Factors Affecting Employee Retention in Construction: Empirical Study in the Mekong Delta Region

Together with the whole country, the construction industry in the Mekong Delta region (in the South of Vietnam) is developing very fast. However, this region faces more difficult challenges in attracting qualified labor forces than other areas. To meet the region’s needs, there should be coordination between management units, training units, investors, and construction organizations to provide strategies to attract more construction employees. Using a questionnaire which includes 36 potential factors regarding the retention of employees in construction, 160 responses were collected from different organizations in the Mekong Delta region. The results indicated several important factors which could affect employee retention such as base salary, salary payment term, labor contract, labor market mobility, and opportunities to participate in large construction projects. Using factor analysis, this study also identified eight main influential constructs of employee retention in the Mekong Delta area’s construction fields, namely organizational conditions and policies (C1), motivation (C2), working environment (C3), demanding (C4), income (C5), job opportunities (C6), welfare (C7), and job nature (C8). The findings of this study could provide useful information about how to develop and attract qualified human resources in the Mekong Delta region, as well as other similar areas in other developing countries.