Bahria University of Management & Social Sciences

The Impact of Health and Physical Work Environment upon Employee Retengion in Telecom Sector of Pakistan.

Subject: HR Research Methods BBA 8 Date of Submission: 24th December, 2012

Submitted to: Maam Aisha Ehsan

Researchers: S. Arsalan Zaidi Hassan Qayyum Jahanzeb S. K. Niazi M. Mubashir us Saadain

Table of Contents
Table of Contents.......................................................................................................................................2 Abstract......................................................................................................................................................5 CHAPTER # 1: INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................7 CHAPTER # 2: LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................................9 2.1 HSE in Organizations:........................................................................................ 9 2.2 Employee Retention:....................................................................................... 11 2.3 Dimensions :.................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER # 3: METHODOLOGY.......................................................................................................12 3.1 Research Strategy:.......................................................................................... 13 3.1 Sampling Technique:....................................................................................... 13 3.3 Sample Size:.................................................................................................... 13 3.4 Theoretical Framework:................................................................................... 13 3.5 Hypothesis:...................................................................................................... 13 CHAPTER # 4: RESULTS AND ANALYSIS.......................................................................................14 4.1 Reliability: ....................................................................................................... 14 4.2 Descriptive Statistics and Analysis:.................................................................15 4.3 Pearson correlations matrix among study variables:.......................................17 Hypotheses Testing:.............................................................................................. 20 4.5 Demographics Analysis:.................................................................................. 22 CHAPTER # 5: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION..........................................................................24 5.1 Discussion....................................................................................................... 24 5.2 Limitations of the Study..................................................................................25 5.3 Conclusion....................................................................................................... 25 5.4 Recommendations........................................................................................... 26 2

REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................27 ANNEXURE A......................................................................................................................................30 ANNEXURE B (QUESTIONNAIRE).................................................................................................32

TABLE OF TABLES Table 4.114 Table 4.216 Table 4.317 Table 4.419 Table 4.520 Table 4.620 Table 4.721

TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 3.4..13 Figure 4.1..18 Figure 4.2..18

Abstract

Impact of Health and Physical Work Environment upon Employee Retention in Telecom Sector

CHAPTER # 1: INTRODUCTION
A companys growth and success is ensured by different parameters, retention is one of them. Employee retention refers to the existence of an ongoing employment relationship or the ability of an organization to retain its employees. Extreme turnover in any organization is indicator of primary drawback in the business; so the retention of the employees is essential in order to contend in this competitive era, (Gupta, 2009). According to Holtom & Mitchell (2008) the retention of the employees was not that much important before, but now a days in this competitive environment, retaining quality employees is very important. A recent study by Sajid & Tirimzi (2009) shows that a financial success of an organization is achieved when its strategy contains retaining of employees. As we know that the balanced growth of all the sectors in a country is important, the telecom sector also plays a vital role in a development of the country. The effective telecom sector can contribute to economy of a country. Telecom sector in Pakistan is one of the fastest growing industries, according to the survey telecom sector contributed Rs 363 Billion to the national economy by comparing it to previous year it has increased by 5.4 % (PTA, 2012). The industry also invested more than US$ 12 billion in building of infrastructure and other projects in the last six years (Pakistan Economic Survey, 2012). According the report, foreign direct investment (FDI) by the telecom companies is more than 30 percent of the total foreign direct investment in the country during last six years. According to Drake (2009) employees are valuable individuals with unique competencies and characteristics who require appreciation as much as a paycheck. In fact, employees are the single most valuable element within an organization. The company will be successful if the employees are treated well and hence, are retained (Drake, 2009). Retaining talented employees results in the increased productivity of the workforce which eventually leads to the success of the organization (Creeks association, 2007). In the study by Chipunza & Samuel (2009) through intrinsic and extrinsic motivational variables, key employees can be retained. Sometimes high cost or highly paid salaries are not important but the retention of the employees is more essential because employees are the most important assets of the company, without which any company can never flourish. Retention is a business issue and losing one or
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two key employee can have a significant impact on the longevity or profitability of organization. The importances of learning i.e enhancing the skills and knowledge of employees have a substantial relationship with quality of working climate, which also leads to retention of the employees (Kyndt and Michielsen, 2009). In the current study, researchers examine the relationship between the health and physical work environment upon employee retention in the Telecom Sector of Pakistan. Companies were randomly selected and the survey tools were distributed among these companies. Furthermore, the intervening variable of productivity was used in order to find out if it enhances the relationship between the physical work environment and employee retention. Also different dimensions are studied of the above variables in order to find out the relationship between them in detail (See Annexure A).

