Employee Engagement and Retention:A Study of Select Retailers in Bhubaneswar

The retail industry in India is expanding rapidly. Almost 40 percent of growth of Indian retail sector annually has occurred due to rising consumerism and increased disposable income .This is estimated to grow four times by 2025. Retail industry is highly manpower oriented. To facade the challenges of cumulative competition, Indian Retailing have chosen unprecedented human resource practices to retain and engage their workforce. Successful deployment of manpower and their retention are essential for the success of the industry. Employee retention in turn is expected to be affected by employee engagement, which is the employees’ willingness and ability to help their company succeed largely by providing discretionary effort on sustainable basis. Employee engagement makes employee emotionally bonded to the organization and so they tend to become passionate about their work which results in higher employee retention. This paper is based on four large retail companies in organized sector operating at Bhubaneswar.