Abstract:
Retaining critical employees has become increasingly important with the growing
competition for valuable skills and employees’ increasing discernment of
employment acceptability criteria. Significantly, changing working circumstances to
work-from-home, necessitated by social distancing protocols under COVID-19
regulations, caused people to reevaluate their employment circumstances. As a
result, organisations have recorded many resignations among knowledge and skilled
workers in South Africa. In addition, knowledge work has swiftly transformed into
mobile knowledge work, enabled by digital technologies, adding complexity to the
balance between employee roles in work and life.
This research empirically quantified the factors driving knowledge workers' voluntary
turnover. Specifically, the research investigated the role of work-life balance in
turnover motivation. The research's first objective was quantitatively measuring the
impact of work-nonwork balance on turnover intention. The second research
objective investigated the moderating behaviour of the influence of employment
equity practices in South Africa on the balance-to-intention relationship. The sample
for the research contained 218 knowledge or skilled workers.
The empirical evidence from this study shows that work-nonwork balance is
significantly associated with employees’ voluntary termination of employment.
Furthermore, the study found that employment equity practices’ influence did not
moderate the relationship between work-nonwork balance and turnover intention.
The findings contribute to the human resource management literature, justifying
businesses' investment in non-financial reward programmes.