CHAPTER # 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) is a topic that has seen a lot of recent research with especially with the emergence of Human Resource Management. The organizations, having felt the need to take care of the workforce, are spending millions of dollars every year to make sure that the employees are provided with a safe workplace, the environment is conducive for high productivity and well-being of the employees and health is not anymore restricted to only providing health insurance or medical facilities but every minute detail is focused upon in order to be proactive as far as the health of the employees is concerned; this results in less time away from work and helps to keep the employees production steady. Relating to a positive approach towards Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S), Archer (2006) has suggested that organizations with this approach provide immediate attention towards emergency exits, procedures and appropriate equipment. These organizations consider the safety of its employees as vital to their overall growth. In regards to safety, Holt & Andrew (1993) provide a rating scale in which they create 4 following scales: Catastrophic: can cause death by illness at wide scale Critical: serious illness, injury or property damage Marginal: not extremely serious Negligible: minor first-aid case.

2.1 HSE in Organizations: Organizations, now, are not thinking about their HSE policies only in terms of keeping the employees motivated and healthy but also to cut costs; through effective health and safety strategies, they are able to do just that (Miller, 1995). The Call Center at First Direct, an internet and telephone bank owned by HSBC, in UK takes care of its employees health by providing 12 week slimming courses and 8 week Pilates courses on discount rates. On top of this, doctors are frequently brought in to have complete health checks for the employees who are referred to General Practitioners if anything that might be harmful is found (Kirby, 2005). Employee retention has been another worry for organizations in the recent past as the costs of the
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recruitment and selection process keep on hiking. First Direct has a good retention rate and a low turnover rate standing at only 14%, which is below the industry average in UK (Woodward, 2012). The main reason for the low retention rate at First Direct is their focus upon the workforce and their health. A healthy workforce is far more motivated and when it comes to dealing with customers, a healthy workforce will also be a happier workforce which helps in customer retention as well. Not only this, but also the fact that a healthier workforce will be much more motivated to work resulting in a good working environment and high productivity. Anthropometrics has also seen an advance in the recent years. It is the study of human body measurements (Kelly, 2005). With the use of this study an organization can identify what is the average size of chairs that is required, the height and width of the desks etc. This is done in order to ensure that when the employees are working, they are in a position that helps keep their body in a natural frame instead of having to slouch in order to use the computer for instance. Employees lose 10 million working days per year due to musculoskeletal disorders; half of these are due to back pain (Booty, 2006). Instead of having to incur costs on health issues of employees, it is much more desirable to be preventive and provide a workplace with due consideration to anthropometrics. For instance, adjustable chairs are used in organizations mostly now due to the diversity in the genders and their heights, weight etc. A study in the International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management shows that the companies that are using data from their employee wellness programs in order to control their health costs have seen a remarkable decrease in their health care costs (Kumar, McCalla, Lybeck, 2009). Environment is another important factor that needs to be considered while talking about HSE. According to Miller (1995), lightning, heating, humidity, noise etc. all contribute towards the environment of an organization and knowing how to use these to the benefit can result in eliminating the silent problems that exist in organizations. These can be used in order to improve the overall environment of the organization. A study of 105 employees conducted at Saudi Aramco suggested that good physical working environment has a direct relationship with productivity (Al-Anzi, 2009). The study identified furniture, noise, lighting, temperature and spatial arrangements as independent variables and productivity as the dependant variable. It is also important to note here that this study was done within a limited location and the sample size was not very large due to which the results cannot be generalized but they do give the
10

