ABSTRACT
This aimed to determine the impact of Internal Branding on Millennials’ Engagement and Retention, that serve as the basis for effective HR internal branding. Quantitative research design and impact analysis were utilized. The target participants were 129 millennial employees who were born between 1982 to 1999; direct employees; and regardless of the length of tenure; job position, educational attainment and nature of work.
This study used a validated four-point Likert Scale survey. The study revealed that the Millennial employees were satisfied in terms of the company’s HR Internal Branding. The millennial employees were engaged to their jobs and tend to be retained in the company. There were significant relationships between the HR Internal Branding and their assessed level of engagement and retention. Training and development of the company has no significant impact on Employee Engagement. But, Employee Participation and Career Planning have a significant impact on Employee Engagement. On the other hand, only Career Planning has an impact on Employee Retention while the other factors such as Training and Development, Performance Appraisal and Employee Participation have no significant impact on Employee Retention. Based on these findings, the proposed HR Internal Branding programs are quarterly performance appraisal and feedback, annual review/discussion of career development plan to each employee, real voice activity and mentorship program.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, employers have unending trouble with the increasing number of turnover rates. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, there is a significant increase in the turnover rate from 0.5% in the 1st quarter to 0.7% in the second quarter (C. Mapa, 2019). According to the 2016 Millennial Survey, millennial employees are said to contribute to the increasing number of turnover rates. The average number of millennials who leave their current job is 6 out of 10 (Deloitte, 2016). Corporate management and the HR department must be able to understand and accommodate the expectations of the new generation.
Furthermore, the common problem in the workplace worldwide is how to retain and engage the millennial employees. With this, managers and human resources practitioners must develop new methods through internal branding activities to engage the Millennial employees. In addition, according to the study conducted by Gallup, one of the reasons why Millennial employees move around could be their low engagement with their workplace. The study found out that 29% of the Millennial employees are engaged at work, it means that only 3 out of 10 Millennial employees are emotionally and behaviorally attached to the organization. While 13% of Millennial employees are actively disengaged. On the other hand, 55% of the Millennial employees are not engaged. Not engaging Millennial employees is a big problem for the organization.
One of the ways to engage and retain the employees is through internal branding. According to Mahnert and Torres, (2007, as cited by Ozcelik, 2015), internal branding is a set of strategic activities of a corporation to provide and ensure intellectual and emotional buy-in. Internal branding concept helps the employees develop congruent and compatible brand-oriented behaviors such that they accommodate feelings of commitment to the brand through their daily work activities (Ozcelik & Findikli, 2014, as cited by Ozcelik, 2015).
There are several studies conducted in other countries to understand millennials in order to make a retention program and most of the studies were conducted in the U.S.A. Due to limited studies conducted in the Philippines regarding retaining millennials in the workplace, the researcher decided to do research about it. The researcher will mainly focus on Millennials employed by one of the manufacturing companies located in Calamba City.
This research will examine three variables, such as Internal Branding, Employee Engagement and Employee Retention. It aims to study the impact of Internal Branding on Millennials’ Engagement and Retention which hopefully can be a basis for effective HR internal branding.
see PDF attachment for more information