DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2015.v03i01.017

Pages: 122-134

This eighth excerpt from the researcher’s thesis chronicles the coactive staff retention strategies in purposely selected Zimbabwe’s public and private universities from the perspective of the stakeholder-sampled Human Resources personnel. Data were gathered using open-ended interview and documentary analysis methods. Data were analysed using NVivo. Public and private universities offer coactive staff retention strategies such as salaries and promotion, medical aid and funeral cover. Both sets of universities appreciated the need to staff develop their staff members. In some private universities, there were no staff retention strategies to talk about. The first conclusion is that university lecturers’ salaries are unfavourable because they are comparably lower than what other universities in Southern Development Community (SADC) Region offer. Universities need to peg their salaries to match what the SADC Regional universities offer to lecturers of equivalent grades. Second, universities need to have clearly documented coactive staff retention strategies that enable them to become employers of choice. It is necessary to institute a macro-scale study in the terrain of coactive staff retention strategies with the intent to build a knowledge base to influence national policymaking decisions.