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Employee retention remains a critical concern across corporate sectors due to its far-reaching implications for operational efficiency, institutional knowledge preservation, and sustained organisational performance. This systematic literature review examines contemporary approaches to addressing employee retention challenges, with a specific focus on the manufacturing, healthcare, and tech industries. Drawing on peer-reviewed publications from 1998 to 2025, the study identifies and synthesises the primary drivers of employee turnover, while evaluating evidence-based strategies employed to mitigate it. The findings reveal that while financial incentives continue to play a foundational role in employee retention, they are increasingly insufficient in isolation. Sector-specific dynamics, such as labour inflexibility in manufacturing, emotional burnout in healthcare, and innovation fatigue in technology-intensive environments, necessitate tailored and context-sensitive retention strategies. Emerging themes identified include the growing influence of employee engagement initiatives, adaptive leadership practices, flexible work arrangements, and the strategic integration of technology in supporting retention goals. Notably, the review highlights a significant gap in the literature concerning psychological and behavioural dimensions of retention. Despite their demonstrated importance, factors such as intrinsic motivation, emotional well-being, and workplace stress remain underexplored. Addressing these elements is essential to formulating holistic, human-centred retention models. The study concludes by advocating for industry-aligned, psychologically informed, and adaptable frameworks that can respond to the evolving dynamics of modern organisational environments.  

This study provides a comprehensive review of recent academic literature (from 2017 onwards) that investigates the essential connection between workforce management and strategic business objectives. The review integrates a diverse array of studies that emphasise the complex nature of human capital, which includes employee skills, knowledge, motivation, and engagement, and their influence on organisational performance. A key focus of the discussion is the importance of leadership in establishing a clear strategic vision, nurturing a culture of communication, and encouraging employee participation in decision-making processes. Additionally, the study examines the transformative potential of data-driven human resource practices, such as people analytics, in identifying skill deficiencies, enhancing talent management, and facilitating evidence-based workforce planning. Despite these advancements, challenges like organizational silos, misaligned incentives, and resistance to change continue to pose significant barriers. The findings indicate that effective alignment necessitates a holistic approach that merges strategic HR leadership, continuous professional development, cultural flexibility, and transparent performance management systems. Practical recommendations are provided to assist business leaders and HR professionals in crafting and executing strategies that ensure employees' efforts are intentionally aligned with organisational priorities. The study highlights deficiencies in existing research, especially regarding the variations in alignment strategies across different industries and geographical areas, and advocates for additional empirical investigations to enhance comprehension. In summary, this review underscores that strategically aligned human capital can act as a significant catalyst for innovation, competitiveness, and organisational resilience in today's business environment.

Employee turnover poses a significant challenge for South African municipalities, particularly for retaining tacit organisational knowledge. Therefore, this study assessed how employee turnover impacts organisational tacit knowledge retention in South African municipalities. The study uses secondary data analysis to examine employee turnover in critical positions in various municipalities in South Africa, such as senior management and those earmarked as scarce skills. The findings of this study show that employee turnover significantly negatively impacts tacit organisational knowledge. The findings further revealed that turnover exacerbates the retention of the organisational knowledge gap within municipalities, often leading to diminished service quality and increased operational costs such as recruitment and use of service consultants. Furthermore, the study highlights the gap between rhetoric (policies) and actual practice (implementation) in addressing the issues of service quality and operational costs, noting that existing retention strategies and knowledge management approaches often need to be revised. Questioning the effectiveness of retention strategies, the paper suggests that municipalities require more proactive and innovative approaches to manage turnover and organisational tactical knowledge retention to enhance public service delivery continuity and organisational sustainability. Furthermore, municipalities should integrate retention strategies such as succession planning, continuous training, leadership, and mentorship programmes into a broader municipal governance framework.

This paper explores the relationship between talent management and dimensions of employee commitment at Nelspruit Banks, a major player in Mpumalanga Province. The paper uses a self-administered Likert-scale questionnaire to collect employee responses on talent management and its impact on normative, affective, and continuous commitment levels. The questionnaire was analysed using IBM SPSS version 28, 63 questionnaires were used for data analysis. This study employed both descriptive statistics (means, frequencies, and pie charts) and inferential statistics (Pearson product moment) to investigate the relationship between talent management and employee commitment. The main findings of the study indicated that talent management positively correlates with two employee commitment components. Notably, talent management positively correlated with continuance and normative commitment. These findings underscore the importance of talent management practices in fostering employee loyalty and retention. It is recommended that Banks consider implementing targeted strategies to foster a positive work environment, recognize and reward employee contributions, and provide opportunities for career development and growth. By focusing on these areas, the banks can strengthen employee commitment and improve overall organizational performance.

This study explored talent management and employee retention in South Africa's higher education sector, focusing on Institution X. Post-apartheid, South African higher education has faced numerous challenges, including attracting, managing, and retaining new academics essential for societal transformation. The study aimed to assess the relationship between talent management practices (recruitment, career management, rewards, management style, and talent development) and employee retention in this sector.The study's objectives were to examine the strategic orientation of talent management at Institution X, determine its contribution to employee retention, investigate challenges faced in talent management, and propose strategies to enhance retention. A quantitative research design was used, employing a self-administered structured questionnaire. The sample included 65 academic staff members, such as professors, lecturers, and junior lecturers, with data analyzed using SPSS. Findings indicated that talent management is neither a strategic element nor fully implemented within the higher education sector. This highlights a significant challenge in managing and retaining qualified academics, an issue prevalent since the end of apartheid. The study underscores the importance of understanding and improving talent management strategies to ensure the sustainability and quality of higher education institutions. Recommendations were made for reviewing and enhancing talent management practices for academic staff in the sector.

This study aimed at identifying talent retention strategies for female academics in the higher education sector, paying particular attention to the Sub-Saharan context. Higher education institutions rely on the knowledge, abilities, and skills of their academics in order to keep abreast of the changing nature of higher education globally. These institutions of higher learning are required to be competitive and achieve their strategic goals in order to remain relevant in the sector. Studies have shown that female academics are leaving the higher education sector for the private sector for numerous reasons, including better salaries and further development. Additionally, some female academics are emigrating to European countries in search of greener pastures. Therefore, higher education institutions have to ensure that talent retention strategies are implemented to retain female academics, as well as to facilitate their progress to top leadership positions. The study utilized four crucial retention strategies identified in Kenya by Mutiria, Rukangu and Kubaison in 2015. These retention strategies include compensation and benefits, formal succession planning, training and development and career development opportunities. A quantitative research design was adopted for this study, whereby online questionnaires were completed by 112 female academics at a Sub-Saharan university. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 27 for Windows. The results revealed a significant relationship between the four identified strategies and retention. Thus, institutions of higher learning should effectively implement these strategies in order to retain talented female academics, considering the dynamics in the sector.