“Y Are You Here?”: An Examination Into the Factors Affecting the Retention of Generation Y Graduates in the Irish Services Sector

Murray, Eric (2017) “Y Are You Here?”: An Examination Into the Factors Affecting the Retention of Generation Y Graduates in the Irish Services Sector. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

As of 2017, it is believed Ireland is coming out of what was known as the Great Recession. Gunnigle et al (2011) highlight the impact this period had on the current job market. As more and more firms were concerned with reducing costs, downsizing became the norm within organisations, which was followed by redundancies. This lead to the creation of a loose labour market, with supply of labour exceeding demand greatly.

During this time, a new type of worker was emerging; generation Y workers, otherwise known as ‘Millennials’. Solnet el at (2012), demonstrate that these types of workers were different to the generation before them, as they were known as a more individualistic type of worker, and had different motivations for what will keep them in the workplace.

As the recession ended, demand and supply of jobs seem to be reaching equilibrium again, and companies may find it a challenge to keep this new type of worker than the workers they are used to retaining. It is argued that this generation are the type of workers who tend not to stay in the same company for a long period (DuPlessis, et al., 2015), while Rentz (2015) argues that they believe switching jobs every so often is acceptable. it is beneficial for any organisation to understand what will keep this new type of worker. If employees are poached by the competition, either there is something pulling them to their organisation, or something pushing them from your organisation (Mackay, 2009).

During the Great Recession, turnover was not a worry for many organisations. However, in post-recession Ireland, employers may be worried about staff beginning to leave them for pastures anew. This has major implications for the business, both financially and psychologically. Financial implications include planning around hiring and training new staff (Marchington, et al., 2016), and the loss of production from staff leaving (Armstrong & Taylor, 2017). Therefore, the organisation must plan different approaches so that they can keep their staff. Many scholars have their own recommendations on how to keep staff in organisations. These include offering challenging work (Mello,2011), improving both pay and benefits of staff (Marchington et al., 2016), or improving their work life balance (Tlaiss et al., 2017).

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management > Human Resource Management > Employee Retention H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management > Human Resource Management
Divisions:	School of Business > Master of Arts in Human Resource Management
Depositing User:	Caoimhe Ní Mhaicín
Date Deposited:	13 Nov 2017 11:07
Last Modified:	13 Nov 2017 11:07
URI:	https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/2795

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