Effect of Organizational Support Initiatives on Retention of Millennial Employees in Private Hospitals in Bomet and Kericho Counties

Prevailing trends of turnover in hospitals in Kenya shows a need for hospital managements to look for effective ways of retaining its most valued employees. The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of organizational support initiatives on retention of millennial employees in private hospitals in Bomet and Kericho Counties. Specifically, the study sought to determine the influence of employer value proposition, welfare options, flexible work schedules, reward system and career development support on retention of millennial employees. This study adopted mixed methods research design. Organizational support, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Vogt, Thames, Velthouse and Cox’s Cork-Top Theory of Nurse Retention theories, The Rethinking Retention Model and Workforce Optimization Model were used. The target population comprised of 1437 employees in private hospitals in Bomet and Kericho Counties. Stratified random sampling and purposive techniques were applied due to heterogeneity of the population. Stratified random sampling was used to select a sample of 5 hospitals and 359 respondents to questionnaires from the strata. Purposive sampling was used to select 16 administrators, 16 doctors and 40 supervisors interviewees. Questionnaires, interview guides and document analysis were the main data collection tools. Reliability and validity tests were conducted to determine the strength of the instrument used. Data was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Cumulative frequency and percentages tables, pie charts were used to present the findings of the study. Karl Pearson Product Moment correlation was carried out to test hypotheses. Various frequencies and percentages of the findings were computed with the aim to determine most significant aspects of independent variable that determine retention of millennial employees in private hospitals studied. Karl Pearson Product Moment correlation coefficient was computed to establish the level of significance of relationships between the study variables. The overall implication was that there exists a positive correlation of r = 0.777 between Organizational support initiatives and retention of millennial employees in private hospitals under study. Specifically career development support with R2 value of 0.817 plays a more significant role in determining retention of millennial employees by 81.7%. Employer value preposition with R2 value of 0.791 explained retention of millennial employees in the hospitals studied by 79.1%. The study strongly recommends that hospital managements should develop innovative and competitive intervention strategies which use organizational support initiatives studied to build sustainable retention of millennial employees.