FACTORS THAT AFFECT THE EMPLOYEE TURNOVER OF DOCTORS AND NURSES IN AN EMERGING ECONOMY: EVIDENCE FROM SOUTH AFRICA

Although employee turnover has been widely researched in business circles, most researchers focused on the causes of employee turnover in various sectors but little work has been conducted regarding the sources of employee turnover in health sector specifically paying attention to doctors and nurses. The health sector institutions continue to lose health professionals on a regular basis resulting in compromised service delivery of the patients’ health. Employee turnover is expensive, disruptive and damaging to organisational success. Hence, the purpose of this paper was to examine the factors affecting employee turnover of doctors and professional nurses. A qualitative case-study design was adopted in which semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from the sampled participants. The key findings revealed that lack of training, staff shortage, meagre salary, poor conditions of work, inadequate medical support, poor management, long supply chain management and poor promotional opportunities were the major intrinsic factors influencing employee turnover. The external work environment was the only extrinsic factor that influence the employee turnover. The importance of retaining healthcare professionals in public healthcare facilities cannot be over-emphasised. The paper suggests that managers need to acknowledge the factors when addressing the issues of employee voluntary turnover and turnover intentions.