researchers an idea about the relative topic. The Gensler 2008 U.S Workplace Survey also shows that 9 out of every 10 employees believe that workspace design has an impact upon their productivity. Respondents believed they could increase their productivity by an average of 21% if provided with a better designed working environment (Gensler, 2008). This survey was conducted with a sample size of 2,000 employees at different staff levels. 2.2 Employee Retention: In todays competitive world, improving employee retention has become an important goal for any organization. The increasing costs of the recruitment process makes the organizations want to spend more towards being proactive which means it is far more costeffective for them in order to retain employees rather than hiring new ones after very few years. Two important factors supposed by the management in employee retention are a) pay issues, and b) dislike for supervisors (Rust, Stewart, Miller, Pielack, 1996). On the other hand, Sandhiya and Kumar (2011) argue that there has to be a significant reason for an employee to leave the current job such as job stress, work life imbalance, no growth opportunities, compensation strategies not implemented properly etc. to name a few. Employee retention is one of the basic responsibilities of the organization in order to survive in the cut-throat competitive business environment. Every organizations performance and standing is based upon its high skilled and competitive workforce therefore it is very necessary to retain such employees at any cost. According to Irshad (2011) HR practices such as compensation, rewards, training & development, career advancement and promotions have a great impact on employee retention and satisfaction. Work environment is one of the key factors in employee retention; mostly employees leave the organization just because of unacceptable work environment, though they were getting good compensation (Irshad, 2011). Employee retention in service sector is much more complicated and different than in an industrial sector, because work environment needs and requirements of employees in both the sectors are not identical (Hytter, 2008). In order to retain employees, organizations must take into consideration the psychological dimension of work environment which includes workload, stress, decision making and also the physical environment. If employees are not satisfied with the workplace environment then sooner or later they would eventually leave the organization which
11

will cause a real damage to the organizations overall performance and its market ranking (Hytter, 2008) If the employees of telecom sector are provided with balance in work and family time, they will show more loyalty and commitment in their work and greater level of retention in the organization (Shoaib, 2009). The researcher in this research gave importance of balance in life with regard to professional and family life. As it is important for any sector or organization to keep employees which are motivated and are not victims of burnout because from turnover organizations costs increases but also from dissatisfied and burnout employee they can lost customers or clients. The importance of work and life balance is evident in retention of employee. (Shoaib, 2009) Continuous collection of data regarding factors effecting employee motivation can decrease employee retention and that that can be useful in making useful practices to retain employees (Kathleen, 2009). Researcher in the study focused on not only certain factors that affect every individual motivation or dissatisfaction. Data collection through exit interviews can give chance to improve the practices so that organization can retain its employees (Kathleen, 2009). 2.3 Dimensions : According to Acas (2000), the meaning of the health was identified as awkward postures, Stress, Food/Water, Exercise facilities and Smoking which impacts upon the employee retention. Vischer (2007) described the meaning of the physical work environment as Lighting, Noise, Office Layout, Furniture and Architectonic Details. In another study in Gensler (2006), explained the dimensions of the productivity as Job Satisfaction, Creativity/Innovation, Performance and Accessibility. Another study by Gupta (2001) defined the employee retention as Satisfaction, Motivation, Involvement, Growth Prospects, Work Compatibility and Job Security.

CHAPTER # 3: METHODOLOGY
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3.1 Research Strategy: A survey was conducted consisting of questionnaires to gain in depth data from Telecom sector. The questionnaires taken consisted of four variables: Health and Physical Work Environment as the independent variables, where as Productivity and Employee Retention as the moderating and dependent variable respectively. 3.1 Sampling Technique: To gain a sample for our survey we have used Random Sampling Technique. Three random telecom companies operating in Islamabad, Pakistan were chosen and questionnaires were distributed to the employees randomly. 3.3 Sample Size: The sample size taken was 70 employees from 3 different telecom companies of Islamabad, namely Mobilink, Telenor and Ufone to gather enough data for complete knowhow as well as keep this study in a fix time constraint. Therefore, total 70 questionnaires were distributed out of which 56 questionnaires were received i.e. researchers were able to achieve an 80% return rate on questionnaires. The sample size was not discriminated on the basis of gender as the questionnaires were distributed randomly. 3.4 Theoretical Framework:

3.5 Hypothesis: The researchers developed the following hypotheses based on the literature review:

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Ho: Health and Work place environment has no impact upon Employee Retention.

H1: Health has a positive impact upon Employee Retention.

H2: Physical Work Environment has a positive impact upon Productivity.

