Employee Retention Policy and Performance of Selected Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria

This study investigated the impact of employee retention policy on performance of selected tertiary institutions in Oyo State, Nigeria. It employed primary source of data using questionnaire while the analyses were made with both descriptive and inferential statistics. With a population of 2443 and sample size of 554, the study revealed a statistically significant positive relationship between staff motivation and job performance in the tertiary institutions, as indicated by coefficients (β = 0.917, t = 83.755, p < 0.001) and R Square of 0.930, implying that approximately 93% of variation in job performance accounted for changes in staff motivation. Further, it was found that employee engagement strategies significantly impacted on institutional performance in both academic and administrative dimensions with the coefficients (β = 1.021, t = 178.114, p < 0.001) and R Square of 0.984. The correlation analysis revealed a very strong positive relationship between work-life balance and institutional performance, with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.989 and a p-value of 0.000, statistically significant at 0.01 level (2-tailed). Further insight from the coefficients (β = 0.207, t = 6.164, p < 0.001) indicated that career development had a statistically significant positive effect on performance. Thus, the study recommended that tertiary institutions in Oyo State should adopt a holistic approach to employee retention by enhancing both financial and non-financial strategies, not only to curb staff turnover but also drive sustained institutional performance, academic excellence, and administrative effectiveness.