workers among small manufacturing firms. The findings also proves that there is significant differences in workers' retention factors with respect to demographic characteristics of workers. The study underlines that small manufacturing firms are relatively less conscious to retain workers in the plant thus leading to their instability.