H2a: Productivity has a positive impact upon Employee Retention.

CHAPTER # 4: RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

4.1 Reliability: The Cronbachs Alpha for the overall study variables (Annexure A) ranges from as low as .704 to .827. The alpha for the independent variable of Health came out to be .704 and only removing the dimension of smoking would have seen an increase in the reliability to .707, which,
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the researchers believe, is not that much of a difference. The other independent variable of Physical Work Environment showed a reliability of .820 and only removing the dimension of lighting would increase it. The intervening variable of Productivity showed the reliability of .735 and could not be improved by removing any one of the dimensions. The dependent variable, Employee Retention, had a reliability of .827. All the above stated reliabilities of different variables help to conclude that the overall reliability of the survey tool (questionnaire) was good which ultimately led to add significance to the results of the research. Table 2 (Annexure A) shows the reliability of all the variables in a tabular format. 4.2 Descriptive Statistics and Analysis: Table 4.1 shows the distribution of the sample in terms of Gender, Age and Organizational Tenure. 75% of the sample size was male whereas only a small number, 23% of the questionnaires were filled by the females; only 1 missing value was found. It is important to note here that the survey tools were distributed randomly, so there was no discrimination by the researchers; on the contrary the gender data shows the lack of female employees in the organizations even though the organizations under research were all Multi-National Companies. In the sample, most of the samples, 48% were in between the age group of 24 29 years old whereas only 4% of the people were found to be above the age of 40. Most of the employees had been working in their respective organizations for 2 3 years (32%); only 5% of the employees had been working for less than 6 months. Table 4.1 Profiles Gender Categories Male Frequencies 42 Percentage (%) 75%

Female

13

23%

Missing System Age 18 23 years old

1 7

2% 13%
15

24 29 years old 30 34 years old 35 40 years old 40+

27 14 5 2

48% 25% 9% 4%

Missing System Organization Tenure Less than 6 months 6 months 1 year 2 3 years 4 5 years 5+ years

1 3 6 18 13 12

2% 5% 11% 32% 23% 21%

Missing System

7%

The table above shows the respondents demographics and work profile distribution and percentage. When inquired about the marital status, 50% of the employees were married followed by 43% of the employees being single (Table 4.2). Education level of the employees showed a distribution of 53% Masters Level Education followed by 27% of the employees having a Bachelors Level education. Table 4.2 Profiles Marital Status Categories Single Frequencies 24 Percentage (%) 43
16

Married

28

50%

Divorced Education Level Bachelors Masters Professional Degree Doctorate

3 15 30 6 1

5% 27% 54% 11% 2%

Marital Status & Education Level 4.3 Pearson correlations matrix among study variables: All the variables in the study proved to have a significant relationship with each other (p<0.05). The independent variable of health had a moderately weak positive relationship with physical work environment and productivity at r = .318 (See figure 4.2) and .341 respectively, but had a weak positive relationship with employee retention at r = .275. Productivity had a moderately weak positive relationship when put viewed against health and physical work environment at r = .341 and .431 respectively. The dependent variable of employee retention had a weak positive relationship with health (r = .275), a moderately weak positive relationship with physical work environment (r = .485) whereas its relationship with productivity was found to be moderately strong positive at r = .591 (See figure 4.1) Table 4.3 Scales 1. Health 1 1 2 3 4 Mean 3.66 SD 1.11

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2. Physical Work .318 Environment 3. Productivity 4. Employee Retention .341 .275

1 .431 .485 1 .591 1

4.55 4.88 4.79

1.11 1.05 1.15

The Table outlined the correlation strength among the variables, its average mean and standard deviations.

