TALENT ATTRACTION AND RETENTION OF PRIVATE SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS IN SAUDI ARABIA

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the current employee recruitment, selection and retention practices used by private sector organizations in Saudi Arabia in order to formulate appropriate recommendations that contribute to greater effectiveness of these practices. The study used qualitative and quantitative approaches, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 14 private sector organizations in Saudi Arabia across Jeddah, Riyadh and Makkah cities on the bases of convenience sampling. The results indicated that the majority of these organizations relied on employee referrals (with family members consideration) as a recruitment source, interviews as a selection method and providing development, career growth and training opportunities as part of their employee retention strategies while the lack of skilled applicants was the primary recruitment and Saudization challenge faced. Accordingly, the recommendations include the regulation of discriminatory/nepotism free employee referral programs with the increased use of electronic recruitment sources, the use of work sample and cognitive ability tests for selection as well as the provision of work-life balance programs for employee retention