Determinants Of Employee Tenure In The Banking Sector Of Ghana

The Ghanaian economy has witnessed an influx of banks in the past two decades. This phenomenon however, brings to the fore issues of employee turnover as the banks compete for efficient workers. A Bank of Ghana research for the period 2001 to 2007 discovered a year-onyear increase in the employee turnover costs incurred in the banking industry. In another research, out of the 14 sampled countries in Sub Saharan Africa, the Bank of Ghana identified Ghana to be the leading nation in terms of costs involved in the hiring and firing of employees. Studies on employee tenure in the banking sector remains scarce in the Ghanaian context and most available ones worldwide are single sided in their analysis; thus they seek to examine employee tenure in relation to either individual or firm characteristics. The objective of the study is to examine how both firm and individual characteristics influence employee tenure in the banking sector of Ghana. Multinomial logit regressions results from the study which employed primary data of randomly sampled 138 employees across the commercial banks in Ghana revealed that current job tenure is significantly influenced by individual characteristics such as level of education, age and experience. Co-workers' relations, workload and wages were found to be the firm characteristics that significantly explained their current tenure. Job offer received was also proven to be significant. Results from the logistic regression (binary logit) also suggested that gender, wages, incentives and the years spent on the job were important determinants of the intent of tenure. In line with the findings, it is recommended that banks should ensure satisfactory levels of wages and incentives given to their employees. They should again embark on family-friendly policies for their employees and also be circumspect in their recruitment activities.