Figure 4.1

18

Figure 4.2

19

Hypotheses Testing: H1: Health has a positive impact upon Employee Retention A linear regression analysis was conducted in order to find the impact of the independent variable Health upon employee retention. There was found to be a significant relationship between the two variables (p<0.05). With R2 being 0.58, it shows that there is a 58% impact of the independent variable upon the variance of independent variable of employee retention (Table 4.4). This proves that health has a positive impact upon the variance of employee retention, therefore, the hypothesis H1 was supported. Table 4.4
Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Coefficients B Standardized Coefficients Beta t Sig. R2

(Constant) 1 HEALTH

3.740

7.157

.000 0.58

.281

.275

2.063

.044

a. Dependent Variable: EMPLOYEERETENTION

H2: Physical work environment has a positive impact upon Productivity A linear regression analysis was again conducted in order to find the impact of the Physical Work Environment upon the intervening variable of Productivity. The impact was found to be significant (p<0.05) and the adjusted R2 was found to be at 0.17, which shows that Physical work environment has a 17% impact upon the variance of productivity (Table 4.5). This proves that there is a positive impact of the physical work environment upon productivity and, hence, the hypothesis H2 is supported.
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Table 4.5
Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Coefficients B (Constant) 1 PHYSICAL WORK ENVIRONMENT 3.031 Standardized Coefficients Beta 5.520 .000 .170 t Sig. R2

.407

.431

3.478

.001

a. Dependent Variable: PRODUCTIVITY

H2a: Productivity has a positive impact upon Employee Retention Linear regression for the intervening variable of productivity and the dependent variable of employee retention showed a significant relationship (p<0.05). Table 4.6 shows that the adjusted R2 was found out to be .337 which means that productivity has an impact of 33.7% upon the variance of Employee Retention. This positive impact proves the hypothesis H2a. Table 4.6
Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Coefficients B (Constant) 1 PRODUCTIVITY .645 .591 5.334 .000 1.645 Standardized Coefficients Beta 2.723 .009 .337 t Sig. R2

a. Dependent Variable: EMPLOYEE RETENTION

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The above results prove that the intervening variable of productivity works as a catalyst in the relationship between the dependent variable Physical Work Environment and the independent variable Employee Retention. The researchers, due to the above hypotheses being proven, can conclude that the independent variables have a positive impact upon the dependent variable. Furthermore, the physical work environments impact upon employee retention was also found to be significant (p<0.05). The adjusted R2 shows a value of .221 which means that physical work environment has a 22.1% impact upon the variance of employee retention (Table 4.7). Table 4.7
Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Coefficients B Standardized Coefficients Beta t Sig. R2

(Constant) 1 PHYSICAL WORK ENVIRONMENT

2.518

4.336

.000 .221

.500

.485

4.040

.000

a. Dependent Variable: EMPLOYEE RETENTION

Having analyzed the above hypotheses, the researchers rejected the null hypothesis (H 0) that stated: 4.5 Demographics Analysis: The demographics, when calculated by using ANOVA and independent t-test, proved to have no impact upon different variables (p>0.05). The independent variable of gender, the researchers believe, had no significant impact upon the variables due to the lower number of

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female respondents as compared that of male respondents. The researchers find it unnecessary to report the insignificant impacts.

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CHAPTER # 5: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

