The Role of Work-Life Balance in the Retention of Female Employees in the IT Industry: Responses from the South Indian SME Software Sector

This paper investigates the factors of Work-Life Balance on the retention of IT employees in the South Indian SME software sector. The research mainly concentrates on individual, organisational and technological factors, which influence the retention of female employees. The dimensions under the individual factors’ category are personality, well-being, and emotional intelligence, while under the organisational factors’ category, the study focuses on Work-Life Balance policies and programmes, work support and job stress. Technology is considered as the third dimension. The study also focuses on the Organisational Role Theory (ORT) of Work-Life Balance. A total of 380 employees in 23 different organisations were targeted by using probability and non-probability sampling techniques; the final number of employees participating in this survey, however, was 270. For data analysis purposes, the IBM SPSS 23.0 package was used, as the study was quantitative in nature. The results indicate that organisational factors help retain female employees in the South Indian software sector rather than individual factors.