Voluntary employee turnover phenomenon in Newmont Ghana Gold Limited: Is Hay pay system the force behind employee exit decisions?

Abstract

The paper examines voluntary employee turnover in Newmont Ghana Gold Limited, a multinational gold mining company operating in Ghana. The aim is to investigate whether the company’s pay system contributes in any way to the employee exit decisions. Data was predominantly in-company and collected from three sources, including; employee resignations from the company’s electronic database; exit interview notes from personal manual files; and interviewing of some serving employees. The electronic data and exit interview notes were discussed after tabular presentation of the results, while the face-to-face interview was transcribed and discussed qualitatively. It is concluded that dissatisfaction with pay is a major contributor to the employee exit decisions; that employees’ concern over their career development and progress influence their decisions to look for alternative employments; that the phenomenon is more of collective in nature which has more serious organisational consequences than individual turnover; and that senior management are less concerned about the situation. The paper ends with three recommendations including effective use of exit interviews; conduct of employee engagement survey; and strategic approach to retention of talented employees, which could help check the phenomenon and also have policy implications for other organisations in tackling employee turnover.