5.1 Discussion The results prove that both the independent variables have a positive impact upon the independent variable. Furthermore, the intervening variable of productivity enhances the relationship between physical work environment and employee retention. The beta coefficients of the dependent variables of health and physical work environment were found to be .275 and .485 respectively, which shows that the impact of physical work environment is more than the impact of health upon employee retention. This phenomenon is explainable by having a look at the beta coefficient of productivity which came out to be .591 which means that productivity has the most impact upon the employee retention. It helps enhance the impact of physical work environment upon employee retention. The impact of work environment upon employee retention is further clarified by Weiwei (2010) in a research upon teachers in Thailand proving that a positive work environment helps the teachers make the decision of staying at their jobs. Another study upon the BPO industry in India also proved that growth prospects, safety environment and infrastructure all are factors that contribute towards employee retention (Gayathri, Sivaraman & Kamalambal, 2012). A report by The Canadian Plastics Sector Council (CPSC) analyzed the impact of health upon the employee retention (Lochhead & Stephens, 2004). It was noted that the companies that took care of employee health had high performance and it helped in employee retention as well. This is synonymous to the results of the current study as the researchers also found out that health has a positive impact upon employee retention. Stating the good boss as one of the factors of employee retention, Kaye & Jordan-Evans (2003) argue that taking care of the physical and mental health of the employees is one of the characteristics of a good boss which ultimately results in employee retention. The responsibility lies with the bosses in order to make sure that the employees maintain a good mental and physical health; it does not only help create good bond with the boss but also with the overall organization. The HR Council for the Nonprofit Sector, Canada (2008) published a research proving that job satisfaction has an impact upon employee retention. The study revealed the more the employees were satisfied at their respective jobs, the more committed they were. Job Satisfaction was taken as one of the dimensions of productivity by the researchers in the current study which
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proved that productivity has a positive impact upon employee retention. Different factors such as stress management, employee empowerment and involvement, positive work experiences and work-life balance contribute towards the satisfaction of employees which in turn results in retaining the best employees by the organization (Behera, Sahoo & Sundaray, 2004). The current research not only proves the impact of job satisfaction upon employee retention but takes it as a single factor contributing towards productivity which in turn helps in retaining the workforce. 5.2 Limitations of the Study Time Constraints the researchers were short on time due to which the sample size could not be large enough. Financial Constraints more financial resources would have meant for the researchers to conduct the study in other cities of the country as well. Geographical Constraints the study was only conducted in one city: Islamabad, Pakistan. Sample Size the sample size was small which hinders the researchers ability to come out with substantial results. 5.3 Conclusion The researchers can conclude that the variables of health and physical work environment have a positive impact upon the employee retention. Productivity, as an intervening variable, enhances the impact of the physical work environment upon the employee retention. This proves that the managers should focus upon the overall health of the employees which includes, as mentioned in the dimensions in the current research, sitting posture, exercise facilities, food/water quality etc. Not only this, the managers in the organization have a responsibility towards the overall work environment as well that include noise reduction, lighting, architectonic details etc. How much impact these dimensions separately have on employee retention is open for further research. Also, the researchers believe that a study containing a sample that is evenly distributed among males and females will be able to produce a more substantial result; this can be achieved through conducting a research in a controlled environment, choosing intentionally the number of male and female respondents. The results of this study were hindered due to the less number of female employees in the Pakistani culture due to which a discrepancy exists in the number of male and female respondents.
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Further research, focusing upon specific dimensions of the current study and their impact upon employee retention could prove to be essential in Pakistan. It would also help managers in Pakistan to understand various factors that contribute towards the employee retention which would not only help them retain the employees, but would also help provide better customer service and high productivity through employee retention which would help improve the overall Pakistani society economically. 5.4 Recommendations Following are some of the recommendations the researchers came up with considering the results of this study: Managers should invest in more studies that would help them understand the various factors that impact employee retention in more detail. Managers should focus upon investing in the overall health, both physical and mental, of the employees which would in return increase employee retention and decrease the turnover costs. Investment in the physical work environment is necessary in order to improve the productivity of the employees and help in their retention. This could also prove to attract quality employees. Only 4% of the employees in the sample were over 40 years old which means employees might feel like changing the organizations after some time; this phenomenon requires further research.

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REFERENCES
Frank Booty. Facilities Management Handbook, 3rd Edition. Great Britain: ButterworthHeinemann, 2006. Print. David Woodward. Company Profile: First Direct. [Online]. Available at: <> [Accessed 26 September, 2012]. Nowier Muhammad Al-Anzi, 2009: Workplace Environment and its Impact on Employee Performance, MBA Project Paper, Department of Management Sciences, Open University of Malaysia. Caroline Kelly, 2005: The Beauty of Fit: Proportion and Anthropometry in Chair Design, Masters Thesis, College of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology. K. Sandhya & D. Pradeep Kumar, 2011, Employee Retention by Motivation. Indian Journal of Science and Technology, 4(12), p.1779. Richard Archer, 2006. Fitting OH&S into Management Practice. Management Research News, 29(7). Amanda Kirby, 2005. First Direct focuses on Family and fun: and sees a positive effect on recruitment and Employee Retention. Human Resource Management International Digest, 13(5), pp. 25 27. Roland T. Rust, Greg L. Stewart, Heather Miller, Debbie Pielack, 1996. The Satisfaction and Retention of Frontline Employees: A Customer Satisfaction Measurement Approach. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 7(5), pp. 62 80. Sameer Kumar, Michael McCalla, Eric Lybeck, 2009. Operational impact of employee wellness programs: a Business Case Study. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 58(6), pp. 581 597. Doreen M. Miller, 1995. Productivity through People. Employee Counseling Today, 7(4), pp. 15 19.

