A review of the literature on employee retention was made to determine within which theoretical frameworks it is relevant to discuss the issue of employee retention; what factors can influence the employees' decision to stay with the organization in the public sector; what factors can affect the employees' decision to shift to the semiprivate sector; and what HRM practices can influence employee retention positively. Examination of the recent researches is important to assess how HRM policies implemented in Qatar in 2009 can affect employee retention in the public sector. The literature review on employee retention management demonstrates that retention can be influenced by effective HRM practices in the sphere of training and development, performance appraisals, recognition, and promotion opportunities. Literature on the linkage between engagement, commitment and retention is organized in a separate section to state the role of focusing on employees' satisfaction and commitment to promote retention. The discussion of issues of turnover and challenges related to employee retention is also identified in the literature to present the gap in HRM that needs to be addressed with effective HRM practices. Finally, the review provides directions for further research in the field.

This literature review explores and synthesizes literature on human resource practices and employee retention with a view to facilitating a broader understanding of the key theories, issues, strategies, and challenges related to employee retention. The review of employee retention scholarship is important since the proposed study attempts to discover how the HR policy introduced in Qatar in 2009 has influenced the rate of employee migration from the public sector to the semiprivate sector. The subsequent sections of this review are arranged according to these themes: definition and importance of employee retention; theories of employee retention; employee retention in public and private sectors; employee retention management; engagement, commitment, and retention; turnover; and challenges related to employee retention.

Of the 96 studies consulted for this analysis, 56 (58.4%) used a quantitative research methodology, 13 (13.5%) used a mixed methods research methodology, while only 7 (7.3%) used a qualitative research methodology. The remaining 20 studies (20.8%) are either literature reviews exploring various HRM concepts and theories, or general reviews written by experts in the HR field (see Appendix). These statistics demonstrate a clear deficit of qualitative studies addressing the issues, strategies and challenges related to employee retention in HRM domain. Nearly all the quantitative studies reviewed used the survey approach in data collection, while most qualitative studies used in-depth interviews for the same purpose. Survey questionnaires and in-depth interviews were used in most mixed method studies, while most general reviews and literature reviews relied on secondary research and existing datasets.

Organizational Behavior Journal, The Vital Role of Employee Retention, Human Resource Management, A Literature Review.