Effect of Human Resource Management Practices on Employee Retention and Performance in Nigerian Insurance Industry

Dr. Ernest Jebolise Chukwuka, Nkiru Peace Nwakoby

This study presents an empirical investigation of the effect of Human Resource Management Practices on Employee Retention and Performance in Nigerian Insurance Industry. This study was motivated by the need to solve the problem of high employee turnover in Nigerian Insurance Industry.Employee turnover is an enemy of productivity and increases cost of running a business. Human Resources (HR) are the most valuable asset of any organization that is why incessant increase in turnover of skillful human resource in an organization will create a gap that will take time to fill at extra cost. This study was guided by two key objectives, from which appropriate research questions and hypotheses were formulated. The specific objectives of this study were:(1) determine the nature of relationship between Human Resource Management Practices and employee retention in Nigerian Insurance Industry.(2) Ascertain the extent of correlation between Human Resource Management Practices and employee performance in Nigerian Insurance Industry. A Sample size of 250 was determined from the population of 785 drawn from Management and staff of selected firms from insurance industry using Taro Yamene’s formula. The data collection was by questionnaire structured in five point Likert scale. The study concludes from the result as confirmed by the survey that there was a weak and insignificant effect of HRM practices on employee Retention in Nigerian Insurance Industry. However, the study also confirmed that HRM practices have a positive and significant effect on employee performance. This paper strongly recommends that Government through NAICOM should help to check the high handedness of some insurance firms on their employees. Some of the insurance firms fail to implement Nigerian labour laws and employee work benefits.