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Gensler, 2008. The Gensler Design + Performance Index: The US Workplace Survey. [pdf]. Available 25 September, 2012]. Hytter, A. (2008). Dark Side Leaders, Work Environment and Employee Health. Irshad, M. (2011). Factors Affecting Employee Retention: Evidence from Literature Review. Abasyn University Journal of Social Sciences , 84-96. Shoaib,M et al.(2009). DETERMINANTS OF EMPLOYEE RETENTION IN TELECOM SECTOR OF PAKISTAN. Army Public College of Management Sciences (APCOMS) Ordnance Road, Rawalpindi. Gupta,V. (2009).Employee Retention, Key to success. Fox, Robert,J.(2012). A Study of Employee Retention Issues in the Hospitality Industry. Searching for contribution of telecom sector in GDP of Pakistan Available at: <http://paktribune.com/business/news/Telecom-sector-deposited-Rs-363bln-in-2012-to-nationaleconomy-9896.html> Accessed on: [ Dec 21,2012] Kyndt,E. et all (2009). Employee Retention: Organisational and Personal Perspectives. Centre for Educational Research on Lifelong Learning and Participation, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Searching on: [ Dec 21,2012] Searching for employee retention Available at: for employee retention Available at: Accessed at: < http://www.gensler.com/uploads/documents/USWorkplaceSurvey_07_17_2008.pdf> [Accessed

http://www.trinet.com/documents/white_papers/TriNet_WP_EmployeeRetention.pdf

http://www.drakeintl.co.uk/Publications/Employee-Retention.pdf Accessed on: [ Dec 21,2012] Vischer,J. (2007). Stress and Health 23: 175184

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Searching

for

New

Market

work

force

responsibility

Available

at:

http://www.gensler.com/uploads/documents/USWorkplaceSurvey_07_17_2008.pdf on: [ Dec 21,2012] Searching for Health Dimensions Available at:

Accessed

HYPERLINK

"http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/n/9/B11_1.pdf" http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/n/9/B11_1.pdf Accessed on: [ Dec 21,2012] Gupta,S.(2001) Employee Attrition and Retention: Exploring the Dimensions in the urban centric BPO Industry, JAYPEE INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, NOIDA, India. Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.jiit.ac.in/uploads/Ph.D-%20Santoshi %20Sen.pdf" http://www.jiit.ac.in/uploads/Ph.D-%20Santoshi%20Sen.pdf Accessed on: [ Dec 21,2012] Holtom,B. et all.(2008). Turnover and Retention Research, The Academy of Management Annals. Vol. 2, No. 1, 2008, 231274 Kathleen, B. (2009), Employee retention:an empirical study of direct care employees at ACHIEVE, Binghamton university, Pg 22. Weiwei. Z (2010), Employee Retention: Perspectives of Foreign Teachers at a Demonstration (Satit) School in Thailand, vol 1.no 2, pg 51-57. Gayathri. R, Sivaraman. G, Kamalambal. R (2012), EMPLOYEE RETENTION STRATEGIES IN BPOS AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION, vol 3.no 12, pg 572-583 Locheead. C, Stephens. A (2004), Employee retention, labor turnover and knowledge transfer: Canadian Plastic sector. Kaye. B, Jordan. S (2003), HOW TO RETAIN HIGH-PERFORMANCE EMPLOYEES, pg 291-298. Council. HR (2008), Trends & Issues: Job satisfaction and employee retention, pg 1-4. Behera. N, Kumar. C, Kumar. B (2011), Retaining High Performing Employees through Job Satisfaction: A Theoretical Construct, pg 2-12.
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ANNEXURE A
Table 1: Measures of the Study Variables Study Variables No. Items Health: Static/Awkward Postures Work Related Stress Food/water Exercise Facilities Smoking 1 2 1 2 2 A seven point 2 2 2 1 2 Vischer (2006) likert-scale from Strongly Disagree Agree to (7) Strongly 9 - 17 (1) ACAS (2004) of Sources Scale of Type Scale A seven point likert-scale from Strongly Disagree Agree to (7) Strongly 1-8 (1) of Questions Number

Physical Work Environment: Lighting Noise Office Layout Furniture Architectonic Details

