Assessment of the Relationship between HRM Practices and Turnover Intension in Ethiopia: the Case of Academic Staff Members in Public Universities

Good management of employee recruitment and selection, performance appraisal, supervisory support, training and development, compensation and employment relationships are interpreted positively by employees and this in turn reduces turnover rate and lowers the turnover intension. Accordingly, the main purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between HRM practices and turnover intension of academic staff in public universities. The study employed a cross-sectional survey research method to collect and analyze the data from the study participants. A multistage sampling technique was used to select respondents for the study. Data was collected from instructors, head of department, deans, HR practitioners, and university top management. Besides, HR policies, HE proclamations and reforms as well as education sector development programs were used as a secondary source of data. The study result showed that collectively, the HR practices significantly predicted the turnover intension of employees at universities. A stepwise regression analysis result showed that of the six HR practices treated in this study, compensation and supervisory support were significantly predicted the turnover intension and the remaining four failed to influence the turnover intension. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that there is a variation among the HR practices in predicting the withdrawal intension of academic staff members from public universities. That is, all the HR practices are not equally important in impacting the turnover intension. From this, it is possible to suggest that although good HR practices are necessary to retain employees, it is critical to identify which one works best and which do not.