Engaging an employee retention strategy in an era of downsizing

The results discussed in this paper deal with a nationwide survey of Australian organizations that have downsized over the past three years. Downsizing is a deliberate organizational decision to reduce the size of the workforce in order to improve organizational performance. Downsizing has become very prevalent around the globe as a way to improve cost efficiencies and to accelerate an economic turnaround. This paper examines whether strategies aimed at employee retention will improve organizational performance. Two main principles have been demonstrated: First, improved organizational performance was associated with the retention of key managers and employees. Second, an organization’s size, type, and the proportion of the workforce that is retrenched are associated with loss or retention of key workers.