Productivity: Performance Creativity/Innovation Job Satisfaction Accessibility 5 1 2 1 Gensler (2006)

A seven point likert-scale from Strongly Disagree Agree A seven point likert-scale
30

(1) to

(7) Strongly

18 26

Employee Retention:

Satisfaction Motivation Involvement Growth Prospects Work Compatibility Job Security

1 1 1 1 1 1 Sengupta &

from Strongly Disagree Agree

(1) to 27 - 32

Gupta (2011)

(7) Strongly

Table 2: Reliability Variables Number of Scale Items Cronbachs Alpha Coefficient () Health Physical Work Environment Productivity Employee Retention 8 9 9 6 .704 .820 .735 .827

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ANNEXURE B (QUESTIONNAIRE)

Bahria University of Management & Social Sciences

STUDY QUESTIONNAIRE

THIS STUDY IS BEING CONDUCTED IN ORDER TO FIND OUT THE IMPACT OF HEALTH & PHYSICAL WORK ENVIRONMENT ON EMPLOYEE RETENTION

SECTION A: HEALTH

32

No.

Statements

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Slightly Disagree

Neither Disagree nor Agree

Slightly Agree

Agree

Strongl y Agree

1.

I remain in a static/awkward posture for long hours during work. I work overtime at least once in a week. I have been a victim of workplace harassment or bullying. High quality water/food is available at workplace. My employer provides me with exercise facilities. I usually find time to exercise. The company has a strict No Smoking policy.

2. 3.

1 1

2 2

3 3

4 4

5 5

6 6

7 7

4.

5.

6. 7.

1 1

2 2

3 3

4 4

5 5

6 6

7 7

8.

The employer assists employees in giving up smoking.

SECTION B: PHYSICAL WORK ENVIRONMENT

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Statements No.

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Slightly Disagree

Neither Disagree nor Agree

Slightly Agree

Agree

Strongly Agree

Artificial light is 9. necessary for completion of my job. I have control over 10. the amount of lighting at my workplace. I can overhear what 11. my peers are talking about while I am 12. working. I fully concentrate towards work despite overhearing 13. my peers. Workspace design at my workplace is 14. efficient. My office layout maximizes interaction with 15. team members. The furniture at my workplace is 16. comfortable. My workspace is in close proximity to 17. windows. I am free to personalize my workspace.

SECTION C: PRODUCTIVITY

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No.

Statements

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Slightly Disagree

Neither Disagree nor Agree 4

Slightly Agree

Agree

Strongly Agree

I sometimes under18. achieve my personal target.

19.

Quality of Work environment affects my job satisfaction. I come up with best

20.

ideas when working in close space with team-members.

21.

Better workspace design results in better performance. I am able to perform better in sunlight as compared to artificial light. Better noise control could improve my efficiency at workplace. The chairs have adjustable height. I need more space to work effectively. Everything I need to perform my work is available at my workspace.

22.

23.

24. 25. 26.

1 1 1

2 2 2

3 3 3

4 4 4

5 5 5

6 6 6

7 7 7

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SECTION D: EMPLOYEE RETENTION No. Statements Strongly Disagree Disagree Slightly Disagree Neither Disagree nor I feel satisfied with 27. my job. 1 2 3 Agree 4 5 6 7 Slightly Agree Agree Strongly Agree

I am motivated to 28. work every day. I feel involved in the 29. overall work process. 30. The organization provides me with growth 31. opportunities. My work is compatible with my knowledge and 32. skills. I do not fear losing my job.

SECTION E: DEMOGRAPHICS Listed below are a series of questions meant to ask you about yourself and also your employment experiences. Please tick () for each of your response or answer each question by filling in the required information as requested. 33. How long has you worked in this organization? Less than 6 months.. . 6 months 1 year 2 3 years 4 5 years More than 5 years.

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34. Your marital status? Single.. Married Divorced.. Widower/Widow. 35. Your gender? Male Female 36. Your age? Between 18 23 years old 24 29 years old.. 30 34 years old.. 35 40 years old.. More than 40 years old.... 37. Your Education Level? Bachelors Degree.. Masters Degree. Professional Degree... Doctorate Degree...............

Further constructive comments on the study (optional, but very much appreciated)

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Thank you very much for your time and participationreally appreciate it.

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