Factors and practices of retention of qualified employees in the very small Cameroonian company: an inventory of the situation

Abstract

Management literature highlights a multitude of factors and employee retention strategies in companies. Our study seeks to understand this phenomenon in the particular field of small Cameroonian business. We adopt a qualitative approach by studying cases through thirty-seven interviews. At the end of the thematic content analysis, factors such as the work environment, work overload, and the specificity of career development are mentioned by employees as being causes of employee voluntary departure. qualified whereas they consider the weak hierarchy and the diversification of the tasks as being determining in their retention. At the strategic level, the desire to make it easier for employees and a recruitment that integrates the congruence between the vision of new employees and that of key employees are at the center of the retention plans for managers of very small businesses (from now on T